"My name is F. Gary Gray." "I'm the director of Straight' Outta Compton." "And I want to first start off by thanking my team- my producing partners Ice Cube," "Dr. Dre," "Scott Bernstein." "There's a whole host of other people that should be involved, but since we have a short amount of time," "I want to start with those guys and thank everybody else who's involved." "Also want to thank Universal, Donna Langley and the entire Universal family for really being the best home for this movie." "This movie would not have been as successful, it wouldn't have been executed in the way that it's been executed without the Universal family and without everyone." "I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton of people." "But I want to thank everybody involved with making this movie." "One of the big themes in this movie is brotherhood." "We serve the theme with the group and the brotherhood between the guys." "I love this because it just shows how smart Eazy-E is." "He pulls up into this drug deal with what we used to call a bucket- a old, beat-up car." "Basically, he's not showing his hand." "He's playing chess." "He has a ton of drugs that he's selling, but he's not gonna let anybody know that he has money." "This is just a way to define quickly who this guy is." "He's very, very smart." "That's what you see when you see the contrast between that really fancy car and his old, beat-up car." "It's just defining Eazy-E immediately." "I love what my production designer did with this crack house." "Because you really, really feel that you're in Compton and you really feel like you're in a dangerous situation." "You can smell the beer and the smoke and the drugs." "And the danger is just visceral." "My DP, Matty Libatique, did an amazing job at capturing this entire film." "But this scene in particular, because it's a way to show that it's natural, it's raw, it's dangerous." "It's not slick." "It doesn't feel like Hollywood." "It just feels raw, not unlike the group and not unlike their music." "This is one of my favorite moments because it just doesn't feel staged." "The two women you see are actual models." "Natascha, she's a stuntwoman, but basically she's a very beautiful woman." "She's a model." "And that's Zee James." "She's a model as well, and I made her take out- cut her hair, take it all out and play a crack addict." "I do that from time to time to play the opposites." "I did that with Friday, with the Felisha character." "She was a beautiful comedian who I turned into a crack addict." "I just have fun with casting in that way." "She was a beautiful comedian who I turned into a crack addict." "I just have fun with casting in that way." "This, of course, is the introduction to Jason Mitchell, who is an amazing young, new actor who carries this film and does an incredible job." "You'll see, as the movie unfolds, that this guy gives a world-class performance." "It's partly because he studies, but I think it's partly because he's just real and authentic." "He comes from the streets of New Orleans." "I think he draws on his experiences from the past to give us one of the best performances, I think, of the year." "Now, this is important because instead of giving you this long, drawn-out montage of images from the '80s to show you that you're in a period piece- following this group circa 1985, 1986" "I wanted to do it by showing what was going on but also showing the battering ram." "People called it the batterram back in the day." "For those who know, the batterram really marks the time." "If you were living in Los Angeles in the 1980s, people were afraid to get their houses ripped apart," "by this- essentially, by this military tank that would come and completely rip the guts out of your house." "This was just a way to mark the era without doing some corny montage." "Chic Daniel, our police consultant, did a great job at helping us do everything technically right with this scene." "He used to actually drive that vehicle in the '80s, which is kind of a coincidence." "So, finding the vehicle was hard, but finding the original driver was just as interesting." "And to put all these elements together really, I think, gives the audience a good sense of what was going on." "It completely immerses you into the time immediately." "That's what I wanted to do." "Matty Libatique came up with this great filter that gives you these sun ﬂares that is kind of a metaphor for being in California." "It's sunny, and the music is warm." "But at the same time, there's this contrast with the danger and all the stuff that happens outside of the warm, sunny Southern California days." "We wanted to create some sort of visual signature to let you know you're in Straight Outta Compton and nowhere else." "This is something that is just kind of a signature of the movie that we carry on throughout." "Matty Libatique, I think, is a genius for coming up with that." "I really like this moment because it's one of those moments where I get the chance to illustrate my childhood and some of my childhood inﬂuences." "I love all the music that he's listening to because that's the music I listened to when I grew up and that my mom passed on to me." "When you see Roy Ayers and Parliament and James Brown, these are all artists that I grew up to and my mom grew up to." "Of course, this is Corey Hawkins, who is an amazing young artist from the East Coast who plays Dr. Dre." "He was trained at Juilliard." "He actually performed on Broadway." "He never thought that he could pull off playing Dr. Dre because his personality is so opposite of where Dre is from and how Dre really acts in real life." "But this guy is such a talented actor that he can transform, and I think that's what he did." "I used this time to really set up the relationship between Dre and his family." "Although that was a hell of a slap right there, you could really tell that his mom loves him." "She wants to send him in the right direction." "Maybe a questionable approach, but, definitely, there's love there." "Also establishing the love between Dre and his brother, which, as the story evolves, you get a sense of how much he loves his brother." "I just want to make sure people get the point." "Focusing on controversial lyrics and some of the mistakes that we all know that these guys made, or we all make because we're all human, is not the point." "The point is you can start from anywhere with absolutely nothing and make a transition and transform your life." "That's what these guys did." "When you start off in Compton with the gang violence and all of the shit that you're surrounded by" "and all of the shit that you're surrounded by- the drug dealing, the drug abuse, all of the things that really influence everything that happens around you- and you have the strength to turn that around" "and create and to raise a healthy family and to create prosperous businesses," "I think that there's something there." "I don't want that point to be missed on the viewer." "Because there's a lot of criticism that these guys experienced along the way." "I'm sure, when people watch the movie, there are things that people would want to see that probably they missed." "The one thing that's interesting about N.W.A is they pissed a lot of people off." "But in a strange way, they inspired people as well." "You don't hear a lot of the stories about how they inspired people." "When you live in an environment where you're discouraged, you're disempowered, all these things that work against you," "and you still stand up and say, "You know what?" "Fuck that." "I'm going to be my own man." "I'm not gonna serve polite society." "I'm going to speak my mind." "I'm going to do things that feel good to me, and I don't give a shit if you judge me or not"" "There's something inspiring about that to guys who grew up in my neighborhood." "O'Shea Jackson, Jr., who plays Ice Cube, this guy worked the hardest to get this role." "It took him two years, a lot of acting coaches and callbacks and chemistry tests." "I think he did an amazing job." "So we go from the Valley of the privileged into South Central LA, which is not far from Compton." "This is a very, very dangerous place, as you'll see very soon." "This is what Ice Cube writes about." "He says, "I saw how they lived on the other side, and I see how we live, and this is unfair." "I'm gonna write about it."" "That's where you get a little bit of that anger and a lot of passion from Ice Cube as an artist." "This is one of my favorite moments in the movie because it feels so raw and so real." "Growing up in Los Angeles in the '80s with all of the gang violence and the dangers," "it's a very specific moment in time." "And you feel exactly where you are immediately when Michael Taylor- that's his name" "His street name is Compton Menace." "You feel how dangerous Los Angeles is just in this moment." "That's how it was, and this guy is very real." "He's from Compton, and he's had a street life." "That's the reason why I cast him." "Because I wanted the audience to really feel the fear and understand that, at a moment's notice, you could be in the sun, enjoying a trip home on a school bus, and, the next moment, you could be killed." "That's how unpredictable Los Angeles was at the time." "This is another thing that motivated the lyrics and the songs that N.W.A created." "So instead of talking about it, I wanted the audience to feel it." "When you're a 16-year-old kid, and someone pulls a gun to your head, that's very traumatic." "They say that people in these environments suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder." "And when people criticize gangster rap specifically, they don't realize where it comes from." "That's one of the moments that motivates this genre of music." "This is one of my favorite shots in the movie." "My DP, Matty Libatique, was so gracious in figuring it out." "I told him I wanted to do a great 12 o'clock Boys motorcycle moment in the movie." "When you have a set of young guys who stand up for what they believe in, whether you agree with it or not," "I think there's a certain strength in that." "And when you grow up in an environment where you have all of these antagonistic elements working against you to disempower you, to discourage you," "I think there's something strong in standing up and saying, "I don't care what you think."" "I love this moment because this shows how talented Dre is, and it shows how you don't have to have a lot of money or a lot of resources, but you can just create." "That's what's so cool about this moment." "It's quintessential hip-hop." "But you can just create." "That's what's so cool about this moment." "It's quintessential hip-hop." "It's like, "I am going to create."" "it's just two turntables on an ironing board." "This guy is making music with instruments they essentially created." "I love that about this moment." "It's very, very raw and very inventive." "This is Jinx's bedroom." "Jinx is played by Cleavon McClendon." "This guy is really funny." "He's kind of comic relief." "I really liked him." "He did a great job in the audition." "He has little moments in the movie, but they're really funny and really potent." "Another reason why I love this moment is because this is where it starts." "Dre has the music," "Cube has the lyrics." "This is where it all starts- in the bedroom with two turntables on an ironing board." "You know, it's funny." "It wasn't called gangster rap back then." "The media coined that term." "They called it reality rap." "They wanted to talk about the things that were going on in the neighborhood and put it to music." "That's why Dre is saying, "Listen, I want the hard-core stuff." "I want to really feel it."" "Of course, Cube has that stuff, and you know why." "You see what motivates him." "One big thing is what just happened on the bus." "And another little funny moment is when he said," ""Hey." "He gave a motivational speech."" "I thought that was really funny." "This is another moment that motivates Cube and his writing." "This is a scene where he gets harassed by the cops for no reason whatsoever." "He just walks out of the house." "It's the same thing with most of these kids out here." "They're being harassed." "They didn't do anything." "This is something the LAPD would do constantly." "In the '80s, they would call it gang sweeps." "They would come, and they would search you to see if you had any contraband, any weapons, any drugs or anything on you." "They would come sweep the neighborhood and see who they could pick up and arrest." "The fact that his mom is essentially violated in this scene and his dad violated and humiliated is another moment where you really understand what motivates Ice Cube to write the lyrics that he writes, especially for the song "Fuck tha Police."" "When you experience these things time and time again, over and over again, you can't help but be inﬂuenced by these moments." "It's sad to say that it happened a lot back then." "It's happening now." "And it was important to show that this kid didn't just wake up in the suburbs and decide to write these lyrics." "He was inﬂuenced by the things that happened on the bus, the things that happened in his neighborhood, and he was really passionate about it." "That's the reason why people felt the music." "Because it was real." "It wasn't just made up." "Because it was real." "It wasn't just made up." "This is the introduction of MC Ren, who's played by Aldis Hodge." "Really, really good actor." "He had the most experience out of all the guys in the group." "Worked on the television show Leverage." "This is the friendship between two guys that we're establishing as well." "I think they were associated with the Crips back in the '80s, and they're in Doo-To's, which is a Blood club." "If you don't know anything about gangs, they're mortal enemies." "So, the fact that Eazy-E and MC Ren's walking into a Blood club is really crazy." "Here's the introduction of DJ Yella, who's played by Neil Brown, Jr." "He, again, is so fun to work with." "He's also comic relief throughout the movie." "You'll see that as the movie unfolds." "That's another thing I love about the structure of the movie and how we define the characters." "Everyone has their own different personalities." "Of course, we introduce Lonzo Williams, who's played by Corey Reynolds." "This guy's really, really talented." "He's funny too." "You see the dynamic between Dre and Lonzo." "There's this beef that's happening between the two of them." "Because Lonzo wants him to do the World Class Wreckin' Cru group, which is, you know, the satin jackets and the kind of Prince and almost kind of Michael Jackson wear, and Dre's not really with that." "You'll see how that story unfolds as it unfolds," "You'll see how that story unfolds as it unfolds, but there's definitely static between the two." "This is the do-or-die moment for Ice Cube." "He's gonna