LAFF: Interview – Common Talks About Playing Rafe The Perfect Goofy Guy in All About Nina

Common is at the Laugh Factory for the All About Nina press day. It’s his first time there. He hasn’t seen a show there, but that will probably change.

In All About Nina, Common plays Rafe, the antithesis of what you’d expect in this film. He’s the near perfect guy who’s dating Nina, a woman making it in the man’s world of stand up comedy. Nina’s relationship with an abusive married cheat named Joe, and pain, trauma, and rage form the basis of her comedy routine. The end result is a laugh out loud brilliant comedy from director Eva Vives. As Rafe, Common serves the love interest and his timing couldn’t be more perfect. A knockout performance from Mary Elizabeth Winstead is icing on the cake.

I caught up with Common to talk about playing Rafe. Read our chat as the singer and actor talks about why he was attracted to playing this character, and how he chooses his roles.

How did you wind up as Rafe?

For me, it was like reading the script and seeing what Eva created with Rafe, I knew he was a dynamic character who had a lot of different colors and aspects to him. I was really enthused and inspired to play a man who had the vulnerability, the love, and the self-awareness to know that he’s still a work in progress. He’s not afraid to be a little goofy sometimes.

I was really honored to play the role. Especially being a black man and a person of color. I honestly don’t remember a time when I’ve come across a character where I was up for a role where the character had the dynamics seen in Rafe.

What did Eva say about him?

We collaborated on the role. She wanted me to bring whatever I needed to in order to create Rafe. She also said that he is a guy who is trying to be honest in his life and figuring out where he is right now. She wanted that honesty to come out. Rafe is not someone who has it all together and he doesn’t try to portray it as he does.

When he takes the time to gather himself after he finds out about what happened to Nina that was a real moment. That’s him and his own fears. What Eva wanted to make sure was we made sure that this male character was a loving man. A man who can care for you unconditionally and be honest, open and fun. He’s a solid guy.

The dating scene was just great to see unfold.

That was so much fun. We got to explore and try things out. We had a limited amount of time but we had to spend a lot of time together. As we were getting to know each other, the date was continuing to go on. I think it took us about two days to go through the scene of eating, playing and act like you’re smoking a joint. It’s a fun way to bond with someone. It’s a fun experience and we discovered a lot of things. I really enjoyed it when I watched it. You actually felt good about them being together.

You do. You want them to end up together. Without spoiling the ending for our readers, you’re pulling for them.

That scene you’re talking about was one of the first scenes I shot and Eva always jokes, “The first day you’re here, you apologize?”

With that scene, I didn’t have a lot of words, but it was a lot of different things that Rafe was experiencing at that time. Part of that was just recognizing that whatever baggage that Nina had and whatever baggage he had, he was willing to go through it with her and experience that with her and make an effort to build a relationship with her. He had thought it through and did things responsibly. you could see it was something he wanted to do. He was letting her know that he was willing to be there with her and be on that journey with her. He acknowledged his own flaws and let Nina know that she was being cared for.

He’s got such great qualities all of which you summed up.

He was so much fun because I think sometimes being cool is overrated meaning so many times people who consider themselves cool act like they can’t do anything goofy or corny.

Growing up, I fell a lot into the “I need to be cool” but once you learn, I have corny things about me, goofy things and I’m not afraid to show them. That was fun to show in the film. Rafe is cool, fun and just goofy.

After this, we’ll next see you in The Hate U Give and Smallfoot. They’re all such different characters. Talk about Carlos in The Hate U Give.

You said it. You made me smile because they’re all different characters and these are the steps I’m taking to becoming the actor that I want to be in theater, TV and film. I want to leave films that have that impact on society.

Carlos is a police officer who is black and from the hood. His family is in the hood but he’s moved out. He has to deal with the complexities of what it is to be a black police officer in today’s society. It’s not an easy job to do. Being a police officer is not an easy job and being a black police officer is not easy. To be in neighborhoods where they don’t like you and you’re in the police force dealing with the prejudices that exist within that system and being on that side, it’s a tough situation that Carlos is in. As much as he’s a father figure and one of Starr’s mentors, he has to learn. That’s one thing I feel we have to pick up on as adults. You don’t know everything and kids teach us things. Starr opens his eyes to a lot of things so it was a unique position to be in to play that character.

What do you look for in choosing your roles?

I look for a character that is three dimensional that has flaws that I feel we all posses. I look for a character that has a journey that they’re going through and as an actor, I can go on. I look for characters that are not like Common. I love playing characters that don’t have my qualities. It makes me stretch as an actor and do different things. It’s one of the first reasons why I fell in love with acting was because I could lose myself and become someone else. That’s what I look for, the incredible script and I want to work with great visionaries and creators and actors. Those are the elements that I look for.

With characters, I need to have a journey, dimension, and progress.

I have to say aside from Rafe, Nina was great to see because she’s not the kind of character we see very often on screen.

I was watching her do her stand up and I was like, “Wow.” I haven’t seen this much in film. If men can get away with saying the vulgar things we say, then Nina should be able to do the same thing. Nina has a dirty mouth and I love it.