HELL ON WHEELS - NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Common on AMC’s Hell on Wheels, Playing a Freed Slave, and Nineteenth-Century Outlaws
By Dan Hyman
11/4/11
As the White House has pointed out, Common is known for being a "socially conscious" rapper. He rose to prominence in the mid-nineties for bringing African-American culture and minimalist beats into the mainstream's collective awareness. And in recent years, he's made as many headlines for his polarizing ideals (he supported Assata Shakur, who was convicted of murdering a state trooper in 1977, for example) as he has for his music. Now he's starring on AMC's post–Civil War shoot-'em-up drama Hell on Wheels, as a recently freed slave working in a gun-slinging railroad town. We spoke with him ahead of Sunday's series premiere about the challenges of playing a former slave, writing music versus acting, and nineteenth-century outlaws...
... NWM: I'd imagine it is challenging to portray a former slave.
Common: "Very challenging. And that's why I took it on. It's a lot of responsibility because what black people went through in slavery, within that system of slavery, was really treacherous. And for me, I felt like I owed it to the people that lived during that time to bring something truthful to the character. And even just revisiting some of the experiences of it, [there] was just a lot of emotion and a lot of pain. At the same time, a lot of strength came from it. What I enjoy most about the character is the fact that he was written so strong, not as just a person that was oppressed and kept his head down..."
Hell on Wheels airs Sunday at 10/9C on AMC
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