“Nah, I was born for this,” he explained. “I’m not gonna waste nobody’s time. This is what I do — this is the same approach you would take to making an album or to directing or designing anything: You’ve got to give it your all. People judge you by integrity; that’s how you can measure someone’s principles and morals. If somebody don’t got integrity, and they’re just doing it for the check or the look or the next opportunity, it never works out for them. I promise you. That’s where the phrase ‘Cheaters never win’ comes from. When you cheat yourself in life, you never win in the end.”
Rocky opened up about the experience of sharing scenes with a man he’d grown up idolizing as an actor.
“It was like a f**king dream come true. But trust me, it was difficult to not fan the fuck out every millisecond of the f**king duration. It was crazy — it’s fucking Denzel, man. I don’t give a f**k how successful [I am]: I’m always gonna be a student and a fan of certain people, and I’m always going to give them their flowers. I’m never going to be too big to be able to say that I had to hold my composure from not fanning out.
“The first movies I really loved were Juice, Malcolm X and Michael Jackson: Moonwalker. The first time I saw him, I was watching Malcolm X.”
The big movie role comes just months after Rocky’s acquittal on gun assault charges. The Harlem native was facing two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm after he was accused of shooting at a former associate following an argument in 2021. It was also revealed this week that Rocky and his longtime romantic partner, music superstar Rihanna, are expecting their third child together.