The acting career of Common poses a very interesting paradox to his job as an MC. Getting Common on your song is an honor, as his verse is usually the most important part of any track he’s featured on.

Let’s not get into the stock value of his entire catalog – up to and including his work in progress, September’s Invincible Summer, a work that he says despite all rumors is not a follow up to Electric Circus.

Common as an actor is a man with bit parts that are slowly ensuring his status as a bona fide movie star. His roles in Smoking Aces and American Gangster were small albeit pivotal, where even in the tiniest moments, Common managed to shine.

His role in the current blockbuster Wanted is equally short in his opinion, but one of the most enjoyable to the point where he feels akin to the movie’s stars. He even has Angelina Jolie bumpin’ his music now.

On an arid summer’s day in New Mexico, Common is on location filming the new school Terminator flick Terminator: Salvation. He speaks about his acting with the same eager giddiness as he does his music. After all this time, Common can still approach his career like it’s his first day on the job.

While music holds his heart, movies are coming in a close second. A man with that much passion can take over Hollywood any day…and he plans to.

AllHipHop.com: We definitely want to hear about Wanted, but I want to discuss another role first. You know, there were two parts in Smoking Aces where I was so impressed with your acting – the scene where Jeremy Piven throws a card at your eye. You really made it like your eye was out; I thought your eye was out of commission.

Common: [laughs] Yeah.

AllHipHop.com: That was a great scene and then the soliloquy scene when you’re talking to Piven and you realized how shady he was. You really looked at him like you were ready to rip him apart. Good acting.

Common: Thank you, thank you. What’s funny is when I did Smoking Aces, when [Piven] threw the card into my eye…I can’t close my left eye completely without closing my right. So we had to put even more blood on my eye for it to look closed, which was funny to me. That’s so embarrassing I couldn’t do it, ‘cause the director needed me to keep my eye closed, but I couldn’t do it.

I was like, “Man, why can't I do this?” You know it's just one of those things your body won't let you do. Like you can do that probably, but you know how some people are double jointed? I can't close my left eye without closing my right, which I don’t understand. Guess it’s just something in the body makeup!

AllHipHop.com: How was it shooting Wanted?

Common: Wanted was one of the best experiences I had, because I was working with Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy. I was in Prague, and it was my first time being in Prague and to be there for a movie…it was like surreal in a way. Like man, I'm going to do a movie!

I've been to a lot of different places in Europe and I’ve been to Australia, I've been to Japan, but I had never been to Prague and going there doing a film - and then for me to have the opportunity to go back to Chicago to shoot some film, was like, “Dang I'm at home shooting a movie.” I would have never known I would be doing this when I was a kid, so it was a lot of fun.

Then I had days off where I would just go to these restaurants and hang out and drink a little wine or something, you know, enjoy peace of mind. It was a good experience for me. And Angelina and Morgan Freeman and James was just really like…we had a family like connection going.

Of course Morgan Freeman is the guru, one of the kings, so we look up to him like one of the greats. And Angelina is this powerful woman – powerful strong lady, talented, beautiful. She was really cool, like really making sure everything was straight and throwing me some lines, ‘cause I ain’t got a lot of lines in the movie to be honest. So when you see it, don't be surprised I don’t have a lot of lines. But she would throw me lines when she could and we were doing improv; it was just a lot of funny really.

AllHipHop.com: Wow, that’s cool. So it kind of built your improv experience as well then.

Common: It definitely continues to enhance my improv. You know coming from a Hip-Hop background, I’m used to freestyling and just being able to go spontaneous with thoughts. Even Smoking Aces we were allowed to do a little improv.

I mean, the dialogue was written somewhere so we didn’t want to change it too much, but I added a couple of things, which I was really happy about ‘cause you know when you’re right in the moment you feel a certain thing. So if you say it, and if the director likes it, that’s a good thing ‘cause that lets you know that you're really there, and you ain't just saying lines.

AllHipHop.com: Definitely, and it’s cool they give you that kind of freedom too, and trusted your ability to get into the role and stuff.

