Rza on his new film ‘One Spoon of Chocolate,’ And His Growth As A Filmmaker: “I HONESTLY FEEL LIKE I HAVE Arrived”

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Before Making His Fourth Feature Film, The Action Revenge Thriller One Spoon of ChocolateLegendary rapper and musical Producer Rza Was Still, He Confesses, Unsure of HimSelf As A Filmmaker, Feeling That Hadnn’T Yet Masted The Process Least not to the Same Comfort Level Had with Music.

After scaling the heights of hip hop as the de facto head of the wu-tang clan, arguable the most influential rap group, rza has found increasing success in Film and Starred in Films Like American Gangster (2007), Gi Joe: Retaliation (2013) and Nobody (2021) and series like Californiation – and more significantly with writing and de director. His Directorial Debut, 2012’s The man with the ron fistsStarred Oscar-Winner Russell Crowe, Dave Bautista and Lucy Lu. Rza followed that with Love Beats RhymesA Musical Drama Starring Azelia Banks, In 2017 and The Heist Film Cut Throat City In 2020.

Rza also served as an Executive Producer on Hulu’s Biographical Series Wu-Tang: An American SagaWHICH DOCUMENTED THE RISE OF HIS STATON ISLAND RAP CREW, THAT GAVA THE WORLD the Singular Talents of HimSelf, Raekwon, Method Man, Gza, Ol ‘Dirty Bastard, Ghostfececececececece Inspectah Deck.

Now Comes Rza’s Four Film As A Director, One Spoon of ChocolateWHICH DEBUTED AT TRIBECA Festival This Year, and Will, Account to the Filmmaker, have a theatrical release at a still to be conFirmed date.

One Spoon of Chocolate Tells The Story of Unique, A Military Veteran and Former Convict Who Is Trying To Trust His Life Back Together and Travels to The Small Tount of Karensville to Live His Karensvil. by a gang of racists with Connections to the Town’s Corrupt Cops. After a fatal incident, Unique Seeks Out the Gang to Exact Brutal Justice.

The Film Stars Shameik Moore (Dope, Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse) As Unique and RJ Cyler (The Book of Clarence, The Harder they Fall) As ramsey. The Cast Also Includes Paris Jackson, Harry Goodwins, Johnell Young, Michael Harney, RockMond Dunbar, E’Myri Crutchfield, Blair Underwood, Jason Isbell An Isaiae.

The Hollywood Reporter caught up with the rza over zoom recently to Discuss the Making of One Spoon of ChocolateHow Writing Scripts Mirrors His Method for Writing Lyrics, His Growth As A Filmmaker and His Future Plans.

Let’s Start with The Film’s Title. Could You Explain What One Spoon of Chocolate means? Is there a Deeper signification?

With the Title, There’s A Deeper Meaning in the Sense of Our Character Has to Learn the Way Things Need to Be, The Way Things Change. One Spoon of Chocolate Can Change A Whole Glass of Milk, You Know What I Mean? That’s the Idea. A Character Has to Realize that, First of All, He Represents Change and He Has to make a Change within HimSelf. There’s a scene in the film [where the character Unique is trying to make chocolate milk] and he’s complaining that is only One Spoon of Chocolate Powder Left. But An OG Tells HIM ‘ONE SPOON COULD CHANGE THE WHOLE GLASS.’

I KNOW One Spoon of Chocolate Is Something You Have Been Working on For A Number Of Years, In Terms of The Story of The Film, How did the that Come About? What Inspired you to come up with the overall themes?

IT CAME TO ME LIKE, MAN, Over The Years. I MEAN, IT WAS 13 YEARS OF GETTING TO A POINT OF FINALLY HAVING A SCREENPLAY THAT WE COULD FILM. To be quite Frank with You, The Movie Is Like 100 Pages of A 200 Page Story, and It Came to Me Almost Like How My Lyrics Come, Not Forced Out of Me, Just Flowed. It was someting that [I needed time] for me as an artist to create. WHEN I TRIED TO CREATE IT BEFORE, I WAS Getting Stuck. I Got Inspired to Make It, [but then got stuck again]. But then doing the New York State of Mind Tourtraveling on a Tour Bus and Traveling Through The Country During the Writer’s Strike, I Was Like, ‘I’M Gonna Write Something.’ I Started Writing Something New And It Just Kept Freezing and THEN I WENT BACK AND STARTED READING Some of My Old Stuff and[[One Spoon of Chocolate]I Said, ‘Wow, This Was The One!’ I HAD ABOUT 40 Pages. I said ‘this one was gonna be good.’ I HAD GOT TO Part In [Karensville, a fictional town in the film]basically, in the early draft, and then it just started flowing.

