During Jackson’s appearance onThe Kelly Clarkson ShowThursday, the actor — son of rapper and actorIce Cube— told host Kelly Clarkson and fellow guest Keri Russell that he is “forever grateful for everything that my dad had to do to give me the opportunities that I have.”
“If I were to run away from that or shy away from in it in any way, in my eyes that’s disrespectful to everything he had to go through,” Jackson, 31, said, when prompted to share his perspective on the ongoing conversation concerning “nepo babies.”
“He didn’t work as hard as he did for me to not accept and appreciate it,” theCocaine Bearactor added of his father, who rose to fame as a member of the Los Angeles-based rap group N.W.A. in the late 1980s. Jackson, in turn, got his big break as an actor when he played Cube, now 53, in 2015’sStraight Outta Compton.
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“A lot of people, when they see me, naturally [they say], ‘Hey, you’re Ice Cube’s son.’ You’re damn right I am, 100%, that’s my hero. That’s my coach,” the actor said. “At the same time, the door can be open but you gotta walk through.”
“I have a lot of people, they have an idea of what I’m going to be before I get to any set because of their idea of what my dad is,” he added, noting that people assume he acts “entitled” due to his father’s status.
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“They think I’m coming to set feeling entitled, or I feel like I need to have ‘a posse’ of 15-20 people with me, straight rap stuff,” Jackson said. “But no, I’m here to work. I pride myself on my professionalism.”
“After that it was up to me, he couldn’t hold my hand through my career,” he wrote on Twitter at the time. “I had to get my a– up and make it work.”
At the same time, Jackson wrote that that none of his success “happens that way without the love of my father,” and wrote that he would be “foolish and disrespectful” to ignore the opportunities granted to him as a result of Cube’s success.
Jackson’s new movieCocaine Bearopens in theaters Friday.
source: people.com
