Usher sings his praises for In The Mix

He’s a singer, dancer, and now actor – Usher. The R&B star is hanging up his vocal talents for the big screen in his first starring role In The Mix. This is Usher’s fifth film, but debut lead.

In the film, Usher plays up and coming New York DJ. Growing up, he lost his mother and father early in life, so he was brought up ‘in the family’ with one of the top mob bosses in the city. When the boss (Chazz Palminteri) has a party for his daughter (Emmanuelle Chriqui), shots ring out and Usher takes a bullet meant for Chazz. Not feeling his daughter is safe, Chazz hires Usher to be her body guard.

Usher actually plays two roles on this film – actor, and executive producer. One thing he was very proud of:

Usher: “For me, I take pride in everything I do and be involved in everything; my input was respected. They wanted me to be involved in the decision making. It was work as well, from making sure that the script was at 100 percent before we started, making sure we had the right cast of people together, making sure we had the right director - all of the very important decisions.”

For Usher, what was the best and worst part of being producer and actor:

Usher: “Being an executive producer is actually ok because you're part of a committee, you're not the only person who's making decisions; but at the end of the day, if you're not cool with it, you don't move forward. It made it a lot easier for me because I didn't plan on being there for each and every issue or problem; when they needed me, I was there to help. If I noticed something and I had a comment about a specific actor - which I never did - the entire cast was beautiful. I say that this is probably one of the best casts I ever worked with out of the five films I've done.”

The story seemed to revolve around a culture Usher is familiar with - dance, but it turns out, he wasn’t at all the focus of the original script:

Usher: “It was presented to me from my agent as something I could be involved in as an executive producer. We didn't have a cast associated with it when I got the script, but there were a few people that we had in mind. Lions Gate, as well as myself, put together a collection, we began to do some screen tests, like for my lead, Emmanuelle Chriqui. We did a few interviews, but after our screen test, it was undeniable; we had such chemistry that it worked. Yeah, or the kiss, it was one of the two.”

Going against a strong competition this week at the box office doesn’t worry him at all – and there’s a benefit, he says – you get to see him with his shirt off:

Usher: “I've always been taught to be optimistic, I kind of look at the pros, you know? Thanksgiving weekend, kids 5 to 80 can see the film, I'm taking my shirt off. (laughs) It worked for me last time, it should work for me this time. I don't allow myself to feel that kind of pressure. I'm not going to even say ‘if.’ As an actor, you look for the right roles; if you have a good one, you have a good one. You continue to try to find the next best one, if you have one that's not as successful than you expected; it is carving who you are as an actor, and gives people a point of reference.”

But there is one thing missing from Usher – his singing. He doesn’t belt a note, but that was his own personal choice:

Usher: “I decided that I would not sing or perform. There's this one little scene at the end where I'm kind of clowning around, it's not me really dancing. They begged me ‘Please just do it once, just dance.’ ‘I don't really want to dance, I'm here to act; and I'm not Usher, I'm Darrell Williams, you've got to deal with that.’ I don't think they'll be disappointed, there'll be other films. It's not the only one, this is definitely going to be the one that I stand beside and I stand behind. My ultimate goal is to be associated with entertainment in every aspect possible - as a dancer, as a singer, as well as an actor and even a producer - that's a quadruple threat. That's the one thing that maybe Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Ben Vereen and Sammy Davis Jr. forgot. I figure I want it, so I might have something.”

The quadruple threat is right, and now he can say, he’s done it all. In The Mix hits theaters Wednesday, November 23; it’s rated PG-13.