He's won a Grammy Award, earned gold records and even got an invite from First Lady Michelle Obama to perform at the White House.
But hip-hop artist Common, born Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr., says acting is his new priority and a made-in-Alberta production may be offering his his juciest role yet.
"At a certain point I felt there was something else out there I wanted to do creatively," said Common, who was at the Banff World Media Festival to promote the upcoming AMC Western Hell on Wheels. "I tried playing the piano, I wasn't too good at that. So I started taking my acting classes and acting was something that I really felt as a creative artist I could be passionate about. I couldn't wait to get to class. Every time I got off tour I would go to class."
Common was part of a panel discussion on Monday about the new drama, a post Civil-War Western set amid the building of the Transcontinental Railway. It's set to premiere on AMC in November.
Common plays Elam, an angry freed slave who finds work on the railway.
He says it's exactly the type of role he's looking for, mostly because it defies expectations that many would have for a rapper-turned-actor.
"I had to fight for people to see me as an actor," he says. "The films and projects that I want to be a part of were not films where somebody is going to cast you because you're a hip-hop artist. It was something looked down upon in some of the casting rooms I've been going to. I had to go prove that I'm an actor. The people who have made the transition who I really respect like Will Smith, Queen Latifah and Mos Def. They all approach it as actors."
Common's music career stretches back to the early 1990s, where he gained an underground following for his often politically charged lyrics. He raised the ire of America's right-wing, including Sarah Palin, in May after he was invited to perform at a poetry reading at the White House.
Common has landed roles in films such as Terminator Salvation, American Gangster and Smokin' Aces.
But he says he's enjoying some of the more unusual demands of his new role in Hell on Wheels, which is being shot in and around Calgary, including learning to ride a horse.
He's also coping with the province's often unco-operative weather, which included massive rainstorms in the first weeks of shooting in May.
"I love the dirt," he says. "It's like being a little kid."
Source: Calgary Herald
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