get up on stage with a hostile crowd, and he's either gonna sink or swim." "It's the equivalent of performing at the Apollo." "At first, the crowd is kind of questioning who he is, where he's from." "What is he talking about?" "See the guy folds his arms." "He's like, "Who is this dude?"" "But then, when Cube keeps it real, he's like, "lf you don't like how I'm livin', well, fuck you."" "Then in a weird, strange way, he wins the crowd over with his confidence." "And this song is "Gangsta Gangsta."" "And the track underneath is "Weak at the Knees."" "This is the song that Dre sampled." "I love the original song." "I love "Gangsta Gangsta."" "I love what O'Shea Jackson, Jr." "did with this moment, 'cause he feels really confident on stage." "And we established that what Dre had envisioned actually works." "And of course, Eazy-E got a chance to experience a little bit of that." "DJ Yella the same." "We also see that Dre is a hardhead." "He's not gonna listen to Lonzo or anyone else, for that matter." "Now he's about to get his ass chewed out by Lonzo for that very reason." "This is a funny moment because Lonzo's tending to that Jheri curl of his." "And you can't take him serious." "You just can't take him serious." "Between the satin jacket and the Jheri curl, it's a funny moment for me." "I just really liked it." "You see that shirt that he's wearing?" "Lonzo is just a real caricature of the real Lonzo." "But it's a fun moment." "With storytelling, you deal a lot in motivations." "This is one of the motivations, besides being broke." "He's motivated to get out of this environment." "He doesn't want to continue to do this old school music and in this environment with Lonzo's pressure." "So, you get a sense of why Dre really wants to start his own thing." "He doesn't have a lot of money." "Of course, he's sleeping on his aunt's couch." "He comes up with this brilliant idea to ask Eazy, "Hey, listen." "You're in the streets." "Of course, it's dangerous." "It's not gonna last." "Why don't you consider getting into this music thing?"" "This is where it all comes together, or, at least, this is where you see Dre pitching his heart out." "Because he's really done with this whole Wreckin' Cru, pink satin jackets and the drama of being under Lonzo." "Dre wants to make changes." "And he wants to see if he can convince Eazy to make changes." "Again, that's where we get a sense of their relationship." "Now he's gotta go back to Lonzo." "This is one of those moments where I wish I had a little more time to make it perfect." "We didn't have a lot of time to shoot this scene, so I didn't get all the shots that I wanted to get." "But again, you get a real sense of how much Dre loves his brother." "He just came out of nowhere to defend his brother, and his brother wasn't necessarily even doing the right thing." "He was just causing trouble in the parking lot." "Now LAPD shows up, and they didn't see the punch." "Again, this happens a lot." "They walk into this environment or they drive into this environment and feel like they're runnin' the show." "And Dre is not havin' it." "He's like, "I am at home." "You can't just drive up and basically tell us what to do."" "He stands his ground." "Dre's like that to this day." "Of course, you get the relationship with law enforcement, which is the same as what just happened with Ice Cube." "You understand why these guys feel the way they feel." "Which is the same as what just happened with Ice Cube." "You understand why these guys feel the way they feel." "Now we establish Eazy-E's '62 Impala." "This is the really expensive car that he wouldn't drive to a drug deal." "He's in Compton at the Compton courthouse, and this is a really interesting moment because they're right in front of the Martin Luther King monument in Compton." "It's a very, very popular spot, very famous spot." "They're in front of the Martin Luther King monument in Compton." "It's a very, very popular spot, very famous spot." "I wanted to really show that we were in Compton, and this was one of the best ways to show that." "This moment, of course, is really uncomfortable for Eazy because there are a lot of cops around." "He doesn't want to be there." "But in serving the theme of brotherhood, he's gonna be there for Dre to pick him up, to bail him out." "Where Lonzo is not there for Dre." "Again, the theme of brotherhood is served." "I wanted to do that so that people could understand that it's not just about street toughs and people out there doing dangerous things." "This is about love, and these guys have love for each other." "It pays off a little later on, but I wanted to have a little levity and a little fun and a little humor, which I think they handled really well." "I wanted to do it in Compton." "Look at that guy." "It's just a great smile." "He has a great smile." "Jason is very" "He just has a magnetic personality, which really works." "Because when you're dealing with this genre of music and a dangerous environment," "I really wanted to cast someone who you could really root for, especially given all the stuff they end up doing and they're involved with." "But Jason is just magnetic, and you can see that in his smile." "This moment's important because this is Dre being the consummate businessman." ""Let's start a record label." "And let's do it on our own."" "You know, I think most people realize that that was a great approach for Dre, because now he's a billionaire." "That's where it all started." "The moment between H.B.O.- Home Boys Only- which is the group from New York." "It was a group that Dre wanted to manage and put out." "They were supposed to do "Boys-N-The-Hood" first." "Ultimately, it didn't work out." "I wonder where those guys are today." "I'm wondering if they know that if they had done the song, maybe they would be just as famous as N.W.A." "But they decided not to." "And this serves as one of the more funny moments in the movie." "And kinda crazy." "They really wanted to put Compton on the map because most of hip-hop was just about what was going on in New York." "And you can see a little tension between the guys from New York and the guys from LA." "And you get a sense of the genesis of West Coast hip-hop because it was really dominated by New York." "And rightfully so, because it came from New York." "But Eazy was really proud of Compton." "And no one had heard of Compton." "These guys really wanted to say, "Listen, we respect New York, but we are not from New York." "We're from Compton, and we want to put Compton on the map."" "And they stood their ground." "That's why most people around the world know Compton." "It's because of what happened in this very moment." "Eazy-E wasn't a rapper." "He was a businessman." "He didn't really care about being an artist." "He just wanted to make money, and I think he wanted to socialize." "You know, just like any other young guy." "And so" "This is a funny line about "I'm the Berry Gordy of the group."" "He just wanted to be the boss." ""I'm the boss." "You guys do that creative stuff and let me know when you're done."" "Of course, Dre's genius is displayed in this scene where he's like, "Listen, we can't use Cube 'cause he's a part of a group." "And you already paid for this studio time, so why don't you just do it yourself?"" "I'm glad he pushed, because we wouldn't have this movie if Dre didn't push in this very moment." "They convince Eazy to get in the studio." "Now, if you don't understand art or how artists work, this is a huge moment." "You have a guy who is essentially from the streets, who deals drugs." "He's not into all of this type of stuff." "And Dre has it in his mind that he's gonna make the leap from street businessman to rapper?" "That's a huge leap." "And it's one of the funniest moments in the movie." "You think about the fact that Eazy just couldn't get it right." "And the average person would've- They would've given up on him and said," ""You know what?" "This is not gonna work." "I'm gonna go find another group."" "But Dre is like a dog with a bone." "He just will not let go." "He's like that to this day." "If he feels something- And he's very intuitive." "If he feels something, he's gonna fight for it." "And he did." "And he did it with every single line in this song to create this moment." "You talk about motivation." "Between what Lonzo did and having to leave home, this is a do-or-die moment for Dre." "And he's gonna make it work, come hell or high water." "And he did." "This is another moment where we actually just improvised." "I have a lot of these moments where you just feel like the script is good." "Jonathan Herman, who was one of the writers, did a really good job with the script." "And of course Ice Cube and Scott Bernstein, who's one of our producers- we all worked a lot on the script." "But on the day when we're shooting," "I'm always going to look to elevate the material." "And so I would allow the actors to improvise to make sure the moment feels real and organic." "This is one of those moments where I just let them go off and do their thing, and it ended up extremely funny, very natural." "And that's a testament to the skill level of the artists and the actors that I hired." "That's part of the thing." "That's part of what my job is- to make sure I hire people that not only can rehearse and memorize their lines, but who could make contributions." "And I think they're invested even more when they feel like they can make a contribution." "Now, this is obviously a famous moment where we get that famous line," ""Cruisin' down the street in my 6-4."" "Which is quintessential N.W.A, quintessential Eazy-E." "Everybody loves this song and loves that particular track and the opening of that track." "And to capture that on film, it just felt good." "'Cause I remember when I was younger and I heard it, I remember where I was, and it was just great to be able to capture that with a little humor and to show that Dre is a genius" "and Eazy is a risk taker." "And one of my favorite songs of all time, to be able to capture that on film was just a lot of fun." "Now we go back to the brotherhood." "These guys aren't hurting anyone." "They're just creating." "And you see the smiles and the laughter and how it's just a bunch of fun." "They are in an old, dusty garage talking about their environment, and you could just feel the love in the room." "These guys just- it was important for me to really, really establish that it's not about thuggery, it's not about danger, all this stuff." "It's about these guys creating in an environment that's warm, and there's a connection between them." "Because later on, you get a sense of what happened." "I want the audience to root for these guys and root for their friendship and root for the brotherhood so that later on, when they're challenged and the group disbands, you wish for and hope for the days that they were together." "This is one of those moments where I subtly lead the audience and say," ""Listen, you should like these guys and like who they are when they're together and they're firing on all cylinders."" "So when it's not that way, you feel the loss." "And of course Lonzo is hatin'." "That was one of the funniest moments in the movie," "And of course Lonzo is hatin'." "That was one of the funniest moments in the movie, where he's like, "No, you got it!"" "I remember when he did it, we busted up laughing so loud." "Corey Reynolds has great comedic instincts, and again, it's just funny moments and brotherhood." "The love in this room is what you want to protect." "But of course, as the story unfolds, they run into their challenges." "But I love this moment." "This is the guys at their happiest." "You know?" "With Tyree, the younger brother, with the girls and the fun and the brotherhood." "We, of course, have to do a montage because we can't squeeze all of that time into a short movie." "So we show that they press up the album and experience local success in Los Angeles." "We show that Eazy, of course, is using cash from his street money to fund this whole thing." "Who's that hack?" "Who's that guy?" "That's my Hitchcock moment." "I wish I was a better actor, but you guys have to suffer through it." "I'll apologize later." "This is an important moment because we introduce Paul Giamatti, who plays Jerry Heller." "This is one of the most talented actors I've ever worked with ever." "I was there, I believe, somewhere in the beginning of his career." "We worked a long time ago on my third motion picture, The Negotiator, with Kevin Spacey and Sam Jackson." "He played this character, Rudy." "He was so talented then." "He's incredibly talented now." "I was so lucky to get him because" "As a director, you have a person in mind when you read the script initially." "You know, you have your first choice." "And you don't always get your first choice." "Sometimes they are busy, you have scheduling conﬂicts or they didn't respond to the material- for whatever reason." "But Paul Giamatti was my first choice." "And I was lucky enough to get my first choice." "But what was strange about it was we didn't make the deal with Paul until two days before we started shooting this scene." "This was his first day of shooting." "And we had to put everything together so quickly with his wardrobe and his wig" "That's a wig, by the way." "Andrea Jackson did a pretty good job." "But that was a bad hair day for him." "First day, the wig's all over the place." "It was kinda funny, but he weathered it and did a pretty damn good job." "But he's" " Paul is so good." "There were times where I would forget I was directing." "I would get lost in his performance and forget to say "Cut."" "I'm like, "Okay." "Cut, cut." "Cut it." "My bad."" "And I think that Paul, as an anchor to the movie, really motivated and helped the younger guys." "Because this is a new cast, with Jason and Shea." "Neil worked a little bit, and of course Aldis had some experience." "But when you work with a veteran like Paul, it only makes you better." "And I think that's what he did." "He was the anchor of the cast." "And such a good personality and a good attitude about everything." "'Cause the script" " We did a lot of changing." "He didn't mind improvising." "And he just did a great job." "Now, Kelli Jones- she's our costume designer, our wardrobe person." "She did a great job as well." "If you look at that velour suit, anybody from the '80s knows that that suit, believe it or not, was popular at one time." "Look at the suit, the way it hangs on him." "That's his version of cool." "You'll see later on, when he starts to make a little money, that it's gonna change a little bit." "But right now he's working in this record shop" " Macola Records- and as Cube would put it, he wasn't doing the greatest." "He was managing groups and things like that, but basicallyjust hustling." "This is where they meet and he convinces Eazy that, "You