How 50 Cent used ‘one of the unwritten laws of power’ to make $10 million a movie: ‘I paid myself to learn’

Over the course of his decades-long career, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson has learned a thing or two about success.

He’s a Grammy-winning rapper, successful businessman and a prolific actor who stars and produces in both TV and film. But Jackson didn’t break into showbusiness overnight. In an interview with Vulture, he explained how his previous success helped him break into Hollywood.

“One of the unwritten laws of power is to appear not to need anything,” Jackson said. “Because everybody will do you a favor when you don’t need it.”

Jackson met movie producer Avi Lerner when he was already a millionaire from his rap career.

Because he was “in a financial place that I didn’t need one thing from him,” he said that Lerner was open to talking to him about the business of showbusiness.

“Because I was interested in what he had developed as a business, he was excited by my interest,” he said. “He offered probably more than the average person.”

Jackson said that his interactions with Lerner “helped me understand Hollywood,” and he was quickly making films through his production company Cheetah Vision, which had amassed $200 million in financing from people Jackson “met while traveling who wanted to invest in film production.”

The films had relatively low budgets, and allowed Jackson to gain experience as a producer while also making money.

“I got paid almost $10 million on each one of those films,” he said. “So I paid myself to learn how to participate on those projects.”

Jackson has since produced dozens of TV shows and films — like “Power” and “Power Book II: Ghost” — with plenty more on the way. He will receive top billing in the upcoming “Expend4bles” along with Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham.

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