Kid Cudi Beefs Up Acting Skills for ‘How To Make It In America’

Kid Cudi is gearing up for his return to television on the HBO series 'How to Make It in America,' and this season he promises some changes in his acting ability.

After the season ended, Cudi looked over tapes of the show to pinpoint where he could make improvements. "This season, my character has a lot more depth than the first season, and one of the things that I really took seriously was preparing. I got an acting coach; I wanted to step it up," he told MTV. "With anything that I'm doing, I always want to take it to the next level-- whether it's music or acting.

"One thing that I did, I studied the first season, I studied my performance. I knew that I was gonna get a lot more this season. I wanted to deliver. I wanted to make the people at HBO happy. I wanted to make my management happy. The biggest lesson I've learned, I guess, is just the focus part of it, transforming into this character. First season, my character was in six out of eight episodes, and I kinda' popped up and I was here and there, and my character was more perceived as the party guy. But I really did what I could with the first [season] without having many skills."

Cudi plays the role of Domingo Dean in the series, which is based around two friends living in New York City, and trying to succeed in the fashion industry. Produced by actor Mark Wahlberg, who is also responsible for the HBO fan favorite 'Entourage,' the show debuted in February of last year. Upon accepting the part of Dean, Cudi revealed that his descent into the acting world was an attempt to branch out of music and do something outside of his "comfort zone."

On the music front, the former "lonely stoner" is working with his new band, 2 Be Continuum, and setting up shop with his new label, Wicked Awesome Records. He's released one song with the band, 'Perfect Is the Word,' thus far.