"Believe It"
(MTV)

MTV News: You're definitely no stranger to movies, but this is a whole new thing for you. This isn't only a major motion picture for a major studio, but a whole movie centered around you. How is that?

Snoop Dogg: The character I play, Jimmy Bones, is so close to Snoop Dogg, I don't even feel like I'm up here acting. I feel like I'm up here just having a good time in front of the camera.

MTV: Why is Snoop like Jimmy Bones?

SD: Because Jimmy Bones is the people's people. He just takes care of the community. He loves the community. He symbolizes peace. He's for what's right as far as the community's concerned. The love that he receives is the love that I receive. You know, it's thin line between love and hate. But it's love, hate, fear, and respect. And that's what makes up Jimmy Bones, and that's a part of me.

MTV: Do you find acting is a little harder for you than music?

SD: I think music is harder for me because acting is already scripted. So you get a chance to rehearse it and go over it and know what you're going to say and how you're gonna do it before you do it. But the music is basically emotional, right on the right. Spiritually, what you're thinking, what you're feeling right now.

MTV: What was your first reaction when you heard that they pretty much wrote this for you? I mean, this is a huge movie, and they wrote Jimmy Bones around you.

SD: Well, I knew what was going on with this project from the beginning. I was always saying that I wanted to be in a movie based around me as the lead character, but it would have to be something strong enough to make the whole world want to see it. And they gave me the opportunity to be on the stage with Pam Grier and [director] Ernest Dickerson and these great people that I'm working with. I promised I wouldn't let them down.

MTV: How crazy is that? Did you grow up watching Pam Grier?

SD: I got one of her movies in there right now. I could push "play," and it's one of her movies. One of her classic movies. She's a beautiful woman and a friend, and somebody that I can cry on her shoulder if I need to. It's going to be a hit movie. Believe it.

MTV: Do your kids ever come up and visit you while you do these things?

SD: Not for movies, but for videos, yeah. But for the most part, they're too busy trying to go to school and learn something.

MTV: What have been some of the biggest things you've learned as an actor?

SD: Just attitude adjustment. How to stay professional and stay on the acting page at all times when the camera's on. I don't get down on myself. I'm not perfect. I see other people make mistakes and how they handle it, and it just makes me want to do the same thing, watching their professionalism.

MTV: Did you ever talk to Ice Cube at all about acting before you started doing this?

SD: Not for advice, but he wrote a movie that I wanted to do. I was trying to get it picked up by a studio. I came to him for advice as far as rapping and the business, but not for acting.

MTV: He's now a multimedia mogul. Are you gonna be that soon?

SD: I'm already that, baby. I just got to get the roles to put me in that situation.

MTV: How much more acting do you really want to do?

SD: I want to do this when I'm finished with rapping. I want to go full speed on this acting thing. Because it's more behind the scenes. The rapping thing is year-round. We don't never get a vacation.

MTV: I've got to ask you -- is Jimmy Bones cooler than Shaft?

SD: Jimmy Bones is the baddest motherf***er the world has ever seen. You dig? Jimmy Bones is the biggest thing to hit the big screen since John Travolta in "Saturday Night Fever." It's the whole phenomenon, his hair, his attitude, his car, his woman, everything. His conversation. His lingo. You know, the way that women just want to sit down and converse with him for a minute or two, ask him a few questions the way the kids want an autograph. People want to take pictures with him and just stand next to him. Sit in his car, hold his steering wheel. Try on his jacket, you know.

MTV: The suit suits you.

SD: It's not a costume, baby, it's me. You know, when I take it off it's a costume. When I got it on, it's me.

MTV: How far are your plans for new N.W.A. stuff?

SD: I'm not really sure when we're going to do that.

MTV: You guys are still talking and trying to map out all those plans?

SD: Yeah, we all got agendas and schedules right now, so I don't know if the record is in the laboratory. We got a tour that we're trying to do that will probably come to your town before the record does. I don't want to spill the beans too soon. But it's going down.

MTV: Why a tour before the album?

SD: This tour is not about the N.W.A. album. It's about what we got out right now. Dre's "Chronic," "2001," my "Top Dogg" album, Ice Cube's project, all his associates, Eminem's project, Warren G -- it's all about us right now. N.W.A. is a project that is going to come about in the near future. There's a legacy and a dynasty that goes along with it, so that's a project that we gotta thoroughly think about. We just can't come in and throw an album together and say we got an N.W.A. album. It's gonna take some hard work and research making that record. We want to make the best record we've ever been on. [RealVideo]

MTV: Back to your acting gig. Do you do a lot of rehearsing yourself, getting into Jimmy Bones here in your dressing room?

SD: I don't really have to get into Jimmy Bones. Jimmy Bones is a part of Snoop Dogg. It's like I turn Snoop Dogg off to turn Jimmy Bones on.

MTV: I wanted to talk to you about your phat car here on the set. Do you actually get to drive it?

SD: No, I don't drive. I'm in the back seat. I got a driver. He drives me around town. You know, when you're at this status in the game, you don't drive. You get driven around. You never see the president driving, right?

MTV: Lincoln Continental?

SD: Lincoln Continental. Coast to coast. L.A. to Chicago. Please believe it.