Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, star of ‘The A-Team’: “Acting is kind of gay”

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The promotional tour for The A-Team is starting to gear up, so expect to see some interviews with Bradley Cooper, Liam Neeson, Jessica Biel and this new star, Ultimate Fighter-turned-actor Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who took on the role of Baracus made famous by Mr. T. The Los Angeles Times has an interview with Mr. Rampage (I don’t know what to call him), and as it turns out, the guy thinks his new profession is a little bit… “gay”. His words. Mr. Rampage is on such a hardcore Gay Watch that he even declares that Vancouver is a “San Francisco kind of place”. He’s like two seconds away from declaring a whole country gay, I swear. Here are the homoerotic outtakes (full LAT piece here):

A movie crew member had wandered in on this final day of principal photography and — whether jokingly or not — called the muscle-bound movie star a homophobic epithet. Jackson had responded with barely contained fury. He threw the guy out, shouting him down with every conceivable gay slur. “You’re a punk!” Jackson finally bellowed.

He claimed the crew member’s intent had been to provoke a physical assault. “That … wanted me to punch him so he could sue me,” the professional body-slammer explained.

“Acting is kind of gay,” Jackson said. “It makes you soft. You got all these people combing your hair and putting a coat over your shoulders when you’re cold. I don’t want a coat over my shoulders! I’m a tough-ass [individual]! Vancouver [where A-Team was filmed] strikes me as a San Francisco-kind of place. And I don’t want [individuals] getting ideas about me. I feel in my heart I’m the toughest [individual] on the planet. And I don’t want nothing changing my train of thought. If you don’t believe that when we step inside the octagon, it shows.”

“I’ve had the chance to do other movie roles before but I took the fights instead,” he said. “I was supposed to do ‘Transporter 2,’ ‘Wolverine.’ But I couldn’t do it because UFC was in the way.”

That all changed, though, when Jackson caught wind that writer-director John Singleton (“Boyz N the Hood”) was moving an “A-Team” adaptation toward production. “It was the whole reason I wanted to act,” Jackson said. The two took a meeting about 2 1/2 years ago but the project stalled. Enter writer-director Joe Carnahan (“Narc,” “Smokin’ Aces”) with a revamped “A-Team” screenplay. And on the heels of casting call No. 2, the Ultimate Fighter bested a Who’s Who of pop cultural heavyweights — rappers Common and Ice Cube and celebrated street brawler Kimbo Slice among them — to nab the role. “I was destined to play this part!” Jackson exclaimed.

Back in his trailer, with his UFC future still in doubt, Jackson left little mystery about the downside of movie stardom. He blamed the film’s assistant directors for keeping him on-set needlessly and railed against what he calls moviemaking’s hierarchy system.

“Here, there’s a thing called ‘pecking order,’ ” Jackson said. “I’m not used to that. People can be really inconsiderate of people’s feelings. I wasted three weekends in a row waiting in my trailer when they didn’t use me at all. To be honest, my experience in this movie industry hasn’t always been good.”

“I always thought from the beginning, if this movie is going to work, it’s going to rise and fall on the person playing B.A.,” Bradley Cooper said in Vancouver. “Mr. T was so iconic and so much a part of ‘The A-Team’ TV show — so much of what I think of when I think of ‘The A-Team’ — that whoever plays that, if you get it right, 80% of the movie’s already a success.”

So how’d Jackson do?

“In my opinion, he’s the best B.A. there could be,” Cooper said. “It feels like a real coming out moment for Rampage.”

[From The Los Angeles Times]

You know what I thought when I saw they quoted Bradley Cooper? “Oohh, I bet Bradley and Rampage did not get along AT ALL.” If Mr. Rampage is prepared to declare a whole city is gay (“Vancouver… the gayest city in all of Gay Canada” is a tagline I keep hearing), what’s stopping him from saying that about Bradley Cooper, a man who beeps on many people’s gaydars? For that matter, what’s stopping Mr. Rampage from declaring that Liam Neeson is a “little fruity” or something like that?

