Mario Van Peebles said he was drawn to the film “All Things Fall Apart” due to “curiosity.” “I’m interested to see what the universe brings,” he said. He was highly interested to see what kind of energy Curtis Jackson, better known to the rest of us as “50 Cent,” would bring to the leading role of Deon, a collegiate football player who develops cancer and has to face his mortality.

“I was interested to see how he [Jackson] would get there [in character] as an actor,” he said. Once Van Peebles took the reins of director as well as the role of “Eric,” he learned just how much acting talent Jackson has. “I told him, ‘You’re gonna be unarmed,’ and he was ready. It was a little like going to battle…there was never a day where he held me up.”

Van Peebles said there are certain amounts of 50 Cent and certain amounts of Jackson in Deon. “The Curtis I met has some of that [rap persona],” he said. “There’s an ease that he has with people. It’s reflected in Deon in how he moves through the crowd and how men want to be him and girls want to get with him.”

“There’s probably some Curtis [in Deon] that we don’t know,” he said. Van Peebles talked about a scene in which Deon, who is now sickly thin. Jackson said his lines, but then he threw in something else that added a whole other level. “He said, ‘Why is God doing this? I didn’t do nothing.’ That came from another place. I’m glad that I know, as a director, when to get out of the actors’ way and let them do their thing. Even as an actor, I just get out of the way. The best part of acting is reacting.”

Van Peebles hopes viewers of the film take away the idea of reaffirming their lives. “There’s a life-affirming quality [the film],” he said. “Most fear is death-based. Once you’ve made friends with death, there’s no fear. There’s something in that–the admission of mortality, and…learning something positive is one step toward immortality.”

“All Things Fall Apart” will be out on DVD Valentine’s Day.

Written by: Monique Jones