Ice-T's Early Acting Career Included Making Two Sci-Fi Flops In One Year

When hip-hop began to crossover in a major way (thanks in large part to Run-DMC and Aerosmith's rambunctious "Walk This Way" collaboration), labels began signing every commercial-friendly artist they could find, while artists who'd paid their dues in clubs for years attempted to court this expanding audience without selling out their integrity. It was a difficult balancing act, and few walked this tightrope more skillfully than Ice-T.

While some artists associated with the gangsta rap scene weren't quite as hard as they claimed, Ice-T knew that life. He sold drugs, engaged in all manner of theft (he claims that he was a part of "Heat"-like bank robberies after he left the U.S. Army), and learned how to pimp. He grew up around Los Angeles gang culture, which gave his lyrics a hard-hitting legitimacy. But this street tough emcee was also a born entertainer, and he had no qualms about going Hollywood when the opportunity presented itself.

After writing the theme song to Dennis Hopper's deeply problematic "Colors," Ice-T got serious about his acting career. He'd appeared in films like "Breakin'" and "Rappin'," but he was essentially playing himself. This all changed when he starred as hard-driving Detective Scotty Appleton in Mario Van Peebles' "New Jack City." You'd think that playing a cop might cost him some street cred, but Appleton was an idealized crusader for his community. He was out to protect his people.

Ice-T received praise for his performance, which meant casting directors were bound to come calling. While he was terrific in Walter Hill's "Trespass" and Ernest Dickerson's "Surviving the Game," he started getting smaller roles in less promising movies. This led to a disappointing 1995, where he appeared in the sci-fi flops "Tank Girl" and "Johnny Mnemonic." Were these films wrongly maligned?

At the very least, you can't accuse "Tank Girl" and "Johnny Mnemonic" of being conventional studio products. They're strange movies that are trying hard to do something different in the sci-fi action genre.

Directed by Rachel Talalay, "Tank Girl" was based on the subversive comic book series by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett. Talalay dug its surly riot grrrl energy and wanted to make a movie that connected with that musical movement. She found a perfect lead in Lori Petty and a fun, hiss-worthy villain in Malcolm McDowell, but the production was plagued by behind-the-scenes turmoil and studio interference. This is a shame because Ice-T gives a fully committed performance as a kangaroo-like "Ripper" named T-Saint. The Rippers might've been CG creations a few years later, but in 1995, they were brought to vibrant life by FX legend Stan Winston.

In a 2017 interview on The Howard Stern Show, Ice-T admitted he was hesitant about taking the part. He'd been climbing the ladder salary-wise, and was in the middle of making "Johnny Mnemonic" with a post-"Speed" Keanu Reeves when the offer came. When he learned that the offer was for $1 million, he told Stern, "I started hopping around the room like a f****** kangaroo."

I don't think "Tank Girl" fully works, but it's a visually playful movie with oddball production design by the great Catherine Hardwicke that complements Winston's creature FX. Had MGM not been so meddlesome, it might've been a sleeper hit.

Sony basically did the same thing to "Johnny Mnemonic," and wasted a good Ice-T performance.

Director Roberg Longo and writer William Gibson never intended "Johnny Mnemonic" to be a glitzy sci-fi blockbuster. Based on Gibson's cyberpunk short story about a data trafficker who possesses valuable information in his cranial storage system. To save his life, he needs to offload the data and blackmail the people desperate to suppress what's lodged in his brain. This, of course, requires the assistance of a cybernetically enhanced, heroin-addicted dolphin. So basically a remake of "Stella Dallas."

"Johnny Mnemonic" could've been a scrappy neo-noir cyberpunk movie, but when Reeves became an A-list movie star due to the success of "Speed," Sony pumped $26 million into the production, and pressured Longo, a prominent visual artist making his feature debut, to cobble together the kind of movie he'd never want to watch. He lost control of the film and got shut out of the edit. The studio cut of "Johnny Mnemonic" earned mostly scathing reviews (it holds a 19% rating at Rotten Tomatoes), but it didn't hurt Ice-T's career. As J-Bone, the leader of the anti-corporate LoTeks, Ice-T captured the character's revolutionary spirit. Still, you have to wonder how much of his performance ended up on the cutting room floor.

What we do know is that Ice-T found his badass bread-and-butter as Detective Odafin "Fin" Tutuola in the "Law & Order" universe. But it's been slim pickings in movies for the Iceberg over the last two decades. How about we give this legend a Western?