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'Ray is the most intense person I've ever worked with'
Tyrese Gibson and Christopher Ammanuel recently joined Audacy Atlanta V-103’s The Big Tigger Morning Show with Jazzy McBee to discuss their new film 1992, working with Ray Liotta, and more.
LISTEN NOW: V-103's Big Tigger Morning Show — Tyrese & Christopher Ammanuel of ‘1992'
“So listen, y'all, we got a movie called 1992,” Tyrese expressed, going on to introduce newcomer Ammanuel, “Chris plays my son, and there's a lot of tension between me and his brother throughout the movie because he don't understand what he don't understand.”
Adding, “And that's what y'all need to understand about what you don't understand, you understand?”
Getting serious after that, to discuss the movie, Tyrese explained, “the movie is about the 1992 riots. Y'all remember that really, really traumatic experience.” Adding, “I won't just say it was traumatic for us as Black and Brown culture, it was traumatic for everybody to watch that footage of them beating Rodney King, beating that man, black and blue, literally killed him, brought him back to life. They got so tired while they was beaten, they were taking turns.”
Going on to say, “So instead of Ray Liotta, rest in peace, and his crew caring about what was actually going on on April 29th, 1992, they decided to break into a warehouse and steal 50 million in platinum bars out of a safe.”
“So it's a heist movie… You’re gonna see about three minutes of riot and looting in the movie because that's what happened when we got mad… But while they was riot and looting, they looked at that as a distraction and said, well, if you call 911, it's probably gonna take them about 4-5 hours to show up.”
In addition to a heist movie, the film also has the father/son relationship. Explaining the dynamic between their two characters in the film, Tyrese said, “So Chris is my son, he’s in my life,” noting “not gonna give that part away but he's in my life suddenly after I wasn't in his life, and he don't wanna listen, just like the rest of these youngsters out here.”
Tyrese also mentioned he was actually present for the 1992 riots, revealing “I was really scared. I mean, it was about five weeks of not seeing the sun. There was so much smoke and soot in the air, ashes was all over the cars. Anything in your whole neighborhood, your house, your grass, your streets all covered in ashes because it was so many things burning, you know, so many whole neighborhoods looting, rioting, it was crazy.”
Though having had experienced the riots first hand, Tyrese expressed, “I would have never did this movie if it was a movie about riot and looting.”
“I did this movie because of the father/son dynamic," Tyrese said, shifting his index finger back and forth between him and Chris. “Because of the father/son dynamic with Ray Liotta and Scott Eastwood.”
“They're all goons… they rob banks… they do heists,” he said of Liotta and Eastwood’s characters. “They was like, ‘while y'all Black and Brown people mad at what happened with the verdict, we about to go get this money.’” Calling the movie “the most diverse film that's ever happened out of South Central LA.”
Go down the list — Colors, Menace II Society, Boys n the Hood, Poetic Justice, Baby Boy, Training Day, Straight Out of Compton. "You've never seen as many white people in one South Central LA film.”
“And you know, only I can say this,” Tyrese nonchalantly added, “this is The Fast and the Furious of South Central movies, with that much diversity, and I'm proud of that. Because normally when you have Black culture and Black topics, if white people is in there in the hood it’s normally them just being police officers doing bad things to us. So this is a movie I'm very proud about.”
“But all jokes aside," Tyrese explained that actor Christopher Ammanuel, is "definitely the future, people are gonna be blown away when they see this young brother and what he's bringing.”
Talking about the project from his perspective, Chris said, “We knew what was ahead of us when we got there. I think just reading the script, we kind of already had this preset position on how we are to show up on set and translate this relationship. This very unfortunate relationship, but familiar relationship to the audience… and we jump straight into it, improving scenes, rewriting things, trying to make it work, trying to make it feel as dysfunctional as possible because that's what it is.”
Chris continued sharing his intentions to “pull out Tyrese’s best performance out of him ever,” as well as talking about what it was like to work with the late Ray Liotta. “Ray is the most intense person I've ever worked with and I've worked with some intense people including him.” Noting, “Ray didn't talk to me for two weeks, because he method acts, so he, rest in peace, he locks in and if he doesn't like you in the story, he don't like you in real life until he likes you.”
The pair continued conversing about the film, sharing a couple behind-the-scenes stories. Tyrese opened up about being in tune with his emotions, shared his views on relationships, and more. To catch it all, check out the entire interview above.
1992, in theaters August 30. Watch the trailer below.