-

Talk about a guy with a ton of creative accomplishments. We’d be here all day if I broke down everything The RZA has achieved over the course of his career, but with the release of his new film, Cut Throat City, we did get the chance to dig into his love of film and his journey through Hollywood pretty extensively on a new episode of Collider Connected.

cut-throat-city-image-rza
Image via Well Go USA Entertainment

The RZA went big with his feature directorial debut, The Man with the Iron Fists, an ambitious martial arts film featuring a stellar ensemble and a slew of complicated set pieces. After that, he switched gears a bit and took on the music drama, Love Beats Rhymes, and now we’re getting his third directorial effort, Cut Throat City, a gritty heist movie that shows undeniable growth and more confidence behind the lens than ever. 

The movie stars Shameik Moore, Demetrius Shipp Jr., Keean Johnson and Denzel Whitaker as a group of friends living in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, struggling to put their lives back together after the area is decimated by Hurricane Katrina. Desperate for an opportunity to make some money, they agree to work for a local gangster and attempt to pull off a casino heist.

Not only did The RZA share loads about his experience making all three films, but he also went back to the very beginning, detailing how he knew he had a next-level appreciation for cinema and also revisiting the opportunities that contributed to shaping his approach to making his own films. The RZA learned from a number of very well-known names including Jim Jarmusch, Ridley Scott, and also essentially getting a film school-like experience observing Quentin Tarantino on the set of Kill Bill: Volume 1. Here’s how he put it:

cut-throat-city-rza
Image via Well Go USA Entertainment

“I just saw in him an artist expressing something that I wanted to express and felt I could express but didn’t know how. And I humbly asked him, would he mentor me? And he’s also a music lover. We all know that; you can tell in his films. He’s actually a music producer who doesn't know how to use the equipment. And I was a director who didn’t know the craft. And the goal was to exchange this knowledge with each other. And we watched movies together, we built a friendship and when he was doing Kill Bill, he said I’m welcome to come out. I did have a small privilege of having economic freedom to fly to China and set myself up and bring a few buddies, so that’s a blessing. But, I look at it like this; I look at it like some of us get the economics to go to college, and that’s where you go and you learn. I missed college. I dropped out of high school and pursued the street life and had to get a GED and all these things. So I didn’t get a chance to go to college and study. And I think, ironically, that the economics that I would have put into college, I ended up putting into these trips with Quentin, you know what I mean? And that became my school.”

That right there is just one of many incredible stories The RZA shared about his growth as a filmmaker and his deep love and respect of the craft. Check out the full conversation at the top of this article to hear more about the video store he owned, which actor challenged him most on set, the discoveries he made in the edit room on Cut Throat City and so much more!

Cut Throat City hits theaters on Friday, August 21st.

cut-throat-city-poster

The RZA

  • 01:07 - The RZA looks back on the early moments that signaled to him that he had a deep appreciation for film; how Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino nudged him down the path of becoming a filmmaker himself.
  • 04:05 - Creatively he was ready to score Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai; the technical requirements were a different story.
  • 06:33 - The RZA reveals he actually lost his second gig scoring a film and discusses what learns from the experience.
  • 09:30 - How exactly does someone score the chance to observe Quentin Tarantino on set? (The RZA actually owned a video store!)
  • 12:41 - The RZA also highlights John Woo as a key mentor; how he continues to learn about film today.
  • 15:14 - What happened to his video store?
  • 15:52 - The RZA looks back on making The Man with the Iron Fists and knowing when to trust his vision or advice from others.
  • 18:38 - Why The RZA felt encouraged jumping into such an ambitious first feature.
  • 19:58 - Learning about the importance of fleshing out characters from Eli Roth.
  • 21:43 - Making the move to Love Beats Rhymes next; how he was inspired by the movie Flash of Genius.
  • 26:17 - Which actor challenged The RZA most on set?
  • 28:20 - Why The RZA wanted Shameik Moore for the lead role in Cut Throat City.
  • 29:27 - What it was like working on Iron Fist. How much creative freedom did The RZA have and how much did he have to adhere to what the set-up director did?
    cut-throat-city-shameik-moore-demetrius-shipp-jr-keean-johnson-denzel-whitaker
    Image via Well Go USA Entertainment
  • 31:43 - The RZA discusses why he almost gave up on 2020 and why he wanted Cut Throat City to hit theaters.
  • 34:36 - The RZA details one especially complicated shot in the movie that he calls “the Birdman shot.”
  • 36:04 - Cut Throat City features a large ensemble; which character popped during the edit process more than RZA originally expected?
  • 38:35 - How many takes does The RZA usually like to get; working on a key scene with Terrence Howard and Ethan Hawke.
  • 40:05 - One of the greatest brains The RZA ever saw work - Ridley Scott.
  • 41:06 - The RZA discusses his  collaboration with Good Humor and what it takes to create an ice cream truck jingle.
  • 43:03 - Hear about The RZA’s most boring hobby, the film he’d choose if he could only watch one over and over for the rest of his life, the skill he’d like to learn, and the fear he’s managed to overcome.