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You'd think the hardest part about making a biker flick like "Torque" would be the high-speed action sequences and death-defying stunts. But Ice Cube had stuntmen for that. No, as MTV News' Shaheem Reid recently found out, the most difficult thing for Cube was staying upright on his bike when traveling at low speeds. But that's a cakewalk compared to swimming with crocodiles and piranhas.
MTV: In "Torque" you play the leader of a biker gang. Are you already experienced with bikes, or did you have to learn how to ride?
Ice Cube: Well, little dirt bikes, little stuff like that, but nothing as big as those crotch rockets we were on. We went through the whole thing with the stunt riders, the racers, the instructors, the trainers and it gave me the training and tricks of the trade on how to handle that machine. You know, make sure I don't get no road rash. Nobody wants the road rash.
MTV: Did you pick it up quickly?
Cube: It was easy. Every day we just progressed more and more and did more things. We went faster and faster, more maneuvers. You know, it's really the slow riding that's the hardest. Part of riding a motorcycle is riding real slow and maneuvering through vehicles 'cuz the bike wants to lie down, and the motor, when you give it gas, it keeps it up. That was the thing we was working on. We knew there would be a lot of camera equipment, a lot of people and things we would have to maneuver around.
MTV: What attracted you to the script? It's a lot different than "Barbershop" and the other movies you've done recently.
Cube: I just knew it was gonna be crazy. I knew with Neal Moritz, who produced "The Fast and the Furious" and "XXX," my man Joseph Kahn, who's done a thousand videos — he even did a video for me in '96 or '97 — I just knew them two together [would be hot.] ... And I knew couldn't nobody play Tre like me, so I just had to convince them and they were like, "Yeah, you're right."
MTV: What was it like on the set?
Cube: Everybody was there to work. What was cool was we trained together, as far as on the motorcycles, so the camaraderie was there where it had to be and it all felt authentic. But what's so cool about this movie, you know, we don't take ourselves too seriously. It's damn near like a video game. Joseph wanted to make it like that.
MTV: One of the things people in Hollywood are loving about you is that you're not just an actor, you write scripts, produce, you are involved with the casting. How is it to be in a movie where you're not so heavily involved?
Cube: When you can trust the people that are making the movie, it's fun, it's different. I feel a little guilty saying it's easy, but you know, it is. When all you gotta do is show up, do your part and hang out, the stress level is like nothing. When you're producing and you're acting and you wrote the script, it's kinda like you're a three-headed monster. Just because you finished your shot, that don't mean you just go and disappear. You gotta stay there and make sure all the shots are coming out good. It's just a different thing and more work, you know? I like both 'cuz I'm a creative dude anyways, so I'm just saying when you go to act, it's just easier.
MTV: Are you into doing your own stunts? There's a scene in "Torque" where you jump off a train.
Cube: That wasn't me. If I would've jumped off that train, the people at Warner Bros. would've gone crazy — "What you got him jumpin' off trains for?"
MTV: Do you wish you could do more of your own stunts?
Cube: I want to do whatever it's gonna take to make the movie look good. I ain't trying to be Jackie Chan around here at all. I just want to do whatever it's gonna take to look good. If it's gonna look better with me doing it, I'll do it, you know what I'm saying? But if we can get away with somebody else getting those bumps, bruises, scrapes, scars, broken limbs, you know, pay the man.
MTV: What's the craziest thing a director has ever wanted you to do?
Cube: Get in the water in Brazil, doing "Anaconda." I mean actually get in the river, the real river. I'm like, "This alligator don't know we're making a movie. That damn piranha don't give a f--- about us making a movie, you know what I mean? Man, I'm not getting in there." So it was like a two-hour talk. I put on like five wetsuits, it was crazy, but I had to do it. That was the craziest thing somebody asked me to do. So if you see "Anaconda" and I'm in that water and I look scared, you're damn right!
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Photo: Richard Foreman
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