Common: With Wanted I want to say it was spontaneous…well, not so much…even though we did do some stuff with improv scenes – you know Angelina and I did some of that. It was more spontaneous with the way we would be changing. Like we would think we were coming to shoot this one scene, and then they'd change the process of the scene. They'd change the scene a little bit right then, and there so it was a lot of spontaneity in that sense of being.

AllHipHop.com: Before we saw you in Smoking Aces, American Gangster and Wanted, it would seem that with all of your music videos there was always a really in-depth story. The one that comes to mind automatically is the one with Lauryn Hill, “Retrospection for Life,” and of course your video for “I Want You,” “The Light,” and the Alicia Keys video for “Like You’ll Never See Me Again.” Everything you've done you’ve kind of been acting without acting.

Common: Yeah. I will say that my first video with Lauryn, my acting was so terrible. It was just so funny man, like it was like bad. Like it was like Lauryn was trying to teach me at the time – she was teaching me how to be natural with the acting, and she was so good at it, and I was sitting there nervous. I just couldn't get it to the level, and I always look back at that video and just laugh.

I was nervous too, because I was actually with N'Bushe Wright, who I think is a great actress, and I was just like, “Man I never done this before.” It was like going into doing something that you’ve never done before, you think it's so far away from you, but I've come to realize it's a part of me and it’s something that I love to do. I feel I was born to do this also, you know? To be an actor.

AllHipHop.com: You know, I can’t honestly say I recognized any bad acting in that video. That video was really touching.

Common: Well good, I'm glad you did 'cause I can go back and laugh at it. It was times [Lauryn] was like, “Man you gotta play drunk,” and I was already bubbly so I should have been able to play it well, but it just didn't come off right. You gotta be comfortable with what you're doing and believe in what you’re doing no matter what.

I think that was the biggest thing, I remember Lauryn taking me through a quick course of acting real quick. She started doing these things, and I was just like man this woman is incredible; she can really do it. But now I believe I can do it; now I believe in myself too.

AllHipHop.com: You kind of went right for the jugular when it came to movies. How were you able to just jump right into that next level of acting without actually starting in that breeding ground [of B-movies] that a lot of Hip-Hop cult classic actors have come from?

Common: You know, I've approached my career, my acting career, definitely as a new actor. I didn't look at like, “Man, I'm a Hip-Hop artist, making a transition.” I realize that for me to have a career in this, I can't approach it from a Hip-Hop artist perspective. I gotta approach it like, “Hey I wanna build a career and I'm a new actor, so what must I do?”

I started really years ago - going to classes when I could, in between me doing albums and touring. I would go to classes with students, like just be in there learning, and from that process just going on auditions. I tried to make sure I took on roles that would be distant from who Common is, so people could see that I am an actor and this something that I love to do and want to do and I'm capable of doing.

Movies weren't taking me on because I was a rapper. Like Smoking Aces, the director [Joe Carnahan] didn't want two artists; he already had Alicia in his movie. He didn't want his film to be looked at as one of those movies where you put artists in there. Sometimes it discredits – at least in their world – they feel that it discredits it, 'cause they got so many artists 'cause they're just using artists’ names for popularity.

So he wasn't really keen on me being in the film, but he did take a meeting with me and from the meeting I guess he thought I was cool, so he allowed me to audition. From the audition, he could see the fight that I’m capable of doing this role. So then I got a second audition, I just went in there with all my heart and soul and just gave it and he gave me the role.

Ridley Scott [director of] American Gangster didn't know who Common was. I definitely know that and the Russian director, Chiwetel Ejiofor, he didn't know who Common was either, so it was definitely based on my audition. That's what I realize: that man if Common is gonna help for me to get my foot in the door, cool, but it's not gonna get me the roles. I think even now they know that you gotta be able to do the work, and you gotta have a certain ability for people to respond to your work, regardless of who you are.

AllHipHop.com: Right, that’s like the biggest compliment you could be given – to be given a role because they didn't know about Common.

Common: Yeah, exactly. That's very much a compliment. That was an honor, and I like it like that. I like earning my role; it just makes me feel more confident. You know I'm doing a movie right now you know this is the first movie I been on that I didn't audition for. I'm definitely grateful for that method too of getting the role, but I don't mind auditioning.

AllHipHop.com: What movie is that?

