O’Shea Jackson Jr. Is Just One of the Guys (and in Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, an Action Star, Too)

O’SHEA JACKSON JR. isn’t a difficult guy to pin down. If you follow him on social media, you’ll see an affable star who’s not shy about interacting with fans, shouting out what he loves and carrying himself like one of the most down-to-earth guys around. It’s those things he loves that make Jackson Jr. such an easy guy to bond with. Whether it’s wrestling, something he says he’s keen to get involved with in the future, or gaming, affectionately calling his PS5 “Lucille” (“I love her to death. I take her with me everywhere.”), Jackson Jr. is a star who can count “conversationalist” as one of his many talents.

The 33-year-old’s big personality comes along with the smile and hearty laugh he often flashes, all adding up to make him one of the friendliest, and, somehow, most relatable guys in the entire film and television industry. That says a lot, considering his upbringing as the son of hip-hop legend and actor Ice Cube couldn’t be further from the life experience most of his viewers have had. Much has been made about the “Nepo Babies” of Hollywood”—perhaps too much, at this point—but Jackson Jr.’s refusal to shy away from his famous family is what makes him so refreshing. Yes, he played his father in his first feature film (Have you seen the guy? He’s his dad’s spitting image.) but after that initial success, he’s made his persona on screen and in the public one not so different from the rest of us.

It’s that easy-to-identify-with vibe that’s made him such a presence opposite action superstar Gerard Butler in the Den of Thieves series. If the 2018 first film was a fun, if dark, cat-and-mouse thriller, the sequel, Pantera, is a full-on buddy-cop romp that pairs Butler’s disgraced cop “Big” Nick O’Brien with Jackson Jr.’s globe-trotting criminal, Donnie Wilson. If Butler is the guy who’s going to step in and crack skulls, Jackson Jr. is the smooth audience surrogate, perhaps in over his head just a bit, firing off quips as he goes.

As the two join forces to pull off the largest heist in human history—this time of the diamond variety in Europe—Jackson Jr. gets to make the leap into full-on action star. After he was more of the brains of the operation in the original film, Den of Thieves: Pantera sees Jackson Jr. involved in shootouts, car chases and everything in between. Action is Gerard Butler’s bread-and-butter, and even just from seeing how he worked on the previous film, Jackson Jr. has become keenly aware of how much prep goes into the job. What’s most surprising, though, is hearing Jackson Jr. break down what his day looks like while decompressing from the gunfire and screeching tires. It’s a side of the action world we almost never get to hear about: the mental health upkeep that goes into making these movies so explosive and exciting.

In anticipation of Pantera’s release, Jackson Jr. sat down with Men’s Health to discuss Den of Thieves’s enduring popularity, the art of action detoxing, and his on-screen and off-screen friendship with Butler.

MEN’S HEALTH: How are you doing today?

O’SHEA JACKSON JR.: I’m good. I’m chill. Woke up early. Probably going to take a nap on my Uber ride to do more interviews. Other than that, I’m good. I can’t complain. Probably will. [Laughs]

MH: I loved the first Den of Thieves. Loved it when I first saw it, and love it more every time I watch it. But over the years, there’s been this slow build to it becoming a bit of a cult favorite. What do you make of that? Why do you think this movie has resonated with people?

OJJ: I think people initially saw just another action film. And then a funny thing happens once you start getting on TV, and then on streaming, and it’s like, ‘No, this was dope. Okay, hold on.’

Even when my dad did Friday, it didn’t do extremely well in theaters. But once it started to hit TV, and then people got it on VHS, it started to build up into this thing. It starts to build that fandom and really gets a resurgence.

From there, it allows you to have a fanbase that knows the brand of Den of Thieves. So, when they see the sequel, and, fingers crossed, beyond, they know what to expect. They get other people into it and you get to ride that wave. And it’s been great. When it hit Netflix and really took off, and was in the Top 10 for as long as it was, I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to get a call soon. The call’s going to happen soon.’ [Laughs] And man, I was ready.

MH: What is the mental and physical preparation like in such an action-heavy franchise?

OJJ: Number one, I know it’s going to hurt [Laughs]. A lot of prepping for something like that is your mental stamina. There are going to be some long days. There’s going to be a lot of reaching for emotions that you for sure aren’t feeling when you show up to work. Action has a lot of anxiety, fear, and focus that you have to draw out of yourself for 10, 12 hours a day. And you don’t really feel it until you get home; until they say, ‘That’s a wrap.’ That’s when you realize, ‘Wow, I am exhausted.’ It’s some of the best sleep I’ve ever had.

MH: I’m glad you focused on the mental side of it. I feel like when we talk about action movies, there’s a lot of, like, ‘Oh, I’m in the gym, I’m lifting. I’m doing this and that, fasting.’ But I like hearing more about mental health. What do you do to decompress after a long day like that?

OJJ: What I’ve always done is keep my family around me. In the beginning of my career, it was my Uncle Star and my older brother; they went with me on every film I did. But I lost my uncle almost three years ago.

