Change for 50 Cent

Fans of 50 Cent may feel that they know the rapper through his music. But Curtis Jackson, who created and lives in the 50 Cent persona, is another person altogether. “Get Rich or Die Tryin’ ” – the new feature film that tells Jackson’s life story, with him in the starring role – is intended to clue people in on the differences. “If they know the things that I’ve been through in my past, it’ll help them make judgments on the things they see me do in the future,” he said during a recent interview in a Manhattan hotel.

“People pass judgment on me over and over. Different media outlets and publications publicize things about me, and people take those things for pure fact, and they read it and they assume who I am without actually experiencing being around me at any point.”

Not surprisingly for someone whose early claim to fame was being shot nine times at once, Jackson’s image is one of violence. Billboards for the movie, showing him with a gun in one hand and a microphone in the other, were removed following protests in Philadelphia and San Diego.

But hanging with Jackson is indeed a departure from what we’ve come to expect from rappers, who so often feel they have a gangster pose to maintain. Gentle and soft-spoken, giving of himself and his time, he’s just about the furthest thing from the 50 Cent the public sees.

Screenwriter Terence Winter, who spent two months on tour with the rapper as research, confirms that this isn’t just an act for the press.

“The thing that struck me more than anything was how dull it was. I guess I was expecting some sort of insanity and it just didn’t happen,” said Winter about being on the road with 50 Cent.

“I’m telling you, he’s up at 7 in the morning, he works out, he’s all about business. I’m sure sex was happening; he can’t really walk down the street without women throwing themselves at him. But I don’t think I saw him drink anything but vitamin water.”

“The biggest misperception is that I have bad intentions,” said Jackson, who sees his new movie, directed by Irishman Jim Sheridan (“In America,” “My Left Foot”), as an opportunity to change some people’s minds.

“I’d rather them judge me on this film than the information they’ve received prior to this,” he said.

He isn’t the first rapper to see a loose version of his life story transferred to the big screen; Eminem made a similar move with the 2002 film “8 Mile.” But the story of Jackson’s upbringing in Queens is considerably grittier.

His mother, who dealt drugs, was killed when he was 8.

“They just put something in her drink and turned on the gas to cut off her oxygen,” said Jackson. “In the movie they used gasoline to make it more visual, because you can’t see the gas.”

Jackson doesn’t know who his father is, and has no interest in finding him.

“My mother, when I was younger, she used to tell me things to make me feel special about not having my father around, because I’d ask questions, and she told me that I was born through the immaculate conception,” he said.

Raised by his grandparents, Jackson, now 30, began selling drugs at an early age, achieving great success in the illegal trade. After serving a stint in prison for it, and having a son, he began cleaning up his act – but not before his past caught up with him one night. He was shot nine times, twice in the head.

He made a full recovery, and began to focus on rap. The rest is music history; earlier this year 50 Cent became the first artist to simultaneously have four songs in Billboard’s top 10 since the Beatles in 1964.

His debut album, also called “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” was the top seller of 2003, moving more than 8 million copies in the United States alone. “The Massacre,” his follow-up, is the top seller of 2005 at about 5 million so far.

Jackson also has his own sneaker line with Reebok; his own record label, G-Unit, featuring popular rappers like Young Buck, Tony Yayo, Mobb Deep and Ma$e; the G-Unit clothing line; and a video game, “Bulletproof,” debuting this month.

“I don’t feel like ambition is a learned behavior, I believe it’s part of a person’s character,” he said. “For me, regardless of how much finances I acquire, what really makes me happy is setting new goals and accomplishing them.

“At one point, I was the only one who believed I was good. For a long period of time. My grandparents, I love them to death, but they thought I was a little off.”

To hear screenwriter Winter tell it, it was misplaced ambition that got Jackson in trouble, not the drugs themselves.

“He said he was never addicted to crack, he was addicted to selling crack. I don’t think he’s ever used it, but he became so obsessed with money,” Winter said.

“If you’re a drug dealer and you’re in bed at 3 o’clock in the morning, you know that all you have to do is stand out on the corner and there are people there to give you money.”

The movie recounts an incident when Jackson was 17 and had his eyes on a Range Rover at a nearby auto dealership. The salesmen wouldn’t give him the time of day, until Jackson showed up with a duffle bag full of enough cash to