WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
My first introduction to Common was actually when he starred in Hells on Wheels back in 2011 so I had no idea that he was a rapper – along with the fact that rap music has never really been my thing. I haven’t finished the series but I would still highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t watched it yet.
Date Night
I’ll be honest, even though his role is intrinsic to the plot – it’s actually not very big. However, this is actually the case for all the characters outside of the Fosters (played by Tina Fey and Steve Carrell) because they are the main focus of the story. Common plays a corrupt cop and I genuinely thought out of the two we meet that he was going to be the ‘leader’ of the pair but I’m happy to say that this isn’t the case. It’s nice to see because of his hard man persona that he can also play a more second string character.
A Very Bad Day
Originally I was going to cover this for Kumail Nanjiani, but as soon as I saw Common was a main character I couldn’t pass this up. I guess the point of this film is everyone is having a bad day, but I don’t think anyone’s gets much worse than Common’s character of Daniel. OK, I know Kevin’s dead but you know what I mean. Daniel has his affair discovered, gets accused of sabotaging the coffee machine and then loses his job to top it all off! Truthfully, I didn’t recognize Common at first when he’s introduced at the start of the film. What I love about this film is that nothing is magically resolved, Daniel is still unemployed at the end but the love and faith his daughter has in him makes everything OK.
Side Note: His final scene with Keanu Reeves is possibly the best moment of the whole film.
John Wick: Chapter 2
As I referenced Keanu Reeves at the end of A Very Bad Day – how can I not follow that up with talking about Common in John Wick: Chapter 2? We actually don’t meet Common’s character until 46 minutes into the film so truthfully I could have skipped to the part needed but when a film is this good, I would never do that. His character of Cassian is the bodyguard to Gianna D’Antonio – the woman John has been sent to kill. What I love is, Cassian knows exactly what John has done based off of two simple questions. There’s something I hadn’t noticed in previous viewings, maybe its because I wasn’t watching Common as closely, but when Cassian and John fall down the stairs, you can see that he is controlling his fall as every now and then a hand goes down to control himself. The only annoying thing is that I actually find Ruby Rose’s character more badass than his.
Honorary Mentions
Common first stepped in to the film world in 2006 when he starred in Smokin’ Aces before taking on the role of Turner Lucas in American Gangster a year later.I don’t know if anyone else noticed but Common also has a cameo role as Monster T in the first Suicide Squad film and he has even turned his hand to a little bit of rom-com when starring alongside Queen Latifah in Just Wright.
