50 Cent has a reputation for being a tough guy. As someone who was shot nine times and survived, it’s no wonder. That image has translated into all walks of his life, be it threatening to “lay ya ass out” in his lyrics, shooting people up in games like Bulletproof and Blood in the Sand, or acting as a member of The Expendables in the film franchise of the same name.
These days, the G-Unit rapper has mostly left his hip-hop career behind, with his last album, Animal Ambition, released 11 years ago. While he’s been busy producing hit shows like Power, he’s also been starring alongside some of the most prominent actors on the big screen.
In 2018, he had a key role in the Christian Gudegast-directed movie Den of Thieves. The cast included Gerard Butler, Pablo Schreiber and Ice Cube’s son, O’Shea Jackson Jr, in a story following an elite LA County Sheriff’s Department unit clashing with the state’s most successful bank robbery crew.
The film was a success, making $80.5 million at the box office off a budget of $30 million. So much so that a sequel was released in January 2025. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera saw Butler and Jackson Jr reprising their roles, although 50 was absent from the cast.
Butler once admitted that he was disappointed by the version of 50 he met. In his head, he built up a personality that was the polar opposite of the man he is in real life. Although he was happy that he fulfilled one of his requests, part of him wished he hadn’t.
“He’s actually a complete gentleman, he’s hilarious!” he said on the Fitzy and Wippa show. “My girlfriend’s kid had a birthday and I asked maybe would he record a message. And I hate doing that kind of thing, you know, but this guy was like, ‘Not only am I going to record you a message, I’m going to call him in the middle of his birthday party!’”
“[50 Cent] said, ‘Are there any other artists that he likes because I’ll get them on the phone like that and I could even do a little thing and I could put them altogether!’ That’s who this man is.”
Despite 50 being a gentleman about the situation, Butler revealed he felt like hitting him. “I was actually disappointed myself,” he said. “I felt like slapping him about and saying, ‘When I ask you to do a video for my girlfriend’s kid, you tell me to go get lost, you don’t wan’t to speak to me again, and you don’t give a shit about the kid!’”
Rumours circulated that 50 and Butler had a rivalry, but they both dispelled them. Butler told Screen Rant, “It wasn’t rivalry. The second I heard that he was interested in being involved, literally I was, you know, Christian said, ‘By the way Fifty really wants to do the movie and play Enson.’ And I’m like, ‘No he doesn’t.’ And he goes, ‘No, he does.’ I go, ‘come on.’ And he goes, ‘Dude, he loves it, he really wants in.’”
He added, “So it was always different roles, but the second I knew he wanted to be involved, and then when I heard O’Shea Jackson wanted to be involved, then you go, ‘We got a movie.’ You know, we have a movie we know is going to be a great.”
