"Go, go, go shawty / It's your birthday/ We gon' party like it's yo birthday." Doesn't sound like the verse of a method actor with a sympathetic heart, but it is. Thrown into fame in 2003 with ear-worm hits like "In Da Club," Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson currently stars in Things Fall Apart. The movie, which screens at the Miami International Film Festival next week, is about a rising football star who is stricken with cancer. The rapper famously lost 54 pounds to play the gaunt-faced running back, who ends up undergoing chemotherapy instead of getting drafted by the Miami Dolphins. And in addition to co-writing and co-producing the film (which is based on the true story of one of 50's close friends), the rapper-cum-actor also contributed to the soundtrack. The G-Unit general will join the movie's Miami-born and bred producer, Randall Emmett, at the March 5th screening during the film festival.
Sat., March 5, 9:45 p.m., 2011