It’s a hot take, admittedly, but there is a case to be made that Method Man is the greatest rapper of all time. The Wu-Tang Clan legend might not typically come up in Top Five arguments, but the scale of his genius can’t be quantified by solo classics or Billboard smashes. No, the Ticallion Stallion from Staten Island’s claim to the throne is simpler, more direct. Has anyone ever been better at the actual art of rapping? His flow is effortless and heaven-sent, eternal in nature, waiting to be discovered like neon. Battle-scarred by the fast blades and friendly rivalries of the Wu-Tang Clan, arguably the greatest collection of rap talent ever assembled, Tical was the breakout star whose raw charisma initially overshadowed the brilliance of the rest. With Redman, he and the Funkdoctor Spock branding themselves rap’s Cheech and Chong: wild, narcotic, and telepathic.
It was perhaps inevitable that Method Man’s collaborative gifts would lead him to Hollywood, but you need more than that to stick around. After a breakout role in the 1998 cult classic Belly, he ascended the ranks from walk-on to memorable character actor in films like Garden State and The Wackness. His resume includes two stints with David Simon, as the slick hustler Cheese on The Wire, and a pimp in the 70’s polyester period-piece The Deuce. His latest role is the lead on Starz’ new Power spinoff, Power Book II: Ghost, high-priced defense lawyer Davis Maclean; he's also on Netflix's Teenage Bounty Hunters. Wu Brother No. 1 is grinding his way to #1 on the call-sheet.
Over a Zoom call from New York, Johnny Blaze spoke to GQ about learning from Maggie Gyllenhaal, outrapping Biggie, and his admiration for John Malkovich.
You’ve created a dramatic body of work now that’s distinct from your musical artistry. How do you see those two sides of you co-existing?
At first, I always thought, “Damn, if I could go on stage and control 40,000 people, I can get busy on the small screen.” I was wrong. I had to learn that in the same way that I would prepare for a Wu-Tang show, I needed to do my homework for a role. I took that for granted in the beginning. People will tell you, “You’ve got natural ability,” but there were points and times where I was completely lost. I didn’t speak the language.
What time stands out where you felt really lost in your acting career?
My first couple of days shooting on The Wire. I was a fan of the show, and tried to go off-script a little bit, but they like to keep it right there. I was coming in with the New York shit and they had to put me right back in check. But then you get in that phase where you don’t want to mess up so badly, that it kind of plays out like you’re not translating anymore, you’re just speaking words, and it sounds like you’re speaking script words.
I recommend that any actor on a set—when you have breaks in between shooting—do not go back to your trailer. There was a plethora of information, right there on that set. You sit there and you talk to people, and that’s what gave me a clear vision of who Cheese was supposed to be. I was kicking it with Gbenga [Akinnagbe], who played Chris on the show, and he asked me, “Do you know who Cheese is?” I was like, “I wasn’t really thinking about it.” He was like, “Cheese is a survivor. Think about that.” And that became my whole mentality throughout the rest of The Wire: Cheese is going to win at any cost.
Have you ever…method acted?
I have. It’s fun, especially when you’re playing a bad guy. People tend to get nervous around you, but you’ll bring out a great performance with whoever you’re in a scene with because they think you fucking hate them. But at the end of the day, let’s say you show up to the premiere and everybody’s a little bit distant, they don’t know how to approach you because you’re doing the method.
What was the best bit of advice you’ve ever gotten?
Lyor Cohen gave me the best advice. It was simple, three words: “Save your money.” The other best advice is something that I read somewhere, this is advice for anybody, “If you’re the smartest person in the room, it’s time to change rooms.’
What did you learn from working with David Simon?
I love [Simon] because he has his thumb on the pulse of modern society. You can see the dirt and the grime, you can see the beautiful city and the skyscrapers and the light twinkling off the glass, and David’s the guy that brings the camera closer so you can see the dirt and grime, where it originates from. It’s just something about the way that whole team puts their things together—you feel that authenticity. They take their time with character development, they take their time with story, and by the time they get to a finale, it’s all wrapped up in a nice bow.
I love The Deuce, by the way. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s phenomenal. I learned so many things from just being on set with her. From just one scene with her, I took that and I’m still running with a lot of the things she taught me.
What did she teach you?
Accidents are good. Mistakes are good. I would have little mild anxiety attacks just from missing a word during a scene, but you’ve got to stay in it and snap right out of that shit and keep going. Sometimes it happens every now and then, but I usually suppress it enough to remind myself what I’m doing, give myself a minute, then boom, it’s gone.
One of my theories is that there’s no real greatest rapper, but you have to be in the conversation because there are about 30 Method Man songs where you can say, “This is the best that somebody has ever rapped.” You’re the only person that ever could have objectively maybe got Biggie on a song, because Biggie was basically perfect, too. Is that a wrong assessment?
People always say that to me. But I think we both did our numbers on [“The What.”] The reason why the song is so great is because both rappers represented. Who had the better verse? We’re not even getting into that because both verses are classic. If anything, we’re both on the same wavelength.
I get you, though, because there are a lot of people who will say that. That’s a regular consensus right there, that Meth is better on features, and as far as his solo projects, they’re kind of lacking. I’m good with that. I can live with that because I know what state of mind I was in with each project, and it’s good when fans can notice and call you out on it, because you’ll be the last person to know that you have a crack habit. You just think that you smoke—“I just do it every now and then.” But people have to let you know, “Bro, you out of line.”
It feels like it all stems from Tical being considered a disappointment at the time, but in retrospect, it’s an incredible debut album.
