Nicky Jam dreams of having a star in Hollywood

Nicky Jam has received music awards such as Billboard and Latin Grammy, but nothing would make him happier as a star on the Walk of Fame.

It’s something he considers possible as he concentrates on developing his fledgling career in Hollywood, where he has already appeared in major productions such as “XXx: Return of Xander Cage” (“xXx: reactivated”) and “Bad Boys for Life” (“Bad Boys forever”), where he debuts his first animated role, Butch, in the new film “Tom & Jerry ”(“ Tom and Jerry ”).

“It’s my dream. More than an Oscar, more than a Grammy, more than anything, because my kids, my grandchildren, can walk the street and see my name on the Hollywood floor,” said the stairs and reggaeton star Wednesday to The Associated Press in an interview via Zoom from Miami. “It’s huge. It’s something I know I’ve been working on, and I don’t see it that far! “

Set in New York, “Tom & Jerry” combines settings and real-life actors (including Chloë Grace Moretz and Michael Peña, plus a cameo from Ozuna) with animated characters. It is an adaptation of the Hanna-Barbera classic that reveals how the famous domestic cat and the mischievous mouse met and became rivals.

Butch is the leader of a gang of stray cats who make the lead cat’s life more difficult. And to interpret it, Jam was inspired by “how Puerto Ricans speak when they come from the streets”.

As I am a Puerto Rican who grew up in the United States, it is very easy for me to emphasize, that slang in English, because it was the one I grew up with, ”said the musician with a Dominican mother and a Puerto Rican father, who was born outside of Boston but moved to Puerto Rico as a child.

“I also had the director (Tim Story) in front of me and he asked me, ‘How would you do it?’ So I threw myself the “are you laughing at me? You know what I do with cats that laugh at me” (Are you laughing at me? You know what I do with cats that make fun of me) “he added gracefully and made the His character’s hoarse voice. “I gave him that life of mine, you understand me? I imagined myself in that situation.”

What would Butch sound like singing Nicky Jam songs?

“Well I hope so. I hope they will sing Butch soon, that would be super cool. But since he was the bad guy in this case, the bad guys don’t sing much,” said the performer of hits like “The lover”, ” Until dawn “and” El perdón “smiling. “With the grace of God I do the following animation.”

Jam, who is completely bilingual, has also voiced Butch for the Spanish version of the film. This, he said, was what posed the greatest challenge to him.

“In English it was really easy because the animations weren’t ready, I was interpreting the voices when they came out,” he explained. “But in Spanish I had to see the animations and calculate the time (to make it fit exactly). It took me almost five hours to do it! But it was cool. It turned out really good and I really enjoyed it ”.

As a father of four, he was excited to finally be able to show them the movie, but the proudest in his family was undoubtedly his father, a ‘super fan’ of ‘Tom & Jerry’ who called on him to congratulate him wholeheartedly. ever.

“I said, ‘Daddy, I made movies with Vin Diesel, Will Smith!’ And he says, “No, Daddy, none of those people are bigger than Tom and Jerry.” So I put a sentimental value on the project because you always want to make your dad happy and for your dad to be proud of something, and it makes me very happy ”.

Now he’s preparing for “American Sole,” about the culture and side issues of tennis, where young people get rich by selling exclusive shoes online for thousands of dollars. “I am one of the toughest tennis collectors,” he said of his role. The film, produced by Kevin Hart, will also feature a performance by Bad Bunny.