Friday After Next Interview by: Dallas Music Guide

DMG: Last night the crowd really got into the movie at the screening here at the Lowes Cityplace. Have you seen this movie with an audience, yet?

Ice Cube: Yeah, they go crazy for it. That's what it's for - this is for pure entertainment, pure laughs. No social commentary, nothing like that. Just basically have a fun, new experience, like Christmas in the neighborhood. In California, we don't have snow on the ground - I always think that's funny because that's what I'm used to and I see all these specials on TV. Christmas shows, movies, whatever - snow everywhere. I was jealous because it didn't represent what I thought Christmas was growing up.

DMG: What about the animated opening credit sequence, did you have anything to do with that?

IC: We thought we were going to run credits over some of the pictures of Santa sneaking in, breaking in, to kind of lead you into it. But that stuff was so good nobody wanted to read during all this stuff. So we were like, "Should we put credits before the movie?" I always hate that, because you're ready to see the movie and you see three minutes of credits - that's a downer. We figured we'd have to put them in the middle, but you have to do something that builds the energy. So we decided to go with this animation thing and have our junkie little Santa Claus stealing all the names of the people that's in the movie. We started thinking it up and got more and more creative and this is what we came up with.

DMG: Did you consider directing this one at all?

IC: No. I like the role of producer because it gives me more freedom to not only do this project but to be a part of other projects. The director that worked on this, Marcus Raboy, has been working on this thing for about 14 months, engulfed in one movie. I can't really do that and keep my career at the pace that I see it going.

DMG: Previously, Raboy directed a few videos for you, but he's never done a move. Were you nervous about it?

IC: No. I've worked with first time people since I started producing movies and we're used to getting somebody and teaching them as well as creating with them and getting their energy. They're all enthused; he's been waiting 31, 32 years for this opportunity to get a chance to show what he's got with something that works already. They're a little more comfortable because they know they're a part of something that already works. All he has to do is take the torch and run with it.

Mike Epps: [Ice Cube's] there with the director, though, the whole time, whispering in his ear.

DMG: When you're writing the characters and you have it in your mind, then on paper and then when it actually starts evolving during the filming process, does it start to veer? Do the characters start to take over?

IC: Oh yeah, you look at Money Mike - our little "pimp guy". He was so good that we kept adding on to what he was. He's introduced in the beginning of the movie but by the third act, he's just running with it. We let that happen; we expect that to happen. Especially when we hire guys like Epps, John Witherspoon, D.C. Curry. When you got people like that, you've got to give them room to run. I write the scripts as a skeleton or shell or frame. I give them the idea, let them go think about it, then they come back and it's expanded and we fit it in to the movie.