Q: With the project ‘Mr. President’ and this stand up, do you have any sort of director attached or timeframe for these projects?

Uh, with the stand up? Yeah, well we’re talking to Brett about directing the stand up movie and I am gonna go on tour late September, all of October, right after the movie comes out I want to jump on the road and tour a little bit. 

Q: So, the stand up movie would follow you everywhere?

Yeah, it will be behind-the-scenes, but mainly be my live stand up on stage and I have a lot of behind-the-scenes too, and I want to do a little something different, maybe film some scenes for the movie, but a couple surprise stuff. 

Q: Are there any superhero roles you’d like to take a crack at?

Yeah, I’ve looked at a couple.  I’ve been thinking about Flash maybe or Green Lantern, I heard he was black, so maybe Green Lantern or somethin’, I dunno. Something fun.

Q: Do you mind if I ask where the bracelet is from?

Well the bracelet is from a really good friend of mine who died of leukemia.  She was like a sister and I met her through her family, through her father and her brother and her mother and we’re actually dedicating the movie to her. It’s Britianna Henderson.  She came to the set a few times, right before she passed this year. And so, I just keep it on in remembrance, but this movie is definitely dedicated to her because she always loved the ‘Rush Hours’

Q: How was the language barrier? Did you learn any French?

Oui, parlez vous, oui, oui…(Laughs.)  I tried. I tried. It’s hard. I’m still learning English, so I’m trying to get that down first, but the coach was good especially when you stay at the George Saint Hotel. They treat you like heaven there.  It was great. I had no problem, but the French love to say no. I was late to get on my plane at the airport and they love to say no. ‘Non, non. It’s not possible. Non. I cannot do it, it is impossible! Non, non!’ (Laughs.)

Q: What will your stand up routine be about?

I would love to talk about working with Jackie, people love to hear about that. People love to hear about making movies – my early movie ‘Friday,’ they love that when I talk about that, and also being a father now. I have an 8-year-old son and how that changed me and how that is and growing up and different things. And how it is being famous now. How different it is.

Q: How did fatherhood change you?

Fatherhood? Fatherhood changed me in a way like, you, it take awhile to realize you’re a father, it’s like, ‘I’m a father. Somebody’s depending on me.’ So, it’s like, it’s different, but it changed me in a good way because it opens you up and it really opens up a different side of you and you have to, you really have somebody depending on you. Be more cautious and also, you know, being famous, I took it as a responsibility, because I didn’t want to lead kids down the wrong way and give out the wrong advice, because people really do look up to you and say, ‘Well, if he does it, it’s OK.’  And you gotta take that into consideration. Kids are watching and even adults.  They like you enough they say, “Well, he’s an alcoholic, I can drink too. That’s cool.’ You don’t want to put out bad things.

Q: Does your son want to be a comedian like you?

Um, I dunno. I think he might want to do it, he’s in this movie. He’s in the Karate scene. You might have seen him. He’s the only black kid in it.  (Laughs.) With the pretty smile, so he might want to do it now that he’s got the bug. We’ll see after tonight, I think he’s gonna have the bug.

Q: Where do you see your career going?

I think more developing and producing and directing, because like I said, I’m involved with the script and a lot of people don’t know how I look at it and I say, ‘Let’s make this work like this. Let’s go to Paris.’ Y’know, I don’t have a producer credit on this movie, because I don’t need it, but I’m involved with making it make sense. A lot of my projects, because I feel like I like to participate. Even if I’m wrong, I just want to keep throwing ideas and eventually we’ll get it. So…

Q: What do you think would be the weirdest country for Carter and Lee to end up in?

Russia. Dubai. I like Dubai, because it’s a new city, you’ve never really seen people film there yet.  Somewhere fresh.

Q: What’s the most amazing thing that you’ve seen Jackie do stunt-wise?

Oh, man, I have seen him do crazy, crazy stuff. Jumping and swinging and…y’know, I like the way he has a vision about something. He’ do a shot, cut, cut, cut, cut – he knows all the shots and he’ll do them all and you’ll see them all cut together and you’ll go, ‘Whoa. That’s sweet.’  Because you didn’t expect it, you didn’t know where it was going.  I like his vision. 

Q: Would you ever do another ‘Friday’? Ice Cube always says he wants you.

I know, you know what, everybody wants me to do another one, but I always like to leave movies. Y’know, do a good job and y’know people really like it and I think that movie is like a cult classic and I don’t ever want to mess it up, so I’m gonna leave it alone because, especially now, I want to keep moving on and doing something different. ‘Rush Hour’ is different because it’s action/comedy and those type of movies you can keep doing them in different locations, but ‘Friday’ is sort of a special move because we filmed in 20 days. It took us 20 days to film, that’s no time and a million, $2 million.  Low budget, considered a low budget movie and it was independent and New Line picked it up.  So all we had, we had this one street. And all we had was to try and make something funny on this one street and all this stuff, so I think for me, I probably wont’ do another one, but they have done two or three more, but I dunno. I don’t think I’ll do another one, no.

Q: Any interest in a romantic lead or drama?

Yeah, I want to do it all, because I think my fans haven’t seen other sides of me or other sides of me. They’ve seen me do ‘Dead Presidents,’ which [was] a smaller part – the Hughes Bros., ‘Fifth Element’ – spaced out character, so I’ve got a lot of range. And action, drama, action/comedy, a lot of comedians can’t do all that, they don’t have that much range, so I can pretty much do it all, so I’m ready to do it.

Q: What about writing and directing?

Yeah, writing and directing. I want to do that because I feel like I’m already sort of doing the writing and sort of pitching in ideas. Directing would be something I could do too, but with the right people around me, because it’s a lot of responsibility.

Q: Luc Besson said he’s working on a new Sci-Fi trilogy.  Would you consider working with him again?

Oh yeah, I’ve been trying to work with him. 

Q: You’re worked with Luc and Brett and it’s just them for a while. I figure if it’s not going to be Brett, than maybe Luc.

Oh yeah, Luc was somebody who I felt was a great director, because he created that character and knew what he wanted and he directed me and got the best out of me and what he wanted, so I really enjoyed working with him and I like creating a relationship with a director, but there are a lot of great directors out there who I would love to work with. New, up and coming directors, established directors like Steven Spielberg, I’m always bugging him like ‘What you got coming out?’ (Laughs.)

Q: What did you think the whole brotherhood theme added to the movie?

I think it added that we definitely – we really cared about each other, because we really grew on each other. So, I think that made people say, ‘Oooh, they really like each other.’ It was a bond that we had that sort of just happened and we realized it when we were separated. And I think the audience, they felt that.

Q: Doing some more traveling?

Yeah, I definitely want to keep traveling and hopefully making movies and traveling at the same time.  Making movies and being somewhere on the other side of the world. I think that would be fun.