Check Yourself: LL Cool J left his confrontational rap star image at the door to become a humble actor learning his craft.

The name LL Cool J still triggers images of the pumped-up boast-rap prince who broke onto the scene at age 16, clad in his trademark Kangor hat and white Pumas, thick gold chain over a bare chest, rocking the mic with sex-charged rhymes. Always oozing innuendo, his music took surprising turns, displaying a style that ranged from rough-edged street-speak to his recording of the first rap love ballad ever, "I Need Love."

But sit down with the performer today, 15 years after his first single, and one finds a mature artist on the verge of proving his versatility on yet another front. An intimidatingly enormous man with a childlike, dimpled smile, Cool J exudes a humble seriousness with regard to his craft. His other craft, that is.

His most recent screen performances-as the comical chef Dudley in Renny Harlin's Deep Blue Sea, who becomes the film's unlikely hero, roaming the marine compound with his pet parrot perched on his shoulder, or as the charming yet brutal crime lord named God in Michael Rymer's soon-to-be-released In Too Deep-are proof that the actor has earned his props, so to speak. Yet Cool J is the first to admit that despite the advantages he may have had as an already well-known artist, making the transition into the acting world presented him with a series of intense challenges.

"I had to overcome a lot of fears before I could really commit, get focused, be serious about acting," Cool J explained. "At one point, I didn't even want to take off my hat, I wanted to just be who I was. But when you act, you have to allow yourself to be vulnerable. You have to allow yourself to tap into a lot of emotions that you may not want to deal with.

"Some of those feelings would get conjured up when I would do various roles and it was uncomfortable for me at that time. As I matured a little bit, I realized that it was almost therapeutic in a sense, and that craft has a real healing power over actors if they allow themselves to really delve into it."

Stage Coached

Though Cool J is hesitant to make generalizations relating the craft of performing rap to that of acting, his autobiography makes it clear that even at 15, he had taken on a mentor and was well on his way to becoming a dedicated student of the art of live performance. In the book I Make My Own Rules, Cool J explains the impact of meeting up with manager Cornell Clark-a choreographer, nutritionist, singer, and martial artist who at the time was managing rap greats like Kurtis Blow and the Fearless Four.

"Cornell taught me little tricks of the trade, like stage presence-how to command an audience," writes the rapper, whose moniker stands for "Ladies Love Cool James" but who was born James Todd Smith in St. Albans, NY. "He taught me how to project my voice and keep it strong, how to breathe. He taught me karate and how to stretch. He had danced with the Alvin Ailey troupe back when, and he knew a lot of techniques."

It was Clark who encouraged Cool J to hang out on the set of the Doug McHenry's 1985 rap movie, Krush Groove, in which he was eventually given the opportunity to rap a part of his second single, "I Can't Live Without My Radio."

"I was on the set so much every day, begging to get on camera, that I became an extra to the fifth power," he writes.

Performing other small roles in Wildcats, and in The Hard Way, Cool J was later given a role in the television series Out of Sync, an opportunity he credits to the kindness of producing mogul Quincy Jones. Yet it was not until Toys (1992) that Cool J was given a major role in a feature film, playing opposite Robin Williams and Joan Cusack as the toy factory owner's neurotic son ,who marches through the film in a surreal military uniform, thinking up ideas for war-related toys.

Despite his impressive performance in Toys, Cool J admitted that it was still a challenge for him to convince directors and audiences of his versatility.

"Of course you had people who said, "As soon as I see LL in a movie it's going to take me out of the film and make me think of something else.' Then there were people who didn't think I had the chops. I don't allow that to discourage me. You're always going to have people who doubt, naysayers. I just do what I do."

Doing what he does, he managed to capture director Renny Harlin's attention with his performance as the amateur romance novelist/security guard in Halloween: H20, and land another comical role in Deep Blue Sea.

"With Deep Blue Sea, they gave me a great character that I got to have a lot of fun with," said Cool J.

Celestial Calling

But it was not until he took on the more challenging role of God in In Too Deep that Cool J's talent was truly put to the test. Indeed, Cool J identified it as one of the most demanding performances he has ever attempted.

"I thought it would be a good chance for me to occupy a different space as an actor, but the role was not the most enjoyable experience for me," he recalled. "I didn't talk to my kids a lot on the phone while we were filming. When you're working on something like that and you talk to the people you love, the people who you consider to be pure, you feel like you're polluting them. I enjoyed the challenge of the performance aspect, but it becomes a spell to a certain extent. The inner life of the character covers your inner life with something else."

In the case of In Too Deep, that something else was the twisted psychology of a ruthless crime lord. Cool J said he took inspiration from the villainous performances of Gene Hackman, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino in Scarface, and Marlon Brando as the Godfather. Describing his character, he remarked, "He has a lot a love in him and a lot of hate in him at the same time. It's like his soul is a vacuum, because he can love his kids and yet he furthers himself through murder. All the actions, the yelling, the anger, came from the dynamics of the scene, but when I broke down the character all the way and thought about that whole process, I saw that the framework was: I'm a businessman, and this is just the setting that I'm operating in."

Through this experience of playing God, the work he's done in the past years with his acting coach, and the opportunity he had to talk with Al Pacino while working on Oliver Stone's upcoming film, Any Given Sunday, Cool J has learned what he considers to be his most valuable lesson: "Don't judge the character. At the end of the day, most characters feel like their behavior is justifiable, and you can't allow your thinking to affect that thinking of the character through you."

Responding to the gripes commonly thrown at rapper-turned-actors, Cool J is frank about the advantages he's had, and the work he has left to do.

"I know I have to get better, get into the minutiae, the nuances of the craft, but I think that I'm carrying the roles. I think that when you look at my performance you can finally say, "He deserves the role.' Not like, "Why is he in that role?' "

And yes, he still auditions.

"You have to check your ego at the door sometimes, and walk the walk. I mean, I've already been afforded an opportunity that many actors who've been beating the pavement for a lot longer than me haven't been able to take advantage of, simply because of the marketing value and because of my connections in the world of entertainment. The least I can do is be serious, focused about acting, show some respect for the craft, and go through the process of auditioning." BSW