Method Man’s acting career has taken off over in recent years, and he has now shared details about how he established himself in film and television.
During an appearance on Carmelo Anthony and The Kid Mero‘s 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, the Wu-Tang Clan MC talked about getting his start in the business and how he decided to shift his focus to acting after what he called “turn-up music” overtook his brand of rap.
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“Now I’m thinking, ‘Where does that put someone like me, who’s all about the lyrics?’ … There’s no space for me anymore. Not only that, the shows were drying up to the point where you were getting 25 [thousand dollars] a show, but now it’s 15 and some places 10.
“So what do you do? You go overseas, and I’m not going to lie to you — I’m talking about from December all the way through September, I must’ve been overseas four times in that timespan, right? And it got to a point where I was like, ‘You know what? When I leave this time, when I leave here, I’m never coming back […] I’m going to find me an alternative.’”
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He continued: “Soon as I got home, I booked a plane ticket to LA. I could’ve got a hotel and all that shit, but no, I went and stayed at my manager’s house and slept on her couch with her dog, Cody […] I went on the auditions, I started my workout regiment again, I went to classes — it was a lot.
“It was getting to a point where I was like, ‘What am I doing this shit for? I’m doing three auditions a day, I’m not getting shit.’ Then I got booked [for] a movie called Keanu with Key & Peele, and from there, I mean, it’s just been snowballing.”
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Listen to the 53-year-old talk about his pivot at the 39:13 mark below:
During the same chat, Method Man also singled out baseball legend Reggie Jackson as the person he would most love to portray on the big screen.
“I want to do a biop[ic] of Reggie Jackson,” he said. “Because when I lived in the Bronx, he was king […] Mr. October, man. I mean, he had a hell of a life, hell of a career.
“I watched the documentary about him ’cause I already knew the kind of person he was, but watching that documentary – it opened up a whole new mentality for me.”
In addition to being a 14-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion over his 21 years in Major League Baseball, the Hall of Fame right fielder also helped break the racial barrier in the MLB when he started out in the late 1960s.
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Meth continued: “When we look at baseball players, we like, ‘You white’ — it’s just our assumption or ignorance or whatever. But that man was so much about his people.
“Not just about his people but equal opportunities for Black players in a game that’s older than all of us, him included, where we weren’t even invited to the table, let alone felt like we deserved a seat.”
