Ludacris Proves His Range With Roles in ‘Fast X’ and ‘Crash,’ Creator Credit on Netflix’s ‘Karma’s World’
variety.comA.D. Amorosi In November 2001, Ludacris was set to release his third album, “Word of Mouf.” At the same time, however, his debut on film, “The Wash,” was also about to hit theaters.
Luda’s role in the DJ Pooh-directed comedy starring Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg was small. But “The Wash,” along with his goofball antics in several of his music videos (“if you do them right, videos are like acting reels,” he says), put Luda in front of major league filmmakers such as the late John Singleton and Paul Haggis.
In back-to-back films, the rapper became a movie star as Tej Parker in 2003’s “2 Fast 2 Furious,” followed in 2004 by the Oscar-winning “Crash.” Some 30 more movies would follow. “The theatricality of my videos, my image — it was a bit of transition, going into acting, playing myself playing the Ludacris persona,” says Luda, credited in film as Chris Bridges. “But ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’ was a great way to start, because the year after was when ‘Crash’ came along.
And now, I was able to get further away from the ‘Ludacris’ that people knew me as. I knew that I wouldn’t get any recognition as an actor if I didn’t act different from that persona. ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’ gave me a name in film, but ‘Crash’ — a serious, dramatic Oscar-winning film — changed the game for me.
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