I’m going to be honest, I put that out in the universe. I said in one interview that it was the weakest out of all the [Wu-Tang Clan members’] solo releases. I just threw it out there, I was feeling some type of way that day, and that shit festered. It grew like a big-ass boil on a butt. I regret saying that because each and every solo project, there was no weakness in any of them because we’re regular kids from the street writing this material that’s damn near changing the world. There’s nothing weak about that.
Was there any pressure in being the first Wu-Tang member to go solo?
Not at first, but when RZA had the flood [that famously destroyed the original version of Tical], it got hectic. We were actually on tour on the West Coast promoting the first album. San Francisco one day, LA the next, then San Diego. I was in studio after studio, trying not only to lay the vocals down that I had already written, but RZA had to put these beats back together the best way he could. So a lot of the beats you heard aren’t the original beats; they’re similar, but they’re not exactly what I rapped to when I [originally] made ‘em.
After your 2004 Fox sitcom Method and Red was canceled, you had some choice words to say about how it was sanitized and unfaithful to the characters you’d created. [Shortly after its cancellation, Method Man lamented, "Where are they trying to go with these storylines? I'm a grown-ass man, I shouldn't be at a kid's birthday party."] With those issues still at the forefront of pop culture, how do you look back on it today?
I think it was slightly watered down, but it was a TV show, and back then, I couldn’t wrap my head around it. But there was a producer there, a white-haired guy, and he was trying to explain to me about how things work in a certain light, so you can get to where you want to be. In hindsight, Fox, the writers, and the producers, were trying to do the best they could with the product they had—to appease not just myself and Red, but an audience at Fox, also. The two worlds kind of collided. If it would’ve worked, it would’ve worked, but it didn’t. I thank them for the opportunity because that was unheard of—we had our own show, two black leads in primetime.
What actors do you most admire, living or dead?
So many. Gary Oldman. Don Cheadle’s always been big on my radar. John Malkovich, there’s just something about his demeanor that resonates with me. I love what The Rock is doing; I love that transition. It kind of proves the theory about performing in front of a live audience and taking that, and putting that in front of a live camera. It was a natural progression for him because he was basically doing that when he was cutting promos [as a wrestler]. That’s the same thing we do, except ours is more grounded in reality, or at least that’s what the audience wants: they want our true story. They want the experience of who we are as artists.
That’s why, when I bring that to acting, they don’t want to see Method Man up there, they want to see [my character in Power Book II: Ghost] Davis Maclean, they want to see a lawyer up there. It’s going to be hard for some people to strip those layers away and actually see Maclean and not see me, but hopefully I did a good enough job that by episode two, all they’ll see is the lawyer.
How did you prepare for the role?
When I was in acting class, me and my scene partner had to do a scene from Philadelphia, Denzel [Washington] and Tom Hanks. Of course, I played the Denzel part, and I actually had to watch the film. Just watching this man work, you could see the difference from when he was in the courtroom and when he was in regular life. It’s very inspiring. You don’t know what’s ad-libbed and what was improv, and what was actually in the script, because he’s just that freaking good. But [for Power,] I wanted something grounded in reality that I could actually relate to and take me out of this fantasy courtroom world, because usually, courts aren’t ran the way you see them on TV.
I reference Johnnie Cochran, too, because he was at a level where I could understand him. It seemed like he came from where I came from; he just threw a suit on and crossed over here for a quick second.
I’ve always thought that if the Ol’ Dirty Bastard came out today, he’d probably be the biggest star in the world. He was already huge, but in the world that we now inhabit, he would’ve been at the top of the charts. Is that safe to say?
If Dirty had never gone to jail, I think he would be as big as Jay-Z is right now, or as big as a Sly and the Family Stone. Dirty had soul, man; he gave Wu-Tang soul. Basically, he’s the man that created our credo, “Wu-Tang is for the children.” Do I think he would have had an acting career? I don’t know. With Dirty, a cameo maybe, but nah, not no vehicle where he’d go on, throw on a whole suit, wear a suit and transform.
How do you view your career now?
I had a great run with Wu-Tang, an even better run as a solo artist, an even better run with Redman, and we still running. I had a movie and a TV show off one single. This is a great second act. Now, if the second act can mirror the first act, I’m going to be around for a long time. I’m up for the challenge. Acting—I can see why people say they have a passion for it. It’s not just blowing smoke up your butt; it’s really a passion to do this. How much effort you put into it, the respect for cast and crew by showing up on time, not just showing up on time, but showing up prepared and ready to do your part.
Did your passion for acting grow or was it something you’d always wanted to do?
Of course, everybody wants to be on camera, but it’s nothing that I ever took seriously until it was years later—when it got to a point where I’m finding myself in auditions and I’m not getting anything. I think the gatekeepers can sense when you’re not dedicated. Coming from the background that I came from, people are going to question my dedication. “Is he serious about it? Is he? If not, we’re not going to take the chance.”
I had to pay my dues, and I’m going to tell you what dues look like. Dues look like you moving out to California, sleeping on your manager’s couch for about a month, going on auditions, sometimes doing two to three auditions in the same day while doing acting class and still going to the gym trying to get your body as fit as your mind is.
You’re doing little projects over here with this production company, little projects over here and little walk-ons with this independent and this independent. I went out in the desert with James Franco for about two weeks. Snoop [Dogg] can attest to this, and it’s because Snoop only showed up for three days, he’s such a G. We were out there, shooting in the desert with James Franco [on the sci-fi western Future World]. I don’t even remember getting paid, I was just there for the experience because James is a machine, and I learned so much just being on that set with him. This is me saying to myself, “It was miserable out there,” but this is me saying to myself, “You have to get through this to get to where you want to go.” I mean, aye, things are coming into fruition now, and there aren’t many roles out there that would make me nervous now or have me nervous at all.