Common: I'm doing Terminator: Salvation. It's like the new era of Terminator starring Christian Bale, directed by McG - that’s why I’m out here right now.

AllHipHop.com: Oh, wow so you're on location right now?

Common: Yeah. In Albuquerque, New Mexico.

AllHipHop.com: Are you shooting?

Common: I'm not shooting today, I'm just out still out here. I am finishing up my album as we speak really. I've just been riding out yesterday, just writing just finishing up. The album is pretty much done, but I just wanted to rewrite some things and just add on to a couple of things. The album is coming out in September, it's called, Invincible Summer. It's produced by the Neptunes and Mr. DJ.

There’s a song called “Announcement” and a song called “Universal Mind Control.” They’re both pretty much like out on the net - they got out there and we're about to circulate those songs. We just looking at doing things in a new way, and just putting out good music.

I feel more free now that I'm doing more movies and stuff, to just put out music that I love and I believe in and get it out there. You know you want it to reach the top of the mountain, but you're just happy people respond to it and people [are] listening, so it makes me do Hip-Hop even more for the love now.

AllHipHop.com: And there were rumors that you were going to be releasing Electric Circus 2. Is that true?

Common: No. People probably, I don't know they came up with that idea because Invincible Summer had new sounds to it and was different, and it just had that fresh sound to it and energy. So that might have been the only thing they could compare it to. I don't think the music sounds anything like Electric Circus to be honest.

AllHipHop.com: Really?

Common: I owe to myself and I owe it to the music and to the audience to give the truth wherever I'm at, and I'm at a place where I feel free. I've been going out internationally, and I was international touring with Kanye so I got to see what that vibe was and that inspired some music too. So it's like, when you get a Common album you’re gonna get wherever I am at that time and wherever I think is really fly.

That's what it's gonna be and it's that moment, that moment of time that I strive to capture from the most honest place and the most creative place and innovative place. Then you allow people to dig it if they dig it and if they don't there’s still other good music out there that they can enjoy.

AllHipHop.com: You never seem to really let us down though.

Common: Thank you. Shoot, I'm glad to hear that, 'cause you know I love making music and I've been asked, “Man, with you doing all these movies, are you gonna stop making music?” and I'm like “No, shoot, I love music!” It makes me want to make music even more, and that's it. I can do it even more for enjoyment now. So I just see myself like a jazz artist, like I will go check out jazz artists in Chicago like maybe 65-years-old playing.

In fact, I seen Max Roach in New York, the jazz drummer. I think he passed at 81, but I seen him around when he was about 77 playing, sounding good. So I don't have any limitations of what I feel I could be as an artist. I love that our generation is really taking that mentality and that idea and being like man we can do multiple things. We're the era of multi-tasking and capable of doing other things you're not gonna limit us type of people you know what I mean?

Meaning, you've seen artists who have expanded as businessmen who've expanded in their shows. You see 'em expand in acting, and you know artists doing different things and they come from a musical background. But then they go to own a team, or Kanye created a show that was like theater. Artists, we can't limit ourselves.

AllHipHop.com: Do you feel that with a lot of artists it takes the occupational pressure off once you get – I don't want to call it the side job – but when you take on stuff like a clothing line or other means of making money like acting, you can have as another career where Hip-Hop can be back to the love of it?

Common: Yeah. That's totally what it is. When you're making music and you're like okay this is my job, I love what I'm doing and I always had dreamed of this, but this is how I pay my bills and take care of my daughter, and this is how I’m able to pay my car note or whatever it may be. When you're creating at the end of the day, you can try to remove everything from your mind that this is your job, but somewhere in the back of your mind you still know that you gotta do something that's viable to the market for you to survive.

Like each album I was praying, “Man God, please let the people like it so I can continue my career,” you know what I mean? But then I started just being like I'm here and thanking God, but when you're making music and this is the way I gotta support myself, it's still in the back of your mind. So you still have to be attentive to what's going on in the music world. And with that you try to be an individual and do your best to be as unique as possible, but still have something to fit in there and I'm not even saying right now.

