Nicki Minaj’s favourite movies of all time: “Both of those”
Gladiator II just hit cinemas last week, arriving 24 years after the original film. Nicki Minaj, surprisingly, counts herself as a huge fan of the 2000 movie starring the likes of Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix.
The Queens rapper was once asked by television host Stephen Colbert to name her favourite action films of all time. Minaj quickly named Gladiator, revealing how much she loves the historical epic. “Does Gladiator count?” she said on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “Oh, I love that movie so much. And then of course Black Panther, the first Black Panther and Gladiator, so both of those.”
Nicki Minaj then found out that a sequel was in the works and being filmed in Malta at the time. The ‘Super Bass’ rapper was unaware that the movie was coming out, to which she shared her love of Danish actress Connie Nielsen. “Really? Will the same lady be in it?” she said in a British accent. “I love her so much, [the Roman lady]. Is that the wrong accent for that place?”
Gladiator II boasts a stellar cast that includes Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington and Joseph Quinn. Ridley Scott returned as the director, with Derek Jacobi and Nicki’s favourite, Nielsen, reprising their roles. According to Variety, the film dominated at the box office with £9.1million during its opening weekend in the UK and Ireland, ahead of the movie hitting US cinemas on November 22nd.
Nicki Minaj has starred in a number of films throughout the years, including Ice Age: Continental Drift, The Other Woman, Barbershop: The Next Cut and The Angry Birds Movie 2. In 2015, she revealed her dream of being a big actress alongside a thriving music career.
“I want to do something very serious,” she told Harper’s Bazaar. “Meryl Streep is one of my favourite artists of all time. She blows me away in just about everything she does. My dream would be to have that type of acting career, where I can do both things believably.”
50 Cent, who boasts his own career as an actor, previously revealed he wanted to star in a romantic-comedy film with Nicki Minaj. The reason is that he feels like he knows her better than the average person.
“You know who would probably be fun to work with? Nicki,” he said on Jalen Rose‘s Renaissance Man podcast. “Nicki Minaj would be fun to be in a romantic-comedy with. I kind of understand her a little bit more than the other people. She’s tougher. When she’s being an asshole, it’s because she’s telling you, ‘You’re not going to take advantage of me.’”
He continued, “The environment, it made her a little more like, she’s going, ‘Don’t play with me,’ before you play with her, because of how the temperament of the environment and how people are where we come from.”