know what?" "I can make you legit."" "And after watching that first scene, you understand why Eazy's motivated to want to be legit." "And of course a little eye candy." "I want to thank Bone, our consultant, 'cause he did a good job at helping us find authentic people, gave us details of things that really happened back in the day." "He did a really good job at making things happen for us." "I want to definitely give a shout-out to Bone." "Skateland USA is in Compton- or was in Compton." "And this is how it was." "I get a lot of people from Compton that said, "You really, really captured that." "I was there for that particular concert with Eazy-E and N.W.A, and it felt perfect."" "I love to hear that." "You get a sense of where the all-black comes from." "The Raiders gear, the Kings gear." "And of course Yella didn't do what he was supposed to do." "And of course Eazy-E's on top of it, being the leader that he is." "This is a moment that's, again, serving the individuality of Eazy-E as a character." "Dre's about the creativity," "Cube is about the writing and kinda the politics because everyone's passed on this music." "No one's really biting." "So if you don't really perform now, this could be the end of it." "And that's not in the theatrical." "But I love the fact that he comes in and just kind of raises the stakes." "This is a moment that's, again, serving the individuality of Eazy-E as a character." "Dre's about the creativity," "Cube is about the writing and kinda the politics and Eazy-E is about the money." "And you see that when he says, "Listen, you know what?" "Let's show them who we are and let's go get this money."" "This is a defining moment for him." ""Dopeman" was extremely popular." "I remember when I first heard this song, I was thinking," ""Wow, did they really say that on a record?"" "it's a crazy song, and it's so cinematic." "And that's what I loved about Cube's writing." "You can draw a straight line from a song like this that feels almost like a movie." "You can see everything that he's saying and you can draw a straight line to Cube as a filmmaker, as a writer, as a director, as a producer." "And this is a young guy who visualizes things and writes about them." "So there's a direct connection to movies." "And you see that." "And of course it's a great moment for O'Shea Jackson, Jr., because he's rocking the crowd." "He's got full control, he's very confident, and that's exactly what I wanted." "But more important than that, this is the first time the group performs together and the first time the actors performed together onstage." "And so, psychologically, this was a very important moment, not only in the story for the group, but for my actors." "If they got this right, then the rest of the shoot would go well for us." "If they got this right, then the rest of the shoot would go well for us." "But if they ran into any hiccups or did something wrong where it challenged their confidence, it could have been disastrous for the movie." "But they jumped out there with the help of Dub-C William Calhoun, who was a rap consultant." "He helped them all through the details of performing West Coast-style and all the little behavioral cues and physical cues." "And DJ Robshot helped Corey with the deejaying." "And also DJ Yella, who is Neil Brown, Jr." "And so it all came together in this one moment." "And you could see these guys really rock the crowd." "And it felt real." "As a director, you couldn't ask for a better first performance out of your cast." "People have no idea how challenging that is to have to learn your lines, wear a wig, pretend like you're in the '80s and rap for the first time." "This is what a lot of these guys were doing," "And also DJ Yella, who is Neil Brown, Jr." "And so it all came together in this one moment." "As a director, you couldn't ask for a better first performance out of your cast." "And again, shout-out to Dub-C." "He did such a great job at making those guys feel comfortable on stage." "This scene is a moment where the guys are young and to a certain extent just celebrating and innocent, you know." "The brotherhood theme is served." "And of course we have the introduction of Suge Knight, who's played by Marcos Taylor." "Now, the story behind Marcos is that he's not an actor." "He's a stuntman, and more than that, he's actually an MMA fighter." "I had such a hard time finding a Suge Knight character, because everybody is so familiar with who he is that I had to go the unconventional route." "And at the last minute- we call it midnight casting- my stunt coordinator, Lin Oeding, he brought Marcos Taylor to the table and said," ""I have a guy who looks like Suge." "He's not an actor." "But maybe you could work with him."" "And when he came to the set, when we were shooting the battering ram scene," "I saw his guy and I'm like, "Wow, he really does look like him."" "He auditioned with a couple other guys while we were shooting." "And I said, "Although he's not an actor- he's just used to fighting- there may be something there."" "And there were some challenges because, again, you're working with someone there may be something there."" "And I think that Marcos did a great job as well." "And there were some challenges because, again, you're working with someone who's not used to the rhythm of making movies." "But, all in all, this guy stepped up and really delivered." "And, of course, we introduce Bryan Turner, who is played by Tate Ellington." "This is another good moment, I think, for Dr. Dre," "This is another good moment, I think, for Dr. Dre, because you show that he definitely needs to make a choice, especially given the financial situation that he's in." "But he's not just gonna settle." "So he challenges Bryan." "He's like, "Hey, listen." "Who's on your label?" "We never heard of you."" "And I'm sure Jerry's thinking, "What the fuck are you doing?" "The only guy who's interested in representing you guys and signing you guys is about to give you a deal, and you're questioning that?"" "That's just Dre." "He wants it to be right." "And that's a theme that really runs with his character, because he's not gonna do it just to do it- he wants it to be right." "This is the first time you see that." "So far, the collaboration between Jerry and Eazy is working." "They get a record deal, and now they move from Lonzo's dusty garage to Audio Achievements." "Now this is really serious for Dr. Dre, and he wanted to let everybody know this is our lives, this is our creativity, and we'd better do the best we possibly can." "And he makes it clear." "In this montage, you get a chance to listen to the different songs." "I love it." "This montage helps a lot, because MC Ren doesn't get a ton of time in the movie and you really get a chance to see how talented he is and hear his song." "You also get a chance to see Dre on the mike, because Dre wasn't really rapping that much back then." "Showing a little bit of "Express Yourself' really had to help show that each one of these guys had a very specific talent and they all contributed to the album Straight Outta Compton." "This montage also showed better times- the brotherhood with the guys and the fun times and the smiles." "It's not about threats or danger or drama." "It's really just about the love that these guys have for their art, their creativity and for each other." "And of course later on it gets challenging." "But these are the good times, and you really feel that." "Our deal with Priority Records is done." "This is Jerry doing his job." "He gets out there." "He brokers the deal with Bryan Turner and Priority Records, and this is where you get a sense that Cube is not necessarily happy with everything that's going on." "It's a funny moment with the straws." "But really the definition of the scene is," ""Hey, listen, what's going on with our contracts?"" "Because Cube, as you'll find out, never had a contract with N.W.A." "He was part of the group, he wrote a lot of the songs, but he did not have a contract." "And you got a sense of his doubt." "Keep an eye on that hamburger right there." "It pays off in the next scene." "This is another thing that motivates Dr. Dre." "His baby's mom is really, really incensed." "She hates the fact that they're sleeping at his aunt's house." "She packed up all of his kid's things, all of her things and moved out of Jinx's house." "She's had it." "She's done with it." "She thinks he's out screwing around, just playing around and not taking care of his responsibility, and she just drives off with his kid and everything." "And this is something that- You feel a little bad for Dre." "You feel like, wow, this guy is actually trying, and nothing's going right." "Now, to add on to this moment where he essentially loses his woman and close contact with his child, here comes the Torrance police." "This actor who plays the black cop, his name is lnny Clemons." "Very talented actor who, actually, I hired the night before." "What's strange is, he assisted me on this movie." "He's a part of the midnight casting as well." "We wanted to put a black officer in so that the relationship with law enforcement wouldn't be just racial." "It wasn't just white and black." "It was, hey, this is just about abuse of power." "Doesn't matter what color you are." "If you have power and you're abusing it, we wanted to really show that it came from all sides." "And he did a great job." "I think it's one of the strongest, more potent moments in the movie." "I always get chills when I watch this scene because you see the guys on the ground for absolutely no reason." "And I created a shot where you really define the relationship between these particular cops and N.W.A." "They really treat them like trash." "You see that shot right there?" "There's boots and garbage next to their faces." "And I just wanted to give the audience a sense of how the guys felt." "They felt like trash." "And they're next to the boots of these officers while they're having a casual conversation with Jerry about the merits of what's happening." "And that's a violation." "And you really feel that." "It's not something you have to intellectualize." "You feel that." "That's part of the reason why it's one of the stronger moments in the movie." "Because these guys were just artists doing their thing." "They didn't break the law." "But they're being treated like trash." "And as an American citizen" "Not to get too preachy, but that's fucked up." "But let me be clear." "This is not an anti-cop movie." "This movie is about a music group that made history." "There are a lot of little sub-story lines, and their relationship with law enforcement was part of that." "The point is, any form of excessive force is wrong." "And that's what this scene represented." "And I think that's what the song that they're about to sing represents." "But I wanna be clear- there are good cops out there and there are cops that overstep their boundaries." "And we hope that everyone gets a sense of what it feels like to be violated." "And maybe it changes the culture in which this happens." "And that's what we're hoping for." "What I liked about the last scene is Jerry takes up for the guys." "You get a good sense of why he has a relationship with Eazy." "He's there, he's defending the guys, and he even gets a sense of how abusive law enforcement can be with the guys." "And you really get a sense of how they all come together- not just the brothers, but Jerry as well." "The song "Fuck tha Police" is obviously a reaction to all of the moments that led up to this, but this is part of the montage of making Straight Outta Compton." "And you get a sense of the guys coming together, how much fun it was just being in the studio with no supervision, just everybody really fully expressing themselves and just being happy about it." "Eazy gets off on the mike." "Cube gets off on the mike." "Dre gets off on the mike." "Ren gets off on the mike." "And you see the fruits of their labor." "They're all happy that the album was made." "They're all happy that not only did they experience local success, but they experience national success." "Now, Crenshaw Boulevard- this is the strip." "I remember cruising Crenshaw Boulevard in the '80s, and that was so much fun." "There's a movie called American Grafifi/ where they have a strip where Ron Howard and his friends kinda hang out, and you get a sense of how much fun they had with all the custom cars." "This is the equivalent of that, but the black version." "Crenshaw was so much fun." "I loved shooting that scene because you got a sense of how creative everyone was in that environment" "In the hood, without a lot of resources, they're customizing all these cars, with the Suzuki Samurais, with the El Caminos and the lowriders." "It's just a great moment." "This particular scene didn't make it in the theatrical cut, but I thought it was really funny." "They actually put it in the trailers, but it didn't make it in the theatrical cut for time purposes." "But Eazy was always strapped." "He was known for having this semi-automatic or" "I'm not really sure." "It could have been a machine gun." "But it had a big silencer on it." "I talked to my prop guy, Mike Sexton, and I really wanted him to make sure he got the gun right." "And instead of kind of creating a dangerous moment, the two times we show that gun, it's actually really funny, and this is one of them." "And of course, we start the tour." "This is the only tour I believe N.W.A. went on, at least with Ice Cube, and we start in Houston, Texas." "I went to the Cannes Film Festival for another film that I produced, and Matthew McConaughey told me he went to this concert." "He had this whole story about how he was the only white guy with his friend in this concert and he had a blast." "That's what I love about N.W.A." "No matter who you run into, they have an N.W.A. story, whether it's something that they experienced on the tour, or at least they knew where they were when they first heard the group." "That's why I believe this movie is so universally loved." "It's because the group was universally loved." "They had their haters, but there was a lot of people who loved them because they were honest, and it touched a lot of people outside of Los Angeles and even outside of the States." "We shot that in the daytime." "We just digitally effected that." "This is a scene that did not make it in the theatrical release." "I thought it was one of the funnier moments." "But again, of course, we can't have a three-hour theatrical movie, so we had to cut it out." "But Neil Brown, Jr. is so matter-of-fact about watching porn on the bus with these guys." "It just shows how funny it is and how they had a lot of fun with each other, and they're just a bunch of kids." "People took them so serious." "They were labeled the world's most dangerous group." "But when you watch the movie, you realize they weren't