I Read That Originally You Were Going To Do A Period Piece, That It Was Going To Be Set Earlier, Like In The 70s or AROUND THAT Period, But Actual you MOVED 90

WELL, ACTUALLY, I MADE The TIME AMBIUS. It Was Always Going to Be AmbiguS, but for the Audience It Was Going Feel Like You Were In The 90s or The 70s and All that. The Whole Blaxploitation Vibe, The Whole Genre Mixing Was What I Was Aiming at, But My Goal And My Intenation Was To Remove the Time Aspect. This Could be HapPening Right Now, Even Thought Karensville Is A FICTIONAL PLACE, The IDEA OF WHAT OUR HERO IS GOING to GOOGH, THAT COLD HAPPEN TOMORRROW, IN All Reality. WHEN I STARTED GETTING DRAFT, DRAFT, [when we were on tour] I was just conscious there are places that you [could be in]In Our Country, and You Will Definitely Think You Took A Step Backwards in Time. That’s how will you’re on tort, you get a chance to see that. You End Up Stoping Somewhere in a Small Town and You’ll Go ‘Wow, This Place, They 20 Years Behind Us, 30 Years Behind Us.’

With the Film, you’ve broght in these ideas that seem quite nostalgic, Throwback Even, But You’re Saying That Actual Quite Real and Relavent To America Even Now?

Oh yeah. You Know, Some of the Things That Take Place In Our Film, There’s Been Articles [written on them]. There exists of the idea of, let’s just call it the white supremacist Mind, that our hero had to Fight the Political Context of. You Know, There’s A Gag in My Film WHERE The Villains Have on Those White Polo Shirts and Khaki Trousers That We Saw in Charlottesville [during the Unite the Right white supremacist rally in August 2017]. Art is Always Going to Somehow Imitate Life and Pull From Reality Even Thought Thought Is Putting You Into A Fiction World. [The film is] Fiction, but is inspired by True Events, Whtcher they be events that and personally experienCed, like the Corruption in the Film. I’m a lyricist type of artist. You Hear [Wu Tang] Lyrics Like: “I Grew up on the Crime Side, The New York Times Side, Staying ALIVE WAS NO JIVE, ”There’s A Lot of Content in It and Taking Life and Putting It Into A Story. This Is What’s Happy ‘ Feet, He’s in A Place Whote Things Are Not Normal.

Actually, on’s interesting to me what you’re saying that is not normal, as there was a hyperreal Sense to the Film. Some of the Fighting Was Quite Amousing But Also Quite Serious at the Same Time.

IT’s A MOVIE, LIKE IT HAS TO ENTERAIN YOU. To be quite frank, The First Goal of this Movie is to Entertain You and to Make You Feel Something. I HOPE I’VE ACHIEved this. You’re going to not want to Turn your head away. You’re going to root for this guy. You will Want to Say, ‘Well, How Is He Going to Make It Fucking Through This,’ You Know What I Mean? I Make This Joke About Bats, Our Villains Got All These Fucking Baseball Bats, But I Had Them All Lined Up Like A Swat Team Wound Have Their Guns Lined Up. To me as an artist, you got to have fun, Even Thought something of the things happering to do our Characters is no jocking Matter.

What Made You Decide to Avoid Having As Many Guns in the Film, Because It’s Obvious That Action Is Steved To More Physical Things Like Knives And Bats?

IT’s A DELBERATE STYLE CHOICE. I’m a kung fu movie lover, and if somebody gt a gun, there’s no need for a fist Fight, Right? But Guns Exist [in this world]SO and WASCIUS to PACE The USAGE OF THE GUNS, NOT OVERDO IT.

This is your Second Time Working with Shameik?

My Second Time In Features, But My Third Project with HIM, HE ALSO PLAYED RAEKWON IN MY TV Show, Wu-Tang: An American Saga.

What is it about him that you like work with him? What Are The Qualities of Him As An Actor?

