First, the acclaimed actor hit the red carpet at Georgia State’s Rialto Center for the Arts for a special Atlanta screening of his new action movie, Max Payne, which hits theaters today.
“I was told I’d be able to point a gun at Mark Wahlberg and get away with it, so I said I’m down, I’m good,” he says of his role as internal affairs agent, Jim Bravura. “I like picking diverse roles and doing stuff that I haven’t done before, so I just jumped right into it. I definitely liked playing an aggressive individual.”
Zoe, Keisha Knight-Pulliman, Killer Mike, V-103’s Elle Duncan and longtime associate, 107.9 host, Rashaan Ali were among Luda’s celebrity friends who showed up to support and walk the red carpet.
“We did a lot of premiers all over the place but I insisted that we have one here in our home town,” Luda said. “Plus, I used to go to this school and just bringing it home… there’s no words to explain it.”
Later, Luda headed around the block to the New Era Flagship store to unveil his new designer hat, a limited edition, crystal-studded, $125 baseball cap. Again, several stars showed up to help him celebrate the occasion, including former Danity Kane member D. Woods. New Era’s entertainment marketing manager, Jennifer Yu, expressed her excitement about having the veteran rapper aboard.
“He’s our first southern artist that we decided to partner with,” she said. “The only other one we did in music this year was Travis Barker.”
Luda also headed to his restaurant, Straits for some good eats and will also appear at the BET Hip Hop Awards tomorrow. At the end of the day, he’s glad to be back in the A, at least for a minute.
“It feels good [to be in Atlanta],” he said. “I’m passionate about this city.” -jacinta howard
