Thu | Mar 28, 2024

'The Intent 2' - Surprisingly good! - Popcaan shows off acting skills

Published:Friday | September 28, 2018 | 12:00 AMShereita Grizzle/Gleaner Writer
Gordene Jacos (left) and Cecile at the premiere of the Intent 2 'The Come up'.
Popcaan (centre) is showed some support by fellow recording artistes, Dre Island (left) and Nesbeth.
Popcaan (centre) with other cast member of the Netfilx movie ‘The Intent 2: The Come Up’. From left: Justin ‘Ghetts’ Clarke, Teddy Bruck Shut, Ashley Chin, and Cashief Nichols at the private screening of the film at the Courtleigh Auditorium on Thursday.
Director, producer and screenplay writer of ‘The Intent 2’ Femi Oyeniran (left) and director Nicky Slimting (right) with cast members Teddy Bruck Shut (second left) and Popcaan.
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There was a full house at the Courtleigh Auditorium in New Kingston on Thursday night for the private screening of UK-Jamaican film - The Intent 2: The Come Up. The crime-drama film, which will be available on Netflix, features dancehall's Unruly one - Popcaan, in his debut role as an actor.

Although the script follows a familiar pattern in terms of the storyline, viewers were pleasantly surprised by the quality production of the movie.

The plot followed the typical gun-touting, blood-spewing, drug trafficking scheme, however, the level of talent displayed by the cast was so overwhelmingly good that one might forget that the story has been told several times over in other 'yaadie films'. As the movie progressed, viewers were glued to their seats as actors brought their characters to life in a manner that was so compelling, it was hard not to pay attention. There was nothing amateurish about the acting - not even from first-timer Popcaan.

Before the movie premiered, many thought the singer would play a minor role that would only see him delivering a few lines. However, Popcaan's character, Soursop, turns out to be just as integral as the others. Soursop is the 'main connect' in Jamaica and is the 'general' who supplies the drug boss, Beverley, with the product she needs to run her business in the UK. His character comes to life when Beverley sends her 'boys' to Jamaica to source more products to keep her business afloat. Popcaan brings his unique style and flavour to the role and delivers a surprisingly believable performance. Speaking with The Gleaner about his preparation for the film, Popcaan explained that in reading the script, things just came to him naturally. He also said that it was important that he be true to himself, and he opted from time to time to improvise on the given lines. He revealed that he would often add slangs and words he uses in his everyday life to make the character he was playing in sync with who he is in real life.

Applauding Popcaan and the other actors for showing initiative, directors Femi Oyeniran and Nicky Slimting Walker told The Gleaner that the script acted as a guideline and that they welcomed the actors adding their unique style and flavour to the roles as it made the movie's storyline authentic and believable. "Before we cast people in roles, we trust that they can deliver, and so, our role as directors is to allow people to do the best they can," said Oyeniran. "We use the script as a guideline, and the great thing with people like Poppy is that he knew the scenes, so he was coming on set with ideas of what he wanted to do, and he was able to add his own flavour to it."

Walker notes, "It was never difficult working with the Jamaican talent because they are really so very good. They are no different from any other actor because its not about how many jobs you've done, but more about' if you have the talent,' and we saw loads of people audition, and we wish we could've put more persons in there because they were so good." He added, "There is so much Jamaican talent, and we need to showcase that. It doesn't make sense to try to get British people to be Jamaican when we can get the real deal here."