O'Shea Jackson Jr. has been making great strides in his career, following in the footsteps of his famous father, rapper/actor/director Ice Cube.
In the trailer, his character's bandaged arm suggests that his initial encounter with the bear doesn't go well.The film is based on a true story.
He says he got the role by tweeting about the concept when director Elizabeth Banks announced she had secured the film.
"I knew from the jump once I got the call from Elizabeth," Jackson told Collider. "It's because I put out a tweet when they announced that she got the rights to Cocaine Bear. I put out a tweet praising the movie before they had even got into production, and once I got the call that like, "Hey, Elizabeth Banks wants you to be in Cocaine Bear." I knew it. The stars had aligned."
Though Jackson has now amassed a good set of credits including portraying his father in Straight Outta Compton, appearing in Den of Thieves, Just Mercy, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters, as well as the TV shows Obi-Wan Kenobi and Apple TV+'s Swagger, heading into its second season in June, Jackson was included as one of the "nepo babies" from the viral New York magazine article.He told Kelly Clarkson he wears that term as a badge of honor.
"I'm forever grateful for everything that my dad had to do to give me the opportunities that I have," Jackson said. 'If I were to run away from that or shy away from it in any way, in my eyes that's disrespectful to everything he had to go through."
On The Talk, co-host Lisa Rinna asked Jackson to respond to his father being placed No.18 on the Billboard list of the best rappers of all time. In 2023, hip-hop turns 50 and is being celebrated all year long.
"18, you know, just don't sit right with me. You know, it's like, blasphemous, especially when you really put together everything he did for the culture. Not only writing classic songs at 16, 17 that we still feel and play to this day, but also what he went on to do after rap which opened many doors for people to look at rappers as businessmen, as actors, owning the only Black-owned basketball league in America [The Big 3]. Everything he does is for the hip-hop culture, so 18...disrespectful."
Regarding other stars he looks up to, Jackson says that he was thrilled to learn from the late Ray Liotta who played his boss in Cocaine Bear.
"It was a blessing I didn't know I was going to get...," Jackson told Rinna. "When I get projects, I don't read who's going to be in it...and then when I get there it's a pleasant surprise. When we got Ray, I was so pumped because most of his scenes have me in it, and you know, I was able to go one on one with Ray.
And it's an honor...to be able to spar with somebody like Ray Liotta. It's an honor. It is so bittersweet that we don't go on this victory lap with him. But he does excellent in the movie, and he would be proud of Cocaine Bear."
"They got me training and on my regimen every day," he told Collider. "I told them that after this one, after how much they're kicking my [expletive], "I'm going straight to animation, baby. Nothing but video games and cartoons for about half a decade."