MH: I’m sorry to hear that.

OJJ: Thank you, I appreciate that. Then my brother went and got married, so he has to do his family life thing. And so now I take my Uncle Rob with me—It’s just about having somebody familiar with you. Yes, he’s ‘staff,’ but he’s known me since I was a kid. That’s somebody I know I’ve got history with, stories with. We’ve been on tour together. It’s a piece of home I take with me; he helps me a lot.

And my PlayStation. Gaming definitely helps me unwind on my days off. If I get time before the next day, I’ll take that frustration out in Grand Theft Auto. [Laughs]

MH: I can’t wait for GTA 6.

OJJ: Bro, I might not work for a whole year. [Laughs]

MH: You mentioned family. Your dad has done a number of action films throughout his career. Do you ever talk to him about how he approaches these kinds of movies?

OJJ: Yeah, he’ll tell me something like, ‘Hey, man, if they want you to jump off anything, don’t do it.’ [Laughs]‘Don’t jump off of nothing. If you see a stunt where you second-guess it, don’t do it… You’ve got to make sure you come back with all limbs, all appendages,.’

He knows once it’s laid out in front of me, I want the film to be the best it can be. I know a lot of that is me doing the stunt so you can see the face, and it adds that level of realism. He knows once I feel challenged by something, it’s going to burrow itself into my brain until I do it. He tells me those things to protect myself from myself sometimes.

MH: You’re even more involved in the action in Pantera than you were in the first Den of Thieves. What kind of goals do you set for yourself when it comes to learning gunplay or driving?

OJJ: I’ve always said that I got into movies to do stuff that I don’t do every day. One thing that’s super cool about doing films is that it seems like with every one, you end up learning a skill that you can take back home with you. For the first Den of Thieves, we got trained by a man from UK Special Forces. On Godzilla: King of the Monsters, I got weapons training from a Green Beret—shoutout Colonel Harlan Bush.

With all the MMA guys (like retired UFC fighter turned actor Michael Bisping) and our director (Christian Gudegast) being a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, I want some hand-to-hand combat in the next one. I need to learn some skills, man. [Laughs]

MH: Pantera has way more comedy to it. There’s a scooter scene, for example, that’s hysterical. How do you develop that relationship with Gerard before cameras roll?

OJJ: In the first one, Christian had the idea of keeping the outlaws and the regulators separate so that we weren’t so buddy-buddy on set outside of our own crews. So when we did clash, it was really a clash. Gerard talks about the scene in the first where they got to rough me up in a hotel room and kind of scare me. He talks about how they were all being super serious and prepared. And it’s my third movie ever. So, I’m coming in there cracking jokes, laughing and stuff. Then, when the action happens, I turn it on. And he praised me on being able to turn it on. It kind of threw them off a little bit because it’s like, ‘Damn, I want to laugh,’ but you’ve got to be serious.

With this one, we knew it was a new can of worms we had to unlock; a Pandora’s Box of new emotions and chemistry. We ended up becoming neighbors in our rented houses out there in Spain. We had a scene coming up one day, and Gerard called me and was like, ‘Hey, do you want to run tomorrow’s scene right now? Let’s just go over it.’

And so we went over it a few times trying to find the gold. And from there, we just started talking. I asked him questions about his career, told him where I was at with mine and how I was feeling, what I wanted to do moving forward… just picking his brain. From there, our friendship really developed, and getting that to shine through on screen made it a ton easier.

MH: The first film plants the seed of cops basically being no different from robbers; they just have a badge. This one takes it to that logical extension, and makes Gerard’s character part of the criminal element with you. Is that a stated goal on set with these movies?

OJJ: We understand that perspective is everything. And there’s a gray area of ‘Who am I rooting for? Who’s the bad guy?’ You look at things like gangs and their affiliation and how they look out for each other and they watch each other’s back. They’re a tight knit brotherhood, and it’s because of the situations they were put in that they live this life. Then you look at the police, who are blue brothers, and the similarities are too on point. So, you have a film that speaks on that. Just like it ain’t all bad guys out there, it ain’t all good cops out there either.

It lifts the veil on that. We’ve heard stories of crooked police all the time, and we’ve heard stories of people who are put into situations who do crime for good reasons. I mean, one of my favorite films was John Q. Like, yeah, he’s holding up a hospital, but his son does need a transplant, bro [Laughs].

MH: I’m a huge wrestling fan, just like you. New Japan, AEW, WWE, love it all. I’m sure you’ve been asked this before, but is jumping into the ring in the cards for you?

OJJ: 100%. Give me a year. Shout out to Booker T. He told me one day after an interview, he was like, ‘Listen, when you’re ready, just come on down to Houston, and we’ll get you right.’

I want to make sure it’s the right time and right situation. I don’t want to go out there and just do some quick little celebrity cameo—I want to do something that wrestling fans will look back at and be like, ‘Damn, that dude really went for it.’’