as dangerous as people said." "They were just a bunch of young guys who wanted to have fun and express themselves." "And they made history." "But that was just one of the funnier moments." "This is a funny moment as well." "But we start this scene off with Dre talking to his brother, really showing that he's concerned and really showing that," ""Hey, listen, although I'm in the midst of all this fun, I love you." "How's Mom doing?"" "And showing that he really cares about his family." "You don't get that with the records." "A lot of times, people just associate negativity with what they're talking about, but the point of the movie is they're human beings beyond the music and beyond the genre of music." "They have their good days and bad days." "You show how much Dre loves his family, and it really humanizes these guys." "That's part of the point as well." "These two guys are really from the streets." "That's why the movie feels so real." "I really wanted to cast guys who you really felt the danger." "This one shot was so hard to get because it takes place in two rooms and a hallway." "Matty Libatique did such a great job at creating moments like this and helping me create moments like this that didn't feel like the average coverage." "Everyone had to get everything right and the timing had to be perfect." "This is one of my favorite moments, too, where Jason is like, "She's just sucking dick."" "I'm sorry. it's funny because you see where his priorities are." "Then he lifts up this bed and pulls out a shotgun." "It just shows how these young guys are, one moment, partying and the next moment ready to go to war." "Again, you see how the brothers come together, and there's nothing that can challenge them." "I thought this was a really clever line that Jason came up with." "You really, really get a sense that this group is impenetrable." "That's what I wanted to set up, so you really felt it when things start to go wrong." "You really don't want this group of guys in this hallway to break up." "You just know they're gonna be together forever." "Now this moment right here with Felicia and the "Bye, Felicia" moment, that was improvised." "Most people think we set that up." "No one could have wrote it." "Shea came up with that line, and it's an homage to my first movie, Friday, which obviously I did with his dad, Ice Cube." "The audience goes nuts when they see that "Bye, Felicia" moment." "I still to this day don't know why it's a phenomenon, but "Bye, Felicia" lives on." ""Gangsta Gangsta" has to be one of my favorite N.W.A. songs." "I love the way he captures this, because he's just into it." "He just really, really gets into it." "It's such a vivid, visual song." "Again, it's a testament to Ice Cube and his talent." "He's just really, really good." "You feel like you're in the scene when you listen to those moments." "Now you start to feel the pressure from outside forces." "It starts with law enforcement and their reaction to the album Straight Outta Compton." "And more specifically, "Fuck tha Police."" "Again, it's a testament to Ice Cube and his talent." "Now you start to feel the pressure from outside forces." "It starts with law enforcement and their reaction to the album Straight Outta Compton." "And more specifically, "Fuck tha Police."" "This scene really sets up the fact that it goes well beyond LAPD." "Now the FBI is getting involved." "And Ice Cube's point, and the group's point, for that matter, is why is it that it's in our Constitution that we have the right of freedom of speech but we can't really speak our mind in our records?" "This is a testament to Eazy's genius, where he says, "You know what?" "If we're going to be challenged by the government, then we're gonna make money off of it." "We're gonna create publicity to surround what is clearly an illegal push to silence us and to censor us."" "For Eazy to be so young but to be so savvy, it really shows how street knowledge really kicks in." "You don't necessarily have to have an MBA to understand business and to be savvy." "And Eazy was extremely savvy." "This is one of those moments that really- it was a pivotal moment." "It changed the course of history, especially for the group." "They used it." "They didn't cower, and they didn't shy away from the challenge." "I don't know how Jerry Heller felt about it, but" "He seemed to not want to go down this road." "He seemed a little hesitant, to say the least." "I can understand why he would, but you have a bunch of young guys that are really passionate." "And Cube always says, "We didn't really give a shit about the FBI 'cause we didn't know to what extent they had power." "We just thought it was just a letter." "A letter can't hurt us." "If it was the LAPD- which, you know, we've been at the other end of a billy club- we'd be worried." "But this is the FBI." "We just see those guys dressed in suits and walking around offices on television."" "So they weren't really that... fazed." "They just kept going." "Of course, there was the controversy." "There are people around the nation that love the guys, but there are some people who really did not feel it." "They felt like some of the lyrics were misogynistic." "They felt like the lyrics were really negative." "And we represented that in that one little moment where everyone wasn't in love with the group." "You start to see that all the fun that led up to this moment is starting to really change." "This moment is a lot of fun." "We shot this in 1O minutes." "My production designer wasn't in love with the fact that we trashed that bus with beer." "But it's N.W.A." "What do you expect?" "They're on tour." "We have a "war on drugs" moment with Nancy Reagan." "That's something for those who are a little political and understand what that means." "Again, a moment where the group starts to splinter." "More specifically, Ice Cube." "He brings up the contracts earlier before the Torrance moment with the cops, and now he's bringing it up again." "This time, he's a little angry." "He sees that these guys are having lobster." "They're eating Fatburger." "And there's just this disparity between how they're living- being Eazy and Jerry- and how the group's living." "And it doesn't feel right." "On top of that, he's doing all this work, he's not really getting paid what he deserves, and he's standing up for himself." "It takes a lot of balls for a young guy without pretty much any money at all, who lives at home with his mom and dad, to challenge his bosses." "Because that's essentially who they are." "They run the show." "But he has a sense that something's wrong, and, at every turn he's gonna challenge them." "I actually respected that." "I actually respected that." "Another really good moment for O'Shea Jackson, Jr." "This guy really showed up and really performed." "And he's in there with a heavyweight." "Paul Giamatti is really great at what he does and you really feel the weight of that moment." "I love how expressive Jerry is, his eyes." "You always know there's subtext there." "It's one thing for him to say something, but you always know there's something else going on behind his eyes, and that's the brilliance of Paul Giamatti." "Now Cube is really trying to figure out if everyone has a chance." "More specifically, does Dre know what's going on." "Do you see what I see?" "Dre is like, "Listen, man, I have too much going on." "I want this to work."" "This moment is a great moment, and it really draws on what Corey Hawkins is good at." "All of that training at Juilliard and his dramatic training really pays off in this scene." "Because it's really hard for a young man- especially a young black man from DC and from the streets- to tap into his emotions." "Or at least I've found that, in dealing with people who are acting or who attempt to act, to really tap into their vulnerable side or to show any vulnerability at all." "And the training really helped." "Because I was always nervous about shooting scenes like this because you're so used to not going there that when you do, it feels false." "That's been my experience with younger talent." "That when you do, it feels false." "That's been my experience with younger talent." "They just have a hard time going there and making it feel real." "But when someone's trained, you can just press a button and they'll get there." "This moment between the guys is one of the most important moments because the theme of brotherhood is really captured in this sequence when Dre's brother dies." "They all come together." "You normally don't associate a lot of emotion with this genre of music." "You just don't." "Or vulnerability." "You just don't." "This is where you see all of these guys really show another side." "This moment between the guys is one of the most important moments because the theme of brotherhood is really captured in this sequence when Dre's brother dies." "They all come together." "You normally don't associate a lot of emotion with this genre of music." "You just don't." "Or vulnerability." "You just don't." "This is where you see all of these guys really show another side." "And to show that, "Hey, Dre, you are important to us." "You're important to me." "I love you." "I love you as a brother and you'll never lose me." "And we know this is challenging." "It's probably the most challenging time of your life, and we have your back."" "Another great moment with Lisa Renee Pitts." "She's just so solid and grounded." "And, you know, to get this relationship with Dre and his mom is so important." "Because the group is always attacked about their relationship to women and how they don't care and how negative it could be sometimes." "It was important for me to show that that's not their relationship in real life with women." "And I love that moment between Dre and his mom." "This is one of my favorite shots in the movie because it's family." "Now for the Detroit police sequence." "This was a really fun, fun sequence to shoot." "That's Greg Collins, the cop." "He's a really good actor, and all of the cops next to him are actually real." "They're from LAPD." "They're on-duty cops." "They actually had a good attitude about us shooting this sequence after hearing the song "Fuck tha Police" over and over and over again over the course of three days." "I think they had just a good attitude about it." "I like this sequence because, when you're being bullied, sometimes you have to stand up." "That's what this sequence represents." "Freedom of speech applies to everyone in this country." "It's a constitutional right, and that's what these guys are basically saying." "You cannot bully us, we can say what we want, we can feel what we want to feel, and as long as we're not breaking the law, you have no right to tell us what to do and/or say." "This is somewhat of a bittersweet moment." "This is one of their best songs." "This is one of the best sequences in terms of performance that my actors gave." "But at the same time, it's really heavily politicized by a lot of Americans and also by some politicians." "It's bittersweet because it's such a good moment where you feel that these characters are standing up to bullies, and you understand why." "But at the same time, there's death and destruction that's happening in the streets of America, and it's wrong on both sides." "We don't advocate violence against American civilians and certainly don't advocate violence against law enforcement." "People have taken this song and they've taken parts of this movie and tried to politicize it, and I think it's unfair." "So it's a bittersweet moment for me because it's necessary." "But at the same time, it's specific to the moment in time when it was performed, when it was created, and I don't want any of these moments to be taken out of context." "This cable cam shot was very hard to not only achieve and execute, but just even the design, it was crazy." "Because it went from way back there in the wide shot all the way to wrap around a close-up of his finger." "My line producer, Adam Merims, did a great job at really making that happen." "That's one of those mountain requests that you make." ""L want you to move this mountain." "Make it happen."" "He made it happen." "Now one of my favorite shots happens right coming up about here." "I just love, like, how all three of them just emphatically started the song." "Because it's just, again, the synergy with all the guys." "You just knew they were all together, and there's no one who could challenge them." "It's just a great moment." "It's a great moment in the film." "It's a great moment in music." "It's a great moment in history." "It says, "Listen, you should stand up." "You stand up for what you believe regardless of who's challenging you."" "And I love it." "I love this performance because this is the biggest concert scene we had to shoot, at the Joe Louis Arena." "Of course, it was the LA Sports Arena." "I loved what the group delivered." "I loved what my actors delivered." "They did a great job at performing both songs," ""Straight Outta Compton," and more specifically, "Fuck tha Police."" "it's a great song." "It's a great moment in the film." "But the song is a response to excessive force, and it was necessary, and that's the end of it." "There should be a change in law enforcement in terms of the culture." "On the ﬂip side to that, we're not advocating violence against police." "Because at the end of the day, we need law enforcement to protect us as well." "So we fight against anyone who feels like it's okay to violate or hurt innocent citizens of this country." "Peﬂod." "It doesn't matter if you're from the hood or if you're in law enforcement." "We want to be clear about that." "I love this shot right here." "And I love this shot right here." "Big shout-out to my camera operator Colin Hudson." "He was so great at doing what he does." "He's a drummer, and I liken all art to music, or at least I think that all art is somehow connected to rhythm." "When you have a camera operator that's a drummer, they just get it." "It's all rhythm and timing." "And he just did an amazing job." "He, along with Matty Libatique." "You couldn't get any better camera operator." "They knew where to be, what shot to create in the moment because I did a lot of handheld shots." "And they knew exactly how to capture the moment and where to be and the rhythm of the scene." "I love those guys." "They are A1, top, top-notch." "Now the riot, we shot this in Los Angeles at the LA Sports Arena, my old stomping grounds when I was a kid." "And a lot of people showed up from a radio contest." "A lot of those extras are extras that showed up in a radio contest and they were really fully into it." "I love this moment too." "These guys get arrested and thrown in a paddy wagon, and they laugh their way through it." "Which, in a strange way, although they're being arrested, they're still celebrating like it was a