He’s What I Like to Call A Spong. He’s able to absorb the material with a Free Spirit. WHEN WE DID OUR FIRST MOVIE We DID TOGETCHER, Cut Throat City, He Told Me Never Held A Gun Before, He Grew Up As An Artist. He dans, he sings and acts. He’s not a streets guy, and so he didn’t even know how to hold the gun. And I was like like, ‘Well, this is how you hold the gun. This is how you load it. ‘ And the Next Take He Held It, Loaded It. It LOOKED REAL. He Shot It, It Looked Real. He’s A Spong and for Me As A Director, and A Writer, You Wanna Have An Instrument that Allows the Music to Flow Through UninTruded and Uninterrupted, and He’s that Kind of Kid.

You Also Worked with Paris Jackson on this film. I’ve not seen her in many Things before acting Wise, was it interest to work with her as an actor?

Yeah, Very Interesting. I Got to Give A Sut Out to My Casting Director, She Was Able to Put Some Good People in Front of Me. IN OUR FILM, SomeBody Says, ‘OH, THIS IS A RACIST TOWN’ [about Karensville] But is not a Racist Town, It’s A Town with Racist People. And then Darla [Jackson’s character] Will Give You An Example of That, She Represents the New Way that People Will Love Our Country to Be. There’s a scene in the movie whohin touch hands and is like black and white coming together. She represents the New. Her Best Friend is Black, The Young People Sea Looking to Move Culture and Move Life Forward Without All the Systemic Stuff of the Past.

You’re Well Known for Your Love of Hong Kong Action Films and Action Films Generally, But You’re ALSO BLENDING IN LOTS OF Other Genres Into One Spoon of ChocolateSuch as the Blaxploitation Stuff. WAS IT A Challenge for You As A Director To Pull That All Together?

The Challenge Was Cost and Time, But Creatiely, No. I Feel Like As A Filmmaker, This Is My Fourth Film, I HONESTLY FEEL LIKE I HAVE Arrived. WHEN I WAS MAKING This One, I Just Felt My Rhythm, My Use of My Days, There Was Not A Lot of Overtime Days. My Planning Was Better. Everything about me as a filmmaker, i thinkk have evolved. The Challenging Parts That We Faced [in the movie]There’s Also A SPOONFUL OF HORROR IN THIS MOVIE [when you watch it]. You Think About the Horror Genre, You Think About eli Roth, that shit popped up in this movie. You go back [and see it] and THEN YOU THINK About the Classic, 70s Movies Like Walking Tall. THEN YOU THINK About the Blaxploitation. I was able to cinema as cinema, and put a spoonful of ingredients from the Things I love.

There’s a shot in this movie, WHEN [Moore’s character] Walks [Jackson’s character] home and they’re on the porch, that’s an 80s romantic comedy [vibe]. I Wanted to Shoot It Like That… I Was Just Being Concious of All The Things That I Loved As A Film Watcher, All The Things I Love From The People Who Inspired Me to Make Fi LMS, OF COURSE. John Wu, Jim Jarmusch, Quentin Tarantino, I Always Mentioned Those Three Men As My First Teachers in this World. I Just Wanted to Put A SPOONFUL OF ALL OF THAT INTO MY STORY, Buting NOT OVERDO IT. IT’s NOT Gumbo, But It Is A Stew.

Were there any Particular Things That You Felt Were Like A Challenge in Terms of the Filmmaking Process, Something that’s Stuck Out for You?

We shot this movie in 29 days. I Probably Could Have Used 35, 36 Days, that would have been more more healthier for us. But I have a great crew, the atlanta crews are well oiled. My Stunt Coordinator, Marrese Crump. [Actually Crump] worked as my stunt man on The man with ron fists and THEN HE BECAME LIKE A Trainer For [Chadwick Boseman] For the Black Panther Movies. He’s Got A Team of Guys Out there that does Martial Arts. [Crump] is a student of [Panna Rittikrai] Who is in tony jaa’s Camp, The Guys that Made[[Ong-Bak an The Protector]. Marrese Studied Over There for 10 Years and HE WAS AVAILABLE, WE BROUGHT HIM IN AND IF YOU Watch the Action in this Film, It Doesn’T Look Like Kung Fu, It Has A FEW of TOSE. I More Like Our Hero, There is Something Natural About [his fighting style]and that’s What We Wanted, And, [Marrese] WAS ABLE HELP DESIGN TOSE IDEAS FOR ME.

