Common Lights Up ‘Smokin’ Aces’ With Keys

As far as first films go, Common says he had it pretty good working on 'Smokin' Aces.' Hard to argue, as he gets to work with Jermey Piven and Alicia Keys, whom we says definitely made things easier for him. "She's passionate about what she does and she brought that to her character. And I had a good time doing that because I love being able to express love and romance, too. It felt good to be able to do that with a beautiful person that was open to being creative."

Common expressed some love of a different kind at the L.A. premiere party, where he performed at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with Kanye West and Talib Kweli. "I wanted that premiere party to be something special, so I knew I wanted these certain artists to be there to perform," he says.

He wants people everywhere to know about the film and feel the enthusiasm he has for it. "I feel like because I'm part of a movie I'm going to promote it like it's my album, no matter how many lines I got in the movie, or how few lines," he says. "Anything I do, I want it to have quality and integrity. If I put my soul into it, I want as many people as possible to experience it."