win." "It's like, "You know what?" "We defied the cops." "We don't give a shit." "We won because we didn't let them tell us what to do."" "it was just a fun moment for them." "It was a fun moment in the movie as well." "I want the audience to really get a sense of the "Why?"" "Meaning, why would these young guys write these lyrics?" "Why would they do these songs?" "You hear about a lot of negativity on the surface, but why would you do it?" "We touch a little bit on that in this scene." "When you grow up in an environment that changes so drastically when there's this inﬂux of not only cocaine- crack cocaine- but military weapons, it changes the whole environment." "And the whole gangster lifestyle is fueled not only by the lack of education, but the inﬂux of drugs and weapons." "This is what these guys wrote about." "Now, in no stretch of imagination am I suggesting they were freedom fighters or that they live on the level of Martin Luther King." "But I will say that they just wrote about what they saw, what they experienced." "In the last scene, they talked about the fact that," ""Hey, we don't have passports, but we have access to Russian machine guns." "We don't have passports, but we have metric tons of cocaine being shipped into our neighborhoods." "Now who's doing that, and why?"" "So when you start to judge the music, dig a little deeper and figure out why the environment's like that." "Because they wouldn't write about it if it wasn't like that." "But dig a little deeper." "In the last scene, they mention that this is just a reﬂection of our reality." "You don't necessarily have to love the music, you don't even necessarily have to agree with it, but you have to, at the very least, examine it." "I like that last scene because it touches on something a little deeper than just music." "On a side note, remember that velour sweat suit that Jerry wore in the first scene?" "This is where he gets a little ﬂy." "This reminds me of Al Pacino in Scarf ace." "He's got the ﬂy hairstyle, he's got the Don Johnson, Miami Vice sports coat on, and so you can tell he's making a little money and getting a little ﬂy." "Cube notices that too." "But the heart of this scene is really about the fact that he does not understand these contracts, and he needs to take it to someone else, and he feels like something's really fishy here." "I gotta say, when I was that age, I wouldn't have challenged that." "If someone held up a check for $75,000 and told me to sign it" "Probably if they held up that check today, I'd probably sign it." "But definitely as a teenager, I would have just signed it and went with it." "But Cube was smart enough to say, "Listen." "If I can't get this examined, I do not want to sign it."" "That should inspire people to just do their due diligence and really serve good business." "That's a pickup shot with the bus that's filled with beer smells." "We did that later." "This is Suge Knight and Big Dave." "Big Dave's actually a real guy." "We gave him a couple lines in the movie because, again, he just really is an authentic dude." "Really from the streets of Compton." "This scene is really- it represents the beginning of the end." "You see how the group was together for the first half of the movie, and now, even visually, you start to see the group splinter." "D.O.C goes his own way," "Eazy goes his own way with Jerry, and as you'll see coming up, even Cube goes his own separate way." "So it seems like what was a group of brothers" "After the tour, after the drama, after the losses and the pain and the contracts, the group starts to splinter." "I wanted to show that not only intellectually." "I wanted you to see it visually." "Everybody goes their own separate way." "And it's never the same after this moment." "We shot this in Leimert Park." "I went to elementary school in this area." "So it's a special place, 'cause I love bringing production back to places where I grew up." "I moved around quite a bit, but this is a special place for me." "This is South Central LA, Leimert Park." "It's a block away from Crenshaw, and I love this place." " Take care of yourself, Dre." " Peace." "This digs into the relationships with women." "More specifically, Dre and his mom." "You show that he really loves his mom." "Regardless of what happened earlier, he wants to be there to support her, especially after the loss of his little brother and her son." "That wasn't in the theatrical release, but it was something that was important to me." "We now introduce Ice Cube's wife, Kim." "She's Kim Jackson now, of course." "She's played by Alexandra Shipp, and she did a really good job." "I actually think that Shea was pretty fond of her." "You can understand that." "But he was a little distracted sometimes." "But he did a good job in this scene." "He strikes a deal with Bryan Turner and goes on to make what I consider one of the best hip-hop albums of all time- Amer/KKKate Most Wanted." "That album was absolutely crazy." "llovedit" "To this day, it's still one of the top hip-hop albums, period." "He went to New York and worked with The Bomb Squad and Chuck D." "We showed Chuck D a little more." "You see the guy with the P hat?" "That's Chuck D." "You see some of his inﬂuences in this scene and how he went from West Coast and Dr. Dre," "went straight to the East Coast and had The Bomb Squad do this crazy, different approach to music with a West Coast lyricist but with an East Coast ﬂavor." "I think that's part of the reason why" "When you bring the two together, history is made." "I love West Coast music, and I love East Coast music, but when you bring them together, it's crazy." "That album really represented that." "As you can tell, Dre even loved the album, even though Cube is not a part of N.W.A. anymore." "And by the way, that car is worth $110,000, 'cause there's not a screw that wasn't touched on it, and it's a beautiful car." "Now here we are at the Eazy-E "Wet and Wild" party." "This is where they had the most notorious parties that LA has probably ever seen." "I love this moment because you see that everybody is having fun, but they're all separate." "You have Yella and Ren over here." "You have Dre over with the women by himself." "Then you see Eazy with Jerry." "So something that's different about this is ordinarily when they're having fun, they're together." "But once Cube left the group, you start to feel this disconnect with the guys." "While on the surface it feels like they're having a good time, you start to see that the group is splintering." "I wanted to do that visually to give you a sense that while it seems okay on the surface, things aren't really as good as they may seem." "Let's sit down for two seconds." " Look, we need to keep Dre happy." " Yeah." "In this scene- besides the fact that Eazy really wants to participate in the party- he sees that Dre may be the next one to go." "Jerry really wants him to focus on business." "Eazy wants to focus on pussy and making sure his group doesn't fall apart." "You see where his priorities are." "It's kind of interesting, at least in the movie." "The serious part about this scene is that this is where Suge starts to poach Dr. Dre." "You can see the concern on Jerry's face, and the fact that he started with D.O.C. and was successful." "He's not really sure, but he looks like he's starting on Dr. Dre." "You see that look?" "You also quickly see D.O.C." "give that kind of same suspicious look right there." "Dre tells me all these stories about what was going on." "He said that's what would happen, and it's pretty crazy." "This is a really cool moment, because I remember when this actually happened." "I got a phone call from a friend saying," ""Cube just went nuts and tore up Priority Records."" "And this is the moment that sets up that moment where he's saying," ""Listen." "I've been through this once before, and I'm not going through this shit again."" "I remember Priority Records was on Sunset Boulevard." "The fact that Cube didn't get arrested for tearing up" "an office in Hollywood with a bunch of his goons and baseball bats is so amazing to me, especially with their relationship with the police." "He could have" " He could still be in jail right now for what he did." "But you see, in this particular cut, he looks at all of the platinum albums and the gold albums." "And enough is enough." "We know what's about to happen right now." "You see the baseball bat." "People actually ask me, "Did that really happen?"" "'Cause it seems like a dramatic moment that a director would put in a movie but it really didn't happen." "And it really did happen." "Cube ripped this office apart." "I wouldn't suggest anyone do this now, but it actually worked." "He got his check." "It probably wouldn't work today, but it worked back in the day." "If you look at this one shot, you see, just to the left, the ice cube- where we go from the last smashing of the table, and we rack focus to the ice cube on Bryan Turner's desk," "showing Ice Cube has been here." "He came, he saw and he conquered." "Now we set up that the group was splintering at the party." "Now all of the fun that we set up in the earlier recording sessions- when they were recording Straight' Outta Compton- now it's just not the same." "You see everybody is sitting around, the energy's low, no one's having any fun, everyone seems somewhat either distracted- it just doesn't seem like the brotherhood is the same as it was before, now that Cube left." "I think that's one of the reasons why it's so important to establish how much fun it was when they were a group." "Now it just feels like work." "Even the happiest guy in the group" "DJ Yella's kind of sitting back going, "This is not fun at all."" "This is also a moment that happened where Dre gets a call about D.O.C. being in a car accident." "This was a big story back in the day when we all heard that one of the best West Coast MCs- although he was from Houston, he was still considered part of the west- lost his ability to speak," "or, at the very least, his ability to rap." "That was tragic because he was so good." "He had so much potential." "Where your people?" "Where Eazy and Jerry?" "How the fuck should I know?" "And of course, this is where Suge, kind of rightfully so, says," ""Listen, man." "This could be you." "Something's going on with your business, and I want to help you with this."" "As Dre tells it, this is kind of where they start to kind of investigate what their agreements were with Ruthless." "You could see right here, Corey Hawkins is doing such a good job at splitting his attention between his friend, who's injured, and the business at hand." "The seeds of doubt have been planted." "Right now, Suge's getting a foothold into the Ruthless camp." "This is a moment that did not make it into the theatrical release." "I hated that it didn't, because I wanted to show that Tomica Woods-Wright, who is Eazy's widow- really had a relationship with him beyond the average groupie." "This scene kind of defines that." "She's played by Carra Patterson, who's from New York, who did such a great job." "But it shows Eazy's vulnerable side." "It shows that in the midst of partying with all these groupies and doing all this stuff on tour, that he's a little vulnerable with her." "You could see in his eyes, and see that this girl's a little different." "She works in the record industry." "She's an executive assistant." "So she has a little bit of something going for her." "You could feel a different connection between the two." "Now his office has been completely remodeled because of the damage that Ice Cube inflicted." "And again, to this day," "I don't understand how he didn't get into any trouble." "But he stood up for what he thought was right, and he got his money." "Now the plot thickens." "I remember when this song came out and was thinking," ""Whoa." "That was pretty harsh."" ""Benedict Arnold."" "That was pretty harsh." "But there's nothing more harsh than what I consider one of the best dis tracks in the history of all of music." "Not just hip-hop, but all of music." ""No Vaseline" has to be one of the most passionate, venomous dis tracks to ever be recorded to this day." "It wasn't in the original script." "But I called Cube up one day and said, "Listen." "You cannot make an N.W.A movie without putting 'No Vaseline' in the movie."" "You just can't do it." "It's not possible." "It's such a popular song that never had a music video." "So in a strange way, obviously it serves the narrative for Straight Outta Compton." "But it's also, in a strange way, the music video for "No Vaseline."" "I've never had a response from a sequence like this in the history of my career." "We dropped a Brink's truck in the Italian Job." "We blew people up in LawAb/d/ng Cit/zen." "I've had some pretty good moments in cinema history, but people damn near stood up and cheered after listening to this song and experiencing the reaction of the guys in the group." "It's Ice Cube at his best." "The young lady right here, Maria Sten, is Miss Denmark 2007." "Very beautiful woman." "Very, very cool." "A good actor as well." "Cube said that he was heavily inﬂuenced by Richard Pryor and Muhammad Ali." "When you listen to "No Vaseline,"" "you could really hear the inﬂuences, especially Muhammad Ali- the rhyming, the humor, the venom." "He just torpedoed the group." "I really don't think the group was the same after that." "That shit's kind of funny." "Neil Brown, Jr. is so funny." "Just comic relief when you need it, especially with something so harsh with the lyrics and how they responded to the song." "His comedic timing is just perfect." "Who the fuck does he think he is?" "Un-fucking-believable." "That kind of fucking bullshit." "Jew-bashing bullshit." "MC Ren is incensed." "Paul Giamatti, who plays Jerry Heller, is super pissed off." "Eazy-E is really starting to see his team fall apart." "And you can feel that." "I don't think Cube planned for it to have that type of effect, but after talking to the group, they really said nothing was the same after that." "They acknowledged that Cube won that battle, and he clearly did." "And hip-hop" "You hear these battles going back and forth and stuff like that, but it's not the way it used to be." "These guys really went back and forth, and it was crazy." "Cube clearly got the upper hand, especially with this song." "If looks could kill- look at that look." "You got to love Jason." "He's just so on point." "That felt like a real moment." "Like a really real moment." "He didn't seem like he was acting." "He really looked like he was pissed off." "I guess that's the goal." "But he just really sank into this particular character." "Again, people ask me, did this really happen?" "There was a New Music Seminar where there was a group called Above the Law, and they got into a brawl with Cube and Da Lench Mob." "This is what happened." "This kind of goes