Here’s the latest trailer from The A-Team, by the way. Patrick Wilson is in it! I didn’t know that. Totally gay.

Spike TV's 2007 "Video Game Awards" - Arrivals

Spike TV's First Annual "Guys Choice" - Arrivals

Header: Mr. Rampage on December 8, 2007. Credit: WENN.

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27 Responses to “Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, star of ‘The A-Team’: “Acting is kind of gay””

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  1. Dorothy says:

    This guy makes me angry…

  2. Angel says:

    Eh. He has a pretty average record. 77% win rate, I believe. He’s no Anderson Silva. But I get what he means — you have to believe you are going to win every fight or you’ll be torn apart. This is why Sociopaths are so dazzlingly successful. Until they kill someone.

    I hate when people use gay to mean docile, lame, soft, et cetera. It’s so ignorant.

  3. scotchy says:

    ha ha,kaiser this is priceless

    i live outside of vancouver, and now if anyone asks me why i chose to leave such a beautiful city i am officially going to say it’s because it is the gayest city in all of gay Canada.
    What a moron.
    i really hope they don’t let this meathead do anymore interviews.

  4. ViktoryGin says:

    Sigh……………….

    Don’t care about this movie. Don’t care about this man, but I had to comment.

    My friend is sitting on my bed, and when I briefly told her about this story we were both like, “What part of the South (USA) is he from?”

    So, I went over to IMDB. Lo and Behold: Memphis, Tennessee.

    Okay, I know I’m going to step on some toes here, but where there’s smoke there’s often a fire. This type of unregenerate ignorance is “typical black southern male”. His comments do not surprise me in the least. I am very well-acquainted with this stubborn, over-compensatory, small-minded attitude as I’m from Texas. Too many black men from the south are reactionary and defensive. And what is, is thinly veiled fear. Fear to try anything new, particularly when “new” seems to challenge their concept of “blackness”. While I completely understand the origins, this mental framework is limiting. I meet black southern men who challenge the norm, of course, but for every atypical one there are 5 who are true to type. Looks like I can toss this dude in with the latter.

  5. embertine says:

    Hmmm, this gentleman thinks acting is “gay” and makes you soft, and then complains that people have been inconsiderate of his feelings?
    CALL THE WAAAAHMBULANCE

    Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

  6. M says:

    Because using the word “gay” is so bad-ass right? No…it just makes you look like a moron.

  7. LindyLou says:

    I think this dude has been kicked in the head too many times. He needs a handler to control what he says to the media for sure. Idiot.

  8. Guest says:

    Kaiser I totally agree that I bet Rampage and Cooper were not the best of friends off set. And I love Cooper’s quote:

    “In my opinion, he’s the best B.A. there could be,” Cooper said. “It feels like a real coming out moment for Rampage.”

    Anyone else think the use of “coming out moment” was a nod by Cooper to Rampage’s obvious fear of homosexuality? I wouldn’t be surprised if he worded his comment in that way to get a rise out of him.

  9. MO says:

    Well, your “fight” against Rashad over the weekend was pretty “gay” too. I was a huge Rampage fan before he decided to talk the talk but couldn’t back it up worth crap – but asks for a rematch. He could have beat the crap out of Evans if he would have continued when he hurt him in the third round but he danced with him and gave him time to recover and ended up losing.

  10. Kaboom says:

    I wouldn’t open my mouth on the subject if I was prancing around in such fruity clothing like him.

  11. lilred says:

    I think he’s protesting waaaaaay too much.(wink)

  12. nj says:

    He sounds like a real moron. He’s pissed about a pecking order-probably annoyed that Bradley Cooper is a bigger star. Hello? Bradley is coming off of a monster hit and has paid his dues. This is how its done, Rampage, and not just in Hollywood.
    And my adoration (be he gay or not) of Bradley Cooper just tripled when I heard the coming out comment.

