Ice Cube sat down for The Hollywood Reporter’s Producer Roundtable to discuss his experience making Straight Outta Compton, the box office monster about his rap group NWA.
“Seeing it about to fall apart, at many different times,” was the most painful part of making the film, Cube said. He and co-producer Dr. Dre, each brought their distinct power to the project and utilized all of their influence to keep the project together. Yet, “there were dark moments, dark times, where it looked like the movie wasn’t going to get made.”
“Nobody wanted to compromise our love for the film. Everybody felt passionate. There were a few different times where everybody was saying it’s better to walk away than to make something we’re not proud of.”
Cube said he also ran up against Hollywood’s conventional wisdom of Black films not doing well overseas, and therefore, not even trying to distribute them beyond North America. “The hardest thing for me has been to get different studios to promote, push the movie, market the movie, as wide as they can go, especially overseas,” he said. “There’s a lot of challenges to get the movies that I make overseas and get a market going.”
The full Producer Roundtable will air on “Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter” on Sunday, December 13, at 11 a.m. EST on Sundance TV.
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