beyond hip-hop." "You should keep it on wax when you have these beefs, but it got so crazy that it became physical." "Of course, this is the infamous Rodney King beating." "And it's juxtaposed to what you would consider black-on-black crime." "You have black guys beating up black guys." "Now you have white guys beating up black guys." "It's just a weird feeling to see all of this violence." "I was hoping that people would watch this moment and say," ""You know what?" "This is all silly."" "it's kind of ridiculous to actually war with each other, when clearly, people are warring with us." "And now we're in the studio yet again, and it's not fun at all." "All those fun moments when they were recording Straight Outta Compton, all the montages where the guys were having a great time, laughing and smiling- none of that." "I think that really affected Dre's creativity." "He was creating under duress." "One of the surprise moments was this moment by an ex-NFL football player, who went to the Super Bowl and the Pro Bowl" "Thomas Jones, who really is a superb athlete." "But he comes off as one of the hardest thugs and scariest thugs you've ever seen on film." "When he says, "Is this your house?"" "I don't think any man alive wouldn't think twice about answering that question." "That look left and right was one of the most awkward moments in the movie." "Because you don't know if this guy is going to shoot Jerry, stab him or skin him alive and scalp him." "He's so comfortable in this passive-aggressive threat, that it just sends shivers down the spine of the audience." "I love this moment." "And he just walks away like nothing happened." "This scene here is one of the more pivotal moments in the movie." "We obviously experience Ice Cube leaving the group." "But this is a moment that's really, really emotional for Dr. Dre in real life." "He told me that" "He told me that" "He assumed when he brought the contracts to Eazy, that it was a foregone conclusion that he was going to say, "Okay, I see that things don't seem right or, you know, it doesn't add up." "So, I'm going to rock with my boy, and we're good." "We're just going to find a new path to business."" "When Eazy decided to actually go with Jerry versus Dre" "I remember having my first meeting with him." "He paused because I think he still felt a certain way about it." "It was very painful for him, because he had such a great relationship- or so he thought- with Eazy." "Eazy's not here to speak for himself." "I'm assuming that it was just a mistake." "But this is something that Dre took to heart." "He was very surprised." "He was taken aback." "It was very, very painful for him." "I think this is one of Corey's strongest moments as well." "This is a really interesting moment, because Eazy can't even look him in the eye." "He just can't." "When you have a movie that deals with this genre of music, again, you just don't associate emotion, this level of emotion or vulnerability with this genre of music." "I think that's part of what makes these guys special." "Because they're true leading men." "Their performances are top-notch." "Because they're not only capable of giving you that masculine, macho, street-guy thing, but they're also capable of being vulnerable." "Which is a great balance." "This is a great, balanced performance." "I always said- Not to compare them to these guys, but if you look at a Humphrey Bogart or if you look at a Marlon Brando" "You look at A Streetcar Named Desire." "These guys really, really were tough guys." "Or Casablanca or anything that Bogart did." "They give you this tough-guy image, but they're also able to be vulnerable." "That's what makes a classic performance." "I think these guys really delivered that, especially Dre and by Eazy." "This is the turning point for Dre." "He's now in bed with Suge Knight." "They started the company Death Row." ""Deep Cover," which is a crazy track." "I love this song." "Dre's feeling like, "Hey, listen." "I can make good music, but I'm still under contract."" "Marcos is very, very comfortable in playing this role." "You can tell." "This is actually a moment that really was kind of funny." "If you know anything about the streets of Los Angeles, there's a Crip and Blood dynamic that's very, very interesting." "It's actually very dangerous." "And so Keith Stanfield, who plays Snoop, walks into this room filled with Bloods and he's a Crip." "This guy is probably 110 pounds soaking wet." "He walks into this room with these goons that are 300 pounds apiece- all muscle, all murder." "He doesn't give a fuck about what they think about where he's from." "He's like, "I'm from Long Beach."" "He's got a blue rag in his back pocket in a red room with a room full of Bloods." "He just doesn't give a shit." "Look how he moves his hand." "He's like, "I'll just listen to the music."" "This guy can get his neck broken at any moment." "He just doesn't care." "It's kind of how Snoop was, you know." "He was a thin guy, but he had a lot of heart." "We captured that moment, I think." "Keith was great." "He sounds like Snoop." "He doesn't look like Snoop as much, but he definitely captured Snoop's essence and kind of looked like him." "It's a funny moment. if you look at that stare that Suge gave him- it's fucking crazy." "He looked like he could kill Snoop and Dre in that moment." "And back to Rodney King." "I wanted to show this common- this thread that was going through the stories." "Just the thread of law enforcement but also the hints of black-on-black crime." "These things are running parallel in the movie." "It's pretty sad." "Hopefully when the viewer watches this movie, they can get a sense of how idiotic it is to be so destructive." "You see it on the tapes with Rodney King." "You see it with the scene that's coming up next, where there's this violence that happens." "I can't judge anyone else, but I do feel like there are better ways and better solutions to solve some of the problems we deal with today." "And better solutions to solve some of the problems we deal with today." "You see the juxtaposition of law enforcement and gangs, and sometimes I don't see the difference." "Like, who's right and who's wrong?" "You know?" "That's a Malinois dog, and I hope I pronounced it right." "He looks like a German shepherd, but he's like a turbo German shepherd." "They're extremely dangerous." "My understanding is that Suge used to have a dog that was from Holland or from Germany, and he spoke German." "And the dog was extremely dangerous." "On command, this dog would attack anyone." "I've met the trainer for this dog, and he was so on point with these dogs." "You could give them a German command, and they would destroy anything in front of them." "Then they would just chill out." "I was told stories about this dog, and he was kind of infamous." "Because while you see all these big guys in the room, kind of not afraid of anything, they were afraid of that damn dog." "This is another great moment." "Although Eazy is being jumped by these guys, he still had heart, you know." "Eazy didn't strike me as a guy who was fearful or would back down." "You experienced that moment in the beginning of the movie when he was in the dope house with the Crips in Compton." "He was like, "Hey, listen." "Do what you got to do."" "Even now, he doesn't give a shit." "That was the lion heart of Eazy-E, and I wanted to capture that." "I think Jason" " A part of Jason's personality is like that too." "This guy is fearless." "You get a sense of that." "There's no acting there." "I think that was part of Eazy's approach to life as well." "The guy was fearless." "I think that's the reason why you get such a great performance from Jason." "This guy is fearless." "You get a sense of that." "There's no acting there." "I think that was part of Eazy's approach to life as well." "The guy was fearless." "I think that's the reason why you get such a great performance from Jason." "This is a moment that I think serves the brotherhood theme as well." "And although this dynamic is not necessarily brother and brother, what I wanted to create was more of a father-son dynamic." "Because based on my research," "I think that Jerry had more of a father-son relationship with him, and that's the reason why Eazy trusted him and that's the reason why he confided in him and they had a deeper relationship than just business." "And there was a lot of trust there." "When Eazy got into this issue, he went to Jerry to confide in him and to let him know and warn him, "Hey, listen, things are about to get thick, and I'm gonna do what you would ordinarily do on the street" "because it has to happen."" "And Jerry, being this father figure, basically says, "No, you're not gonna do that." "I care about you." "You have to do this the right way because it's a zero-sum game." "If you hit back it's gonna end, and it's not necessarily end in your favor."" "And what I like about that is you really get a sense of why Eazy would trust Jerry." "Because" " There's part of me that feels like Jerry really did care about this guy." "Otherwise it probably, at least in the storytelling, would make Eazy look kind of crazy to just go with a guy would make Eazy look kind of crazy to just go with a guy who just comes off as untrustworthy." "I think they had a great relationship and a deeper relationship than just business, and that's the reason why things got uncomfortable or twisted towards the end." "This shot did not make it in the theatrical release because of time, but I loved the moment." "Because Eazy really has to figure out his next move, and he confides in his woman, Tomica." "You know, he goes to Jerry first, which he has this father-son relationship, and then he goes to his woman." "And I wanted to have a little more with all the relationships with the women." "I wanted to deepen the relationships." "And it's unfortunate that the cut was so long that I had to cut these things out." "But you can see how much she cares about this guy and the pain he's going through because he can't hit back the way he wants." "And there's something that feels changed about him and different." "And Tomica Wright told me, when this actually happened, he came home and it seemed like he was just never the same after that evening." "And I think Jason did an amazing job and restrained himself from going over the top, but you could see it in his eyes." "So then when we check in with Dr. Dre, he, on the surface, looks cool, especially to his friends and family, but he told me he was broke." "He had maybe $20,000, $30,000 in the bank, this huge house with absolutely no furniture, and he just didn't have any real motivation." "He was distraught, and that was pretty interesting because a lot of people felt like, "You're Dr. Dre." "You're doing well."" "This particular scene did not make it into the theatrical release." "And it's kind of interesting because everybody knows about the chronic." "It's just a funny moment with Snoop offering him the chronic, and then he goes on and embarks on the chronicjourney." "I don't think that's really what happened in real life." "It was someone else who actually did that, but we took a little dramatic license." "Because everyone knows Snoop's relationship with marijuana, and Dre really didn't smoke a ton before that time." "And the rest is history." "The Chronic is a classic album." "And that's the reason why things got uncomfortable or twisted towards the end." "This is one of Dre's best songs, "G Thang,"" "and it's one of my favorite moments in the movie because Keith Stanfield does such a great job at playing Snoop." "The track is incredible." "It's quintessential Dr. Dre, California, LA life." "And it's also pretty funny because you have this guy making a classic in a big, empty mansion." "And it really captures exactly what was going on with the drama and the creativity and the rawness of The Chronic album." "And it's just a lot of fun, man, and I think Keith did a great job." "And Corey is really into it." "Harvey Mason Jr., who actually set this up for us, did a great job at reverse engineering the song." "They're in this big Tony Montana house." "It's just a fun moment." "Now you check in with Ice Cube, who says that although he experienced a lot of success with Amer/KKKate Most Wanted and with Death Ce/T/'ficate, this is one of the most challenging moments in his life." "He got a lot of ﬂack for a lot of things he said on Death Certificate." "He had to defend himself, and this is one of those moments." "Cube has always been a pretty clever guy, really funny." "He told me that he was inspired by Richard Pryor and by Muhammed Ali." "And you can hear that in his lyrics." "You can also kind of see a little bit of that in this scene where he challenges the reporter and tells him about his point of view on everything." "And it's not only kind of a strong approach to illustrating and letting a person know what your philosophy is, but it's also pretty damn funny." "This is one of the biggest laughs that we have in the movie, and Shea Jr. is absolutely on point when he delivers this last line" ""Eat a dick and get the fuck out of my house." This is something- that Cube would have said back in the day." "It's a really funny moment, but it was also one of the more challenging moments in Cube's career." "I'm glad he let us put that out there and kind of show that it wasn't always easy." "If you think Eazy-E had wild parties with the "Wet and Wild" parties, there was no party like a Dr. Dre summertime party circa early '90s." "Trust me." "I went to one, and it was absolutely crazy." "This shot was one of my favorite shots and we had to cut it out of the theatrical movie, but it's kind of an homage to Scorsese." "I loved it because it starts on the second floor with the menage a trois and we follow the weed and the joint to the deejay, and then we go down to the first ﬂoor and then down even farther into the pool." "We pick up Nicole, who is now Dre's wife, but in the movie, he's never met her before." "So we have to go through the water, follow her- as you can see her in the left frame- reveal Dre and, of course, a little booty, and then we see Dre see Nicole," "and he's awestruck." "I gotta tell you, it took over 2O takes just to get that one shot." "It was one of the hardest shots I'd ever, not only designed, but ever had to execute." "Because between the girls bumping the camera, the beach ball hitting the camera, my grips bumping the camera, water getting on the camera," "I can't describe to you the level of engineering it took to actually get that one shot." "I got to say I was a little disappointed we couldn't put it in the theatrical." "But I saved it for you guys, so I hope you enjoyed it." "Because it took an entire day to do that one shot." "And there's nothing wrong with having a few pretty women around, so anybody who wants to complain about that, e-mail