  13. gobo says:

    @8; Yeah, I was thinking pretty much the exact same thing.

  14. lucy2 says:

    “I think this dude has been kicked in the head too many times.”
    LOL, that probably sums it up.

    The more a person uses “gay” as an insult, the more I think hmm, probably closeted or in denial themselves.
    And it’s pretty funny that he considers acting gay, since his other job involved 2 men in little shorts rolling around on the floor and hitting each other.

  15. scotchy says:

    @lucy2
    i couldn’t agree with you more.

  16. cjp says:

    Mabe it was just me but i didnt get the feeling he was using it to be anti-homosexual, i think he was saying that all the primping and prodding that actors engage in doesnt fit his tough guy image. like he felt instead that rolling in some mud would be more manly. i do think his language could be a lot better, but do we really think he’d fit in in San Francisco? i believe thats what he was saying. he just needs a better PR rep

  17. filthycute says:

    closet queen.

  18. lizzyxo says:

    I bet Rampage hate Cooper, but I bet Cooper loved to mess with Rampage.

  19. Maj. Quagmire says:

    Rampage, you rule. Still got mad respect from me!!

  20. Miranda Ann says:

    This type of unregenerate ignorance is “typical black southern male”.
    ***

    Not just black southern male; black males in general are homophobic; they don’t have to be from the South. It’s a macho thing. You have to be “tough” to be a “real” man in the black community and even being friends or related to a “queer” makes you suspect. You really have to live in it to understand it. It is total hell for a black man to be gay anywhere outside of NY and SF (or maybe a few other big cities). I feel sorry for any gay black man.

    As for Mr. Rampage, I think he might be over compensating. Or, maybe the producers of A-Team are telling him to talk like this because it would make him more acceptable to the “bad ass” black people out there. I don’t know but, really, it’s unnecessary. Mr. T never seem to say things like that. Maybe it’s because he was naturally bad-ass and not just a poseur. (Mr. T is actually quite sweet and kind, especially to children.)

  21. VV says:

    Maybe the ladies of Vancouver weren’t buying what Rampage was selling, prompting his lil comment about the city. I don’t think he’s a closet homosexual so much as a low class lughead that most women don’t have time for…

    I seem to recall him humping a reporter once, like basically sexually harassing her during an interview so that kinda gives you an idea of how he operates.

    Yeah. Smooth. I dunno why women wouldn’t want that kinda treatment!

    Although I have to say, not a fan of Vancouver. Okanagan all the way!

  22. Mistral says:

    I love Vancouver 🙂

    This guy has some odd hang-ups! Sorry buddy, but you’ll never be Mr. T! There is only one Mr. T and he still could have/should have played B. A. Baracus 🙂

  23. dancingnancie81 says:

    uh, he’s wearing a jacket that cannot button in the front, i.e. making it a style statement, not a practicality. Gay.

    And it’s got a big green dragon on it dude.

  24. onyx says:

    sorry, I kinda agree. what kind of job is acting anyways? you step in front of a camera and pretend to be something you’re not while people hover around you and powder and poof you until you’re unrecognizable. oh, yeah, and then they pay you crazy that’s money for doing what? sounds pretty… I’m so pretty and happy and gay.. sorry, got side tracked!

  25. Emily says:

    @lizzyxo, totally! I’m imagining Cooper just full on baiting him all day for the entire shoot, with Rampage only occasionally understanding what was being said.

    That “coming out” comment from Cooper just made me like him. Brilliant.

  26. GatsbyGal says:

    Hahahaha, what he said was actually pretty funny and true. I mean, here we have this tough-as-nails UFC fighter who gets punched in the face repeatedly for a living, and suddenly people are putting foundation on his face and fussing over his clothing…it’s really no surprise to me that he looks around and thinks “wow, this is super gay.”

  27. hopscotch says:

    Odd, cause every picture I’ve ever seen him in promoting this film, he’s draped all over the other cast members. He and the dude from District 9 always look like, two inches away from making out.