RZA's One Spoon of Chocolate is now in U.S. movie theaters, starring Shameik Moore as Unique, a newly released prisoner and military veteran trying to rebuild his life in Ohio.
After collaborating with Shameik on Cut Throat City and Wu-Tang: An American Saga, RZA explains why he tapped him for the movie.
"I'm really a fan of him as an artist. I really think he has something special," he tells ABC Audio. "Every time we work together, I see him sponge up the material, and I see him just lose his self and become the energy that I need. And he does it in a very unique way. I won't describe his process, but I'm a fan his work."
RZA even compared their working relationship to other notable director-actor duos.
"It seems like my energy through him as a director to an actor, I don't know, we might have a Denzel [Washington]/Spike Lee thing going on ... or Ryan Coogler/Michael B. [Jordan]. I don't know, but I love working with him," he says.
The film also reunites RZA with Quentin Tarantino, with whom he worked on The Man with the Iron Fists and Django Unchained. "We're family. ... We're brothers," RZA says.
One Spoon of Chocolate follows Unique as he relocates to Ohio after prison, hoping for a fresh start. Instead, he becomes the target of a racist sheriff and team tied to missing Black men in the town. He prepares for vengeance by reading a survivalist handbook, inspired by a book RZA received 15 years ago.
"I actually own land in Ohio," RZA says, "and so one of my friends had gave me a book on ... how to start a fire, how to get a fish ... how they do all these things, and so I took that idea."
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