me." "This scene is an interesting scene because, while it wasn't written in the script," "I always wanted to show a father-son relationship." "So you see Jerry bringing Eazy sandwiches and he's serving him food, and he's always somewhat nurturing Eazy." "And so, again, just psychologically, you get a sense that he has a different relationship with Jerry than he does with the guys." "He has to be a leader, he has to be a street tough and all the things that you would expect from Eazy-E- he's from the street." "But, basically, you serve the father-son relationship between the two in the blocking." "And, of course, this is where we meet Jimmy Iovine, who is, to this day, Dr. Dre's business partner." "This is the beginning." "This is where it all happens." "And if you do a little homework, you'll see that they've gone on to not only work with each other with Death Row Records and Interscope, but with Aftermath and then, of course, on to one of their bigger ventures, which is Beats headphones," "which they went on to sell to Apple." "Which was one of the biggest deals in Apple's history." "Not only that, but one of the biggest deals to ever happen to a hip-hop artist." "To not only work with each other with Death Row Records and Interscope, but with Aftermath and then, of course, on to one of their bigger ventures, which is Beats headphones, which they went on to sell to Apple." "Which was one of the biggest deals in Apple's history." "Not only that, but one of the biggest deals to ever happen to a hip-hop artist." "And this is where it all begins." "Mark Sherman plays Jimmy Iovine." "Again, this is one of those cases of midnight casting." "This guy walked in." "He had the attitude." "He knew what he was talking about, and he held his own." "I really like what he did." "This is a moment that Dre explained to me happened quite a bit." "There was things that escalated unnecessarily at Death Row, and it started to shift the way he felt about his decision to leave Ruthless." "It's like almostjumping from the frying pan and into the fire." "We obviously couldn't put all of the things that happened in Death Row into the movie, but this is one of the moments that we captured to show that this was not the place that he thought it was going to be." "This was not the company that he wanted to build, and this was just the beginning." "This moment here was a huge moment for everybody involved- the verdict of the Rodney King trial." "It surprised everyone, and the city of Los Angeles burned." "This was really, really important because Cube and the group really tried to warn everybody." ""Listen, this is really going on." "And I know you guys don't believe us."" "In a strange way, they felt really sad that the riots happened in the way that it did, but almost vindicated at the same time." "Which is kind of this strange dichotomy, because there was a warning." ""We told you people will rise up if this continues to happen."" "And we all experienced the death, the destruction and this reaction- this emotional reaction to police brutality." "And this reaction- this emotional reaction to police brutality." "And it's really sad that it's still happening to this day." "I thought that this moment was really important in the film." "Because this is part of what motivates some of these artists to write what they write." "And this moment in particular was important, because it's really time for these young guys to come together and do something positive and stop killing each other." "The red rag and the blue rag and the senseless violence is something that was extremely important for me to convey." "And I hope when these young guys who are involved with gangs see this, at least they think twice about the senseless violence that goes on in the streets of LA, Chicago, New York, Baltimore, so on and so forth." "It goes beyond N.W.A. It goes beyond the music." "It goes beyond hip-hop." "It's just important." "It's senseless, and it needs to change." "All this weed is for your Ruthless artists?" "Yeah." "Shit, I'm tryin' to take care of these little money problems." "They can smoke it, sell it, throw a party on it." "Eazy-E is really in a bad way now." "Dre experienced a certain level of success with his company." "Cube is going off to start doing movies." "And Eazy is really starting to wonder what's going on." "He's not where he used to be." "He's not the artist that he used to be." "He's having financial troubles and he's gotta revert back to things he did in the beginning of the movie, which is sell drugs." "His journey's almost come full circle." "I don't know if you noticed that, but you see in this scene that was the first cough." "And we all know that Eazy-E, unfortunately, died of AIDS." "I didn't want to just lay it all out there." "I wanted to kind of slowly reveal that this guy was sick, and we buried it in this scene." "And we also showed that this is really the beginning of the downfall of Eazy-E." "And especially, not only with the group- or what's left of the group- but what's left of his relationship with Jerry Heller." "You can see they're starting to go at it." "I like this moment 'cause you can really tell that MC Ren and DJ Yella really care about Eazy-E." "You see his house being packed up." "He lived this great life in this big mansion, almost like Scarf ace, and now he needs protection and he's losing money and things are changing." "Cut to Ice Cube." "He's not only experienced a lot of success writing music, now he's writing his first motion picture, Friday." "Which is, coincidentally, my first movie." "I should be somewhere on the phone giving him notes in the movie, it's kind of a fun moment because you have O'Shea Jackson, Jr. playing his dad, watching his dad in the first music video that they made." "It's kind of an interesting moment." "Cut to Eazy-E, who can't escape Dr. Dre's success." "The Chronic went on to be one of the biggest hip-hop albums of all time, a classic, and you can tell that he's starting to realize that he made a mistake." "That Tower Records building is actually a digital building." "It used to look like that." "But, obviously, nowadays Sunset Boulevard is completely different, so we had to put that building in digitally." "But you could see Eazy passing Tower Records and seeing, "Hey, maybe I made a mistake with going the route that I took."" "I like this moment because Tomica Woods, she actually told me that this moment happened quite a bit, where she would kind of kick back and smoke a little weed and have these very interesting conversations with Eazy," "kind of heart-to-hearts." "And it's great to put these type of moments in a movie, especially when you have so much, I don't know, just tough-guy stuff going on." "And we've all been there." "We have our tough exterior, and then you end up hanging out with a girl that you really feel, and you turn into another guy." "He was a tough guy, but he was actually pretty passionate." "So I like the fact that Jason was able to loosen up and show that he was vulnerable" "and not just a guy who can spew controversy." "This scene right here wasn't in the theatrical release, and I like it because, again, you see the father-son dynamic between Jerry and Eazy." "But you can start to feel that Eazy's kind of not having it." "He comes over with this kung pao chicken, he's fixing him a plate, he's got a little iced tea, and he's like, "Listen, I'm gonna take care of you."" "And he's like, "Get the fuck out of here with that."" "Look at that look." "If looks could kill." ""Get the fuck out of here."" "And I love Paul because Paul's so expressive." "He's kind of like trying to check to see if Tomica is a problem or, you know, is she just kind of a groupie." "And he wants him to sign these checks." "It's just a really interesting moment." "He grabs a bite of food, pacifies him, and you can just see the look on his face." "He just really realizes that, "Our relationship is really changing, and I'm not really sure where it's coming from." "Maybe it's Tomica, maybe it's someone else, but something's just not right."" "Yet another scene that didn't make the theatrical release." "I loved working with the women in this movie because you got a real sense that these guys, as tough as they sound on wax, they really love the women in their lives." "Dre, to this day, is married to Nicole." "He's got a great family." "And he's been married for 20-something years to this woman." "So when you get these complaints about misogyny and all this type of stuff" "These guys" " Even Ice Cube has been married for over 2O years." "You gotta be able to really kind of separate the art, and the choices they make in art, and real life." "Now, I'm sure they've been through some tough things because you got a real sense that these guys, as tough as they sound on wax, they really love the women in their lives." "Dre, to this day, is married to Nicole." "He's got a great family." "And he's been married for 20-something years to this woman." "So when you get these complaints about misogyny and all this type of stuff" "These guys" " Even Ice Cube has been married for over 2O years." "You gotta be able to really kind of separate the art, and the choices they make in art, and real life." "Now, I'm sure they've been through some tough things and the stuff that you would expect, but, at the same time, from what I know of these guys, it's really an inspiration." "If you want to change your life, and you grow up in a really dangerous environment, this movie should inspire you not to just go on and make a ton of money and do well in business, but to inspire you to understand that you can change your reality" "and create what you want." "And these guys did that." "What I like about this scene is we get a chance to get a sense of what Death Row felt like back in the day." "But we also get a chance to get a real small snippet of Tupac, who's played by Marco Rose." "I remember meeting this guy for the first time, and I was ﬂoored by his likeness to Tupac." "I worked with Pac before in the '90s." "I actually directed a music video with Cube, Dre and Tupac, and it was just uncanny, the resemblance to Tupac." "It was crazy." "It was hard for me to even direct him because you would just sit there and stare at this guy and go, "Wow!"" "This guy is really embodying who this guy is, and we haven't seen him in a long time." "And you just almost feel like you saw a ghost." "This is one of my favorite collaborations between Dre and Tupac." "One of the famous collaborations in hip-hop, "California Love,"" "and, of course, it's interrupted by the drama." "By the way, that's my nephew in the background, Tyrell, who's by that couch." "Now, he walks into Babylon- the equivalent of Babylon." "It's this huge lounge at Death Row where this guy is being essentially tortured like he's in Guanténamo Bay by a guy with a huge bull mastiff." "And, as Dre would put it, it's a fuckin' circus." "This is a place that doesn't feel like a company." "It feels more like a prison." "And this is not what he had envisioned for himself." "And you can see the contrast between how much fun the guys had in the beginning of the movie when they were recording "Boyz-N-The-Hood"" "and the smiles and the brotherhood." "And now it feels like- although he has a Ferrari and a pretty girl and all this money and he's selling all these albums- that all that glitters is not gold." "And you kind of learn this lesson." "It's like sometimes when you gain material success, it's not necessarily the best thing in the world, or it doesn't necessarily add up to success in life." "This is something that he was really passionate about putting in the movie." "And I think it not only helps with Dre's character, but it really helps define where he is in life, even with all this material success, but also helps you understand what motivates him to leave a little later on in the movie." "This my motherfuckin' name on the wall, man!" "And y'all in here actin' like y'all on motherfuckin' vacation." "I got Pac in the next motherfuckin' room." "Grindin', man." "Workin'." "You see the crown next to Suge Knight." "I really wanted to show that he's ruling his kingdom." "This is an important moment where we show the police there, because now Dr. Dre feels like, "I can't go anywhere." "Everyplace I go feels corrupt." "Everyplace I go feels corrupt." "I can't deal with my friends." "I can't go to my company." "I'm getting screwed over." "We've already had a challenging relationship with the police, and now they're in on this criminal activity." "This is really strange."" "And so he's gotta get out of here because this is- and I quote" ""the straw that breaks the camel's back."" "He jumps into his Testarossa after having left Babylon, and now he gets into this high-speed car chase with the police." "He just left Death Row with the police there, so now he's like, "I don't give a shit about being chased by the cops because I don't know who's real, I don't know who's fake," "I don't know who's corrupt."" "And so that's part of the reason why he just runs." "He's fed up." "He has no faith in the system." "He almost just loses faith in humanity." "And he admits, listen, along the way, he made mistakes." "He wasn't an angel." "But at the same time, this is the moment that changed his life." "Because when he was arrested and he went to jail for I believe it was 120 days or something like that, he had a lot of time to think and think about all the choices he made and all the mistakes that he made," "and realized that he wasn't really surrounded by friends." "He had to change his life, otherwise something extreme was gonna happen." "And this is where he gets arrested." "From that point on, Dr. Dre's life completely changed." "Now this takes place in New York at a club called the Tunnel, a famous hip-hop club that all of the famous rappers would go and hang out." "This is a meeting that Cube would always describe, which is his last meeting with Eazy-E." "I thought it was actually pretty humble of Eazy to walk into what is essentially Cube's lair." "Cube is surrounded by Da Lench Mob." "He's got his crew with him." "You know half those guys are strapped." "And the last interaction he had with Eazy- or at the very least his goons- was at the New Music Seminar." "So at any moment, a brawl, a war or a gunfight could break out." "We wanted that tension there." "But at the end of the day, when you have love for somebody, a lot of times, if you are mature enough, you get over it." "That's what this moment is for me, and I think it was for Cube." "It does seem a little easy that after all the drama and "No Vaseline" and the big brawl, that it may feel a little easy that they just bury the hatchet." "But as Cube tells it, you know what, he didn't really have a beef with Eazy." "Eazy is the guy who helped him start his career." "He just wanted to keep the drama on wax." "He feels