Ice Cube Gets Hot In New Thriller

Ice Cube may have started his career as a rapper, but with three hit films, he is now also a certified movie star. The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith reports that his latest movie finds him playing a reluctant hero in "XXX: State of the Union."

Vin Diesel starred in the first "XXX" but he did not sign up for the sequel. Samuel L. Jackson is back, however. Says Ice Cube, "I loved the first one. When I saw the first one, I said, 'Man, that should be me!' Yeah. That went through my mind."

So when he was asked to take on the part, he did not hesitate.

"Once I knew that they were going to make me a whole new agent and I wasn't trying to play Vin's character," adds Ice Cube, "because that's the problem that James Bond had, trying to get a new guy to play the same guy. Once I knew I was a whole new agent, I could totally make it for me."

Smith pointed out that Ice Cube had been a familiar presence on the big screen in such movies as "Boyz in the Hood" and in the "Barbershop" films. But "XXX: State of the Union" is his first real no-holds-barred action film.

"Big-time blockbuster movie is definitely a big step in my career," Ice Cube acknowledges. "I've done movies like 'Three Kings, 'Torque,' 'Ghosts of Mars.' A little action, but this is a big blockbuster."

Is it fun to do?

"It looks like fun. But it's a lot of hard work," he replies. "You got to have a lot of stamina. I think about all the action guys, like Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis and all the movies that they've put together. Nothing but respect for them."

In order to get in shape for the physical demands of the movie, Ice Cube did some serious training.

"You know, about six months of weightlifting, boxing, close-quarter combat, you know, swimming, running. Everything I could do to get myself ready for this movie."

In the movie, Ice Cube plays a guy from the outside, trying to convince a guy on the inside that he's really there to do good.

"I'm a guy who is a reluctant hero," he says. "But once I get into it, I'm trying to convince the real suits that it's a major thing going on at the state of the union address, and we need to take care of it."

From his own perspective, Ice Cube has said that he sees himself not as an A-list, but as an actor on the "B-plus list." Now, he says, "But with this movie, hopefully, I'll be on the A-list now."

And what would that mean to him?

"Well, you know, it just means that I'm at the top of my game, as far as movies," he explains. "I've been at the top of my game in music before, so to get there in movies, you know, is a big deal for me, my career, my future career. Nationally. You know, everything that I want to do in movies stems from what list you're on."

Next for Ice Cube is a remake of a 1948 Cary Grant movie, "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House."

"We're talking about making a modern version of that," he says. "Anybody who has a house or try to build a house knows that it's a money pit and you're never done with it. So we wanted to kind of enhance that, make a contemporary version of it."