CRAVEONLINE: How is the acting thing going? 

Will.i.am: It’s kind of like performing on stage on tour. That’s the only thing I can really compare it to. Imagine you just flew from Rio De Janeiro and you connected in Dallas to refuel to fly to Tokyo. You get to Tokyo, right after you land you have to run to the car to catch a train to Yokohama to perform. Then right when you get on stage, you’re tired, you’re jet lagged, you don’t know what to feel because where are you? You can’t read anything and you have to get on stage to perform a song that you’ve performed eight times in three days. You know it by heart, everybody’s excited to see you. You just want to go to sleep. You want to use the restroom, you’re tired and you have to act like [you’re excited]. You have to find the emotion. That’s the only thing I can find similar to acting. It’s the world of touring and finding the emotion and the excitement when you’re not excited at all.

CRAVEONLINE: Are you happy with the results of Wolverine? 

Will.i.am: I haven’t seen the movie because I’m nervous seeing the movie. One, I’m a fan. I’m a fan of X-men. I’m here as a person in the movie but I’m also here as a fan. I’m like f*ck, that’s f*ckin’ Wolverine right there. But I’m like f*ck, I’m doing interviews too, but I’m a fan. Now, as a fan, if Usher had the part, I’d be mad. I’m just being honest. I’d be like what the f*ck, you get Usher, why don’t you just get a f*ckin’ actor? I see that guy dancing. I don’t want to see a guy dancing when I’m here to see f*ckin’ fighting. So I would be upset. So in a way, I’m like well, f*ck, I feel that way about me. So I’m nervous about seeing it because I don’t want to be mad at myself the way I’d be mad at Usher. So when I was filming the movie, I was really, really, really, really, really, really conscious about that, like I don’t want to mess this up. I really don’t want to mess it up. Gavin, I need you to help me out. You really have to be very, very critical and don’t be afraid to hurt my feelings. I’m letting go. In my world I direct and write, write the songs and come up with the idea and the concept and I’m not doing that this time. I’m vulnerable but I need you to be f*ckin’ violent verbally if I’m whack. If I suck, you need to say, “Will, that f*ckin’ sh*t sucks.” You need to let me know. You can’t be nice.

CRAVEONLINE: Did he? 

Will.i.am: Yeah, and I told Hugh, “Hugh, look, I’m really nervous because I don’t want to be the guy that messes this film up.” So Hugh helped me out a lot and I’m really nervous to see because I’m a fan. If I wasn’t a fan, I’d be like cool, I’ve got a cool gig, woo hoo. But because I’m a fan, I’m like damn, dude, f*ck, I hope I don’t f*ck that up. They might beat me up.

CRAVEONLINE: What kind of music did you listen to on the set of Wolverine? 

Will.i.am: I’m always making music so I had to stop because I had to focus. This was my first big thing. I took my studio there, at first, and then I got a whisperer, saying, “You should probably take your studio out of the trailer.” I was making beats in my off time because you’re sitting there and waiting a lot. So, I made about a thousand beats.

CRAVEONLINE: What was the most memorable moment of your first film? 

Will.i.am: For me, the whole trip. On the first airplane over to Sydney, I was excited. I was like, “Wow, this real!” This is my first big thing. Usually, I tour around the world with my friends when we’re going to sing in Sydney, but here I was, going by myself, for the first time, which was the total opposite of what I normally do. So, the whole memory was wonderful. I remember each day. But, the one that sticks out the most was the inauguration because I had just got finished performing and then, straight after that, I did CNN, rushed to the airplane, flew back and put on my Wraith suit. I remember staying on set that day, after doing the inauguration, and it was just two different worlds. Of course, I was excited and wanted to share, but I wanted to focus on what I was there to do. It was wonderful to see everybody’s face when I walked in. Everybody was excited and said, “Wow, we just saw it on TV!,” and I was like, “I was there!” The most memorable thing, for me, was that day.

CRAVEONLINE: When all the Peas do movies, does it matter which does better? 

Will.i.am: No, it doesn’t. I’m so happy about Taboo’s movie Street Fighter. Fergie’s movie, 9, is coming out this Christmas so it doesn’t matter. We’re just so happy that we can do things outside of Black Eyed Peas and still be the Black Eyed Peas. That’s rare. Most groups get egoed out and break up. We’ve got a special thing and this one’s pretty big. They’re supportive and they’re going to be there at the premiere. 

CRAVEONLINE: What’s your next project? 

Will.i.am: I’m doing some pieces of content around the environment with Al Gore. We’ve done one called Take Our Planet Back. I’m launching a lifestyle engine online. Some would call it a social network. I call it a lifestyle engine. It’s called Dip Dive. That’s where that piece of content’s at. The first piece of content that my lifestyle engine put out was Yes We Can. It’s music made for the internet rather than the internet borrowing music. Right now, most artists make music for records. We still make songs to be put on records and make videos for MTV and it ends up on the internet. With Dip Dive, my lifestyle engine, we make content for the internet to be shared, distributed. We call it batonning. Music, content, sketches, monologues, blogs that inspire people to pass it around like a baton. The first thing we did that was really successful was the piece of content I did for Obama. So that was done by the social network Dip Dive that we did. I’m doing that next and we have a partnership with Blackberry. Not exclusive but we’re working with Blackberry together on that. I’m doing this new Black Eyed Peas record, comes out June 9.