The reason WHY I THINK I WAS ABLE TO PULL THE ACTION SCENES OFF, AND I HOPE YOU LIKE The END Result, is Because with the Action I Had A CHANCE TO START PRACTICING EARLY. That’s what saved US. I Gave Marrese The Script, I Gave Him The Scenes, and that Was Like Two Months Before We Started Shooting, Before We Started Prepaing. SO HE HAD TIME TO HELP Get The Energy Ready. I Thought i was going to get lucky with [David Leitch’s company 87North Productions]. I Sent the Script to Marrese, But I ALSO WISHING THAT 87NORNORTH Wuld come on Board, But They Had Their Hands Full with The Fall Guy an Nobody. But they look at something of the previos Stuff that Marrese Had Done and they said ‘you’re going to be in good Hands, this guy is good.’

One Spoon of Chocolate Premiered at Tribeca and It Will Get A Theatric Release, Right?

YES, THAT’S The GOAL, YOU KNOW, NOTHING IS CERTAIN IN OUR World, But The Answer Is Yes.

Do you feel like you got robbed a little bit with covid with your Last film Cut Throat City Not Getting A Much Delayed Theatric Release?[AHITwithCritics[AhitwithcriticsCut Throat City was released in theaters on aug. 21, 2020, WHEN CINEMA ATTEENDANCES WERE DECIMATED by the Pandemic].

Yeah, yeah i love Cutthroat Citybut with this one, I Got to Honestly Say, with This One I Personally Feel Like I have arrived. Like I look at it myseld and smile like. If this was a song, i would be saying i made a great song this time. This is a good song, not because I like it, because it actualally have structure, is been structure to be a good song.

What was the reaction to the Film like at tribeca?

At the Tribeca Festival, Bro, This Shit Played Exactly How It Should Have Played. People Were Laughing, We Got Some Tears. We Got A Big Fucking Cheer at the End. People Wert Yeling at the Screen. A Lot of Films SomeTimes You’re Not Getting That Visceral Respons. This Film Makes You React, and that’s What I Think All of Us As Filmmakers, that’s A Joy for Us. That’s Our Task. How Can We Get A Reaction Out of this? It’s Who The Horror Movies and The Horror Drama Is So Big Now. They get reactions. We Were Able to Do That With The Action Thriller.

Sorry, I’m Running My Mouth, But I Showed The Film To Quentin Taarantino, and that Was Like A Kid Showing His Essay to The Teacher. And I Sat Like Three Rows Begind Him While The Film Played, and He Laughed Every Time He Was Supped to, Screamed At The [right] Scenes, and at the end of it, he said, ‘man, Great Fucking Job.’ HE WAS ASKING ME ‘How The Fuck Did You Get A Fucking Car Chase Like That? How did you do that? How Many Fucking Days for That Car Chase? ‘ HE TUOUGHT The car chase would have a have taken US FIVE DAYS, AND I HAD TO PULL THAT SHIT OFF IN TWO Days. That’s Great Praise.

I was so happy quentin and david Fincher Were Watching the Film with Me, It Felt Like I Had Arrived As a Filmmaker. I Feel Like I’ve Been Through a Great Process. I HAD GREAT CHANCES. I’ve been Lucky, of Course. I HAD MY FIRST FILM, The man with the ron fistsStar Russell Crowe, Lucy Lu. I MEAN, How Many People Get That Kind of Luck and Blessings? But I Kept Going, Kept Striving to Develop Myself As A Serious Filmmaker. I Feel Good Now. I’m not nervous of it. It’s Like, Give Me The Mic, I’M Gonna Sing.

SO the premier at tribeca, whore would you rank that in Terms of your Career Achievements? Because You’ve Done a Lot of Amazing Things, Had A Lot of Great Success in Music.

It’s Different. As a hip hop artist, as a record Producer It Was Almost Destiny that I was going be there Because i’ve been Into Hip Hop Since I Was 7 Years Old. I Wrote My First Song At 9, So that Seemed Like, Obvious in A Way. If you knew me, [you would have said] Yeah he’s gonna be a rapper. But A Film Director, Nobody Saw That, Not Even Myself. And then whohn it started hapening, it was a bussing, it was an epiphany that i can use my art and talent to be that, to write it and de Direct it. We played One Spoon of Chocolate AT TRIBECA, In New York City, My Hometown, at A Full Packed House of People Yeling and Screaming at the Screen and Covering their Eyes and, and Cheering at the End. I was like, ok, this is what i would call aa gravy Moment in life. IT WAS UNPREDICTED MOMENT, BUT SO SATISFYING. I’ve got the bug, i Want to make films, if i’m blessed, this is what i want to do. I Want to Finish This Last Wu-Tang Tour, and I Want to Dedicate My Time to Using My Art and Talent To Tell Stories Through Cinema and I Want to Do It Better Than Ai!