|
|
|
Hype: Omar Epps After crashing and burning with costars Claire Danes and Giovanni Ribisi in the 1999 megaflop The Mod Squad, Omar Epps would have had every right to despair that he'd just blown the career momentum started back in 1992 with his star-making turn in Juice. But Epps has a will of iron and enough confidence for two careers--literally. With his movie career back on track after the well-received Love and Basketball (in which he starred with now-girlfriend Sanaa Lathan), he turned up the volume on his musical persona. Epps's rap group, Society X, will release its debut disc on Priority Records this summer. "In a couple of years, I'm hoping to have both industries by the balls," he jokes, but adds, "I'm not some muthafucka who picked up a mike yesterday. Hip-hop is part of my culture and music is something I've done for a long time. When you hear the album, that's undeniable." While the rapper Epps is on the air, the actor Epps will be on-screen in Brother, a film about the Japanese mob directed by cult favorite Takeshi Kitano. Then he'll be playing an FBI agent in the fall alongside Rene Russo in Barry Sonnenfeld's comedy Big Trouble, as well as taking on the fashion industry in the upcoming Perfume. Epps credits his mother, an elementary school principal, for his ability to apply will and energy to the task of overcoming the inevitable difficulties of an entertainment career. "She's a strong, colorful woman who gave me love and encouragement," he beams. "However," he laughs, "she wasn't too happy when I told her I wanted to act instead of going to college. We had a beef the summer I filmed Juice, right up until the premiere." Obviously, Epps prevailed. "She sat next to Diana Ross at the premiere. Afterward, she said, 'Well, you can always go to school, baby. Do what you have to.'" --Michael Moses |
|
|
|
But unlike many headline-grabbing actresses, Jolie is even more interesting on-screen than off. The dangerously screwed-up beauties she has played in George Wallace, Gia, Playing by Heart, Pushing Tin and Girl, Interrupted have all been tangible, believable creations. In her first big-budget thriller, The Bone Collector, she easily matched the skill and intensity of Denzel Washington. She's likely to stun audiences as the take-no-prisoners action heroine Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, a fantasy adventure adapted from the video game by director Simon West (see story on p. 54). And who isn't looking forward to watching her later this summer when she plays the sex-obsessed femme fatale who enraptures Antonio Banderas in Original Sin? When Angelina Jolie greets me for this interview, she strikes me as someone fully capable of doing all that she has done offscreen and all that she's expected to do on-screen as Lara Croft. She's dressed in a black T-shirt and black leather jacket, and she looks like she might throw a mean right if provoked. "Call me Angie," she says, reaching out to shake my hand. I can tell she is indeed something like her father--intense, focused. And I have little doubt that, like her father, she'll be original in her thinking. For Lawrence Grobel's interview pick up the June issus of Movieline. PAGE 1 | 2 |