I think I'm up on what's going on in music to a good extent, but I'm able to just go into my own world and be an individual even more. I don't know man, it's something in your system that be like man this ain't my only way to make money so I can have more fun with it, it's just what it is.

When money becomes – like it just happened in Hip-Hop – when money became like one of the biggest purposes for making music, then you lose some of the desire for the art. You lose some of the creativity for the art, because money can drive you to do so many crazy things. It can take away from you being like, “Man, I'm about to do this fly idea and I'ma reverse the beat back.”

Then there's somebody on the release of that song that will say, “I don't think the masses is gonna feel it.” That idea might have been creative and was really pure and organic, and may not get out there because either you don't believe it can sell or somebody at the label don't believe or the radio station don't believe so it's harder to break through those barriers with that, with doing innovative things.

When you do other things [like acting] you just feel more confident like hey, people 'gon like, some people ‘gon know me now from movies than from music. Hopefully I'm providing myself and Common – the name and the brand – enough notoriety that people that's knowing me from movies will get to hear my music and be like, “Dang he's good on the music side.”

'Cause you know I definitely have come across people who didn't know my music. Like Angelina [Jolie] wasn’t. That's what I liked about her; she was real. She was like, “I wasn't up on your music” A friend of hers had told her I was like very important to Hip-Hop, which made me feel good but she wasn't up on the music and she was able to admit it. But then you know from her getting introduced to me now, she's aware of the music, she’s at least aware of Common as a Hip-Hop artist, you know? So I believe that the movie world and the music world is working hand-in-hand for me and it's good.

AllHipHop.com: Do you think you'd ever get into scoring soundtracks like RZA does for example?

Common: Ahh man, I would love to. That's like the more I get my foot in this door, I'ma get into writing, writing some scripts and definitely scoring. I'm around so many good musicians that it's like I don't have no choice but to score. Sometimes a lot of the movies I work on they always say we want a song from you or something like that. So you know sometimes they get into that, the musical supervisor, we want a song from you so you know…

AllHipHop.com: You've had a few songs that have been part of soundtracks. The most recent one was from Freedom Writers right? “A Dream.”

Common: Yeah, that was cool to be a part of something that was real positive that was real uplifting to people. When Will.I.Am and I did that, it was special for that reason 'cause like you get to say something to the shorties and speak from their voice. I had watched [Freedom Fighters] and seen what it was about, and I was like, man, let me tell it from their perspective. I'm hoping I get to do a song for the Terminator movie 'cause I looked at the first two and their music was really good, the scores was incredible.

AllHipHop.com: It seems the action movies are your thing as of recently. With your acting do you see yourself playing romantic comedies or something like that too?

Common: Ohhh man, definitely. I definitely want to do romantic comedies, love stories, drama. You know I have a big scope and vision for myself as an actor, and I've been blessed to get these roles and good movies right now with roles that are really perfect for what I'm doing. I'm aware that I need to step on first and take on a lead role and the whole movie be on my back.

I need to learn more, learn about filming the movie and what it takes, so I'm real grateful for these roles. I've been doing mostly action movies, but I'm looking forward to doing some comedy and romantic comedy and just a love story, a drama. I feel like I want my spectrum and range, 'cause I believe I have the range to act and do all those genres. I just want my range to be limitless, and all the actors that I respect you know they can do it, from Denzel to Don Cheadle to Christian Bale to Leonardo DiCaprio. These cats can do anything, you know?

AllHipHop.com: So, if there was any actor you'd kind of like to model your career after, who do you think it would be?

Common: Will Smith. Yeah, definitely because Will Smith is like the biggest movie star in the world right now. They consider him, and he's a Black man. They don't consider, “Oh we only gotta give him the Black role,” he gets roles that's colorless. He's just the biggest movie star, but he also does drama, he does action movies, he's done comedies, he's shown great acting abilities.

He goes from Six Degrees of Separation to Hitch to I Am Legend and just does all different type of things with it. Like I said, the biggest movie star in the world right now, internationally so that's what I would like to be. Wait…if I could mix Will Smith with Denzel that's what I'd like to be. [laughs]

AllHipHop.com: That's a really good combination.

Common: That's the ultimate. I would really want to be the mix between Denzel and Will Smith's careers. Those are the two.