like the physicality and all of the street shit is not hip-hop." "It's just a great message to everyone who loves hip-hop." "If it has to be physical, it's not really hip-hop." "If you have skill, put it on wax." "Anything beyond that, you're just a thug, and there's nothing really cool about taking it there." "I like that message." "Part of my job is to create an environment that's comfortable so my actors can really get out there and create." "And I really have a really great relationship with" "I call 'em my team." "This is my team." "You know." "The N.W.A team" "Shea, Jason, Aldis, Neil and Corey." "I put 'em through a lot." "But we're all like family now." "The movie's been released. it's done well." "But we talk often and we went through a lot to make this movie." "I really wanted to create an environment for them to ﬂourish- because a lot of these guys are new at this- and they did." "But the love you see there between these two guys" "By the end of the shoot- 'Cause this was towards the end." "A lot of that was real, man." "A lot of that was real." "That concern was real." "That's the second cough, by the way." "You can see that Eazy is slowly starting to deteriorate." "His eyes are glassy and red." "You can start to see that somethings not right with him physically." "But they buried it, and it's water under the bridge." "Now we want the group to get back together." "She is a very talented actress." "Her name is Carra Patterson, out of New York." "She's playing Tomica." "And for the short amount of screen time" "I think most all of the women did a great job, really connecting, just to counter all of the testosterone in this movie and in the music." "She did a great job catching Jason's back." "There was good chemistry there." "This is the moment where he finds out that the counting is a little off, or a lot off." "More importantly, he really knows for sure that something is just not right." "If you look really close, you'll see I made some choices visually." "I'm not gonna give that up." "When I see you next, we can talk about it." "But there's something I did visually in this scene to really capture what these guys represent." "I'll just leave it at that." "I believe this is one of Jason's stronger moments as well." "It should be. it's the end of the movie." "He's dealing with a heavyweight in Paul Giamatti." "In rehearsals, I would tell the guys, "We are a family." "It's really important that we support each other." "So if you're off-camera and you have to do a scene and you're not on-camera, you'd better give it, you'd better bring it, so that the other actor has the ability to actually perform."" "But on this day, I said, "You guys are enemies."" "I told them that separately." "More importantly, I told Jason that." "'Cause I didn't want him to walk into this loving environment and have this father figure that he's essentially going to fire." "I think that Jason and Paul have great chemistry." "Again, it's not just about a male-female thing." "When you're an artist- it's almost like music." "You have a jam session and you're working with great artists, they all can get into the same rhythm." "Although these guys are opposing each other in this scene, the chemistry is amazing." "You can see there that Jerry really cares about this guy." "You can also see that Eazy's really in pain." "But the chemistry is there." "You can feel it." "It's just magnetic." "When you have actors that make these strong choices, you don't have to do anything." "All you have to do is set up the camera and let them do their thing." "It's all in the eyes." "Just watch." "Jerry/Paul- watch his eyes." "Watch Jason and his eyes." "It's all underneath." "This is one of those scenes where you don't have to listen to the dialogue." "You can see everything in their eyes." "That's really a great sign of an amazing performer." "I believe them and I believe the relationship and I believe the pain and the hurt." "I loved working with these guys, man." "I know I'm having a moment, but these guys are amazing." "But I didn't start this." "I didn't fuck it up." "You did!" "No." "You did." "You fired, Jerry." "With Jason, it's so interesting, you can tell that he's really accessing something different than just kind of actory choices." "He's been through a lot." "He's been on the streets of New Orleans." "He's accessing real life." "That's the reason why he feels so real." "And with Paul, he's just, again, one of the best actors around alive." "And to really show the chemistry between a guy from the opposite end of the spectrum and another guy the same" "There are days I can't wait to see them come together and perform because you end up with a scene like that." "I think they were both great." "This is another one of those moments that served the theme of brotherhood." "You have Eazy who calls Dre." "You have Eazy who calls Dre." "This is one of the more vulnerable moments for a guy from the streets who has to basically say, "Hey, I was wrong." "I got love for you." "I want to do this over again." "Will you forgive me?"" "I want to do this over again." "Will you forgive me?"" "And while those aren't necessarily the words that he used, that's the sentiment." "That's what makes Jason, who plays Eazy, so endearing." "You look in his eyes and you could tell- "Man, I made a mistake."" "A lot of us sometimes, especially coming from where we come from, we need to get over ourselves." "There are times where you let your pride get in the way, especially in situations where you shouldn't." "And to be the bigger man, you gotta make the phone call." "I love this moment." "You can see Corey, who plays Dre, just lighten up and brighten up." "In the midst of all the street shit and Death Row and the tough guy stuff, these guys are just young dudes who want to create and they want to get back to basics- the love of creating and the love of their brothers." "And if you don't take anything away from this movie, you should understand that if you have people in your life that you love, love 'em while they're here, man." "Because there's just no guarantee for tomorrow." "Again, I don't want to be preachy, but that's what a lot of this means." "It's not just about hip-hop." "It's not just about gangster rap." "It's not just about Los Angeles and N.W.A." "This movie is so much bigger than N.W.A." "That's a quote from Ice Cube." "You experience the coughing, which is worse, and you're really, really hoping these guys get back together." "If you freeze the frame, coming up really soon," "I kind of indicate that the end is near." "I do that with a freeze frame of a painting right over Eazy's shoulder." "It happens right about now." "You see the gun to his head." "You see the microphone." "It's almost like the success of the music business is what also led to his demise." "I can't be sure if that's what happened, but" "I worked with my art director and my production designer to build in some of these Easter eggs." "So that for the people who love movies like this, you get a chance to see things you didn't see the first time around." "After the collapse and" "Kind of cutting to Cedars-Sinai." "This is one of the toughest moments of our shoot." "It's not only because, obviously, it's a challenge to shoot Eazy-E in the hospital and the revelation that he has AIDS, but this is the end of our production schedule." "Everyone at this point developed great and close relationships." "So when Shea or Aldis or Neil or Corey would show up and see Jason in the bed, they would have a real emotional response to seeing their cast-mate sick." "Although he was acting, these guys developed a love for each other so much so that it was really hard for them to see him in the hospital bed because" "they really developed a relationship with him." "Jason did such an amazing job capturing not only the surprise of finding out he was essentially sentenced to death" "But again, this is another one of those moments where he tapped into something very real." "I remember when- I made sure the set was really quiet." "I wanted him to really, really deliver in this moment and deliver truth in this moment." "Tears started to roll down his eyes, and you started to really understand that this is not acting." "There is something that happens when you're not allowed to express yourself, you're not allowed to cry." "And this moment right here, I think, is very personal to Jason." "All of the moments that led up to this film- living on the streets, being from the streets, having the pain of having to be a black man in America" "I think he tapped into that and he just let 'em go." "He let the tears go." "This is a real moment." "Our cast, they really had a hard time seeing him in this position because they knew there was a lot of truth in those tears." "When you have to express such a range of emotion in a movie and you nail it in the way that he did it, that's world-class." "This scene wasn't in the theatrical release." "I hate that it wasn't, honestly, because this is where he decides to marry Tomica." "There was a lot of controversy surrounding this moment." "But what I loved about it is this is where Jason goes deeper with his level of vulnerability, where he really shows that "I care."" "When you have to express such a range of emotion in a movie and you nail it in the way that he did it, that's world-class." "You see that in those performances like De Niro in Raging Bull." "I can list the performances where an actor has to really show a full range." "Jason just really nails it." "It was pretty emotional for me as well because I felt like these guys are my little brothers and I had to shepherd them along and teach them some things." "This moment right here with Neil Brown, Jr., those tears are real." "As a matter of fact, when I cut," "I had to console him because it was really hard for him to see Jason in this condition." "We all knew Jason tapped into something very real." "It's a testament to all these guys and not only their ability to perform but their ability to open up and love each other." "You don't experience that much on movies." "As hard as it was to see that," "I think we all grew personally." "And you want that, hopefully, after the end of an experience like this where you spend a few years of your life trying to make history and put an amazing story like this on the screen." "You grow professionally, but you also grow personally." "I think we all did." "Corey kind of reminds me of Denzel Washington in this scene, 'cause he has such restraint." "But the emotion and how he just covers- or tries to cover his emotion, but it's" "He's trying to hold those tears back." "It's so emotional and so real." "I love" " This is one of my favorite moments with Corey." "People are surprised when they see this level of emotion in a movie called Straight' Outta Compton." "They think they're gonna get just the thugs and the drama and the danger and the gangster rap, but" "There's a lot of emotion and pain and vulnerable moments between these guys." "I think these moments really show the humanity behind the icons." "You think about Ice Cube, think about Dr. Dre and MC Ren and Yella." "You think about the icons." "Sometimes you don't take the time to think about the human beings." "This whole section of the movie just shows you that they have feelings, contrary to popular belief." "And while" " We all grow." "We all make mistakes." "They'll be the first to admit all the stuff they did wasn't overly positive." "Some of it was, some of it wasn't, but they grew up on wax." "You understand that they're people." "I think the cast really delivered just a full range." "And they offered up something that I think surprises people." "Because you feel like, "I can identify with these guys."" "A lot of people going into the theaters felt like," ""Yeah, I'm gonna watch the N.W.A. movie, but I don't know if I can identify with a gangster rapper."" "But in a strange way, based on the reaction, a lot of people did and they do." "Again, I think that's a testament to my cast and their ability to perform." "I remember outside of Cedars-Sinai, there were thousands of people." "A lot of people loved Eazy-E and were really surprised when he passed." "This moment didn't make it into the theatrical cut." "But I like it, 'cause there's this closure here." "You see Cube, who started off as the teenager in the group." "Now he's a grown man with a family." "The same family to this day." "His wife and his kids." "Eazy won't have that opportunity to live out his life with his family." "I wanted to touch on that, because it's sad to know that he could have." "It's just a sad moment." "We wrap up the movie with the great smile." "I think this is one of the great images of Jason, who plays Eazy." "You get a sense of the man behind the music and the man behind the glasses." "That smile just says it all." "Dre going to Death Row, with the goons." "And the determination to say," ""You know what?" "Enough is enough."" "I'm out of Death Row." "I don't know how many people you know that would walk away from a successful company," "$50 million and all of the artists and all of the hard work." "But Dre just felt like," ""You know what?" "There's another life for me."" "He had the courage to walk away from all the material gain and had enough faith in himself to actually do something different." "When I talk to him, he says, "I will always bet on myself."" "And that's inspiring." "It really is inspiring." "For a guy who comes from Compton, who comes from poverty," "to make it in a capitalistic society, on top of the world, at least financially" "He just went with his heart." "Now the guy's a billionaire." "I think it was a smart move." "People ask me, "What do you want people to take away from the experience of watching this movie?"" "The truth is, I just want you to be inspired." "You can always change your reality." "You can come from nowhere." "You can come from less than nothing." "You can always create something better." "These guys are a living testament to that." "I want to thank my producers Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Scott Bernstein," "Matt Alvarez, Tomica Woods." "They worked really, really hard on providing me with what I needed in order to make this movie great." "I want to give a shout-out to Chic Daniel, our police consultant and all-around good guy." "This guy connected us with the police." "They really had such great attitude about helping us make this movie." "I want to thank DJ Yella, MC Ren, Dr. Dre and Ice Cube for allowing me to tell their story." "I definitely want to especially thank Eazy-E and his family for allowing us to tell this story." "I really want to thank my crew." "It's too many names to list, but you couldn't ask for a better crew." "My crew was off the chain, and I love you guys for helping me make what I consider my best film." "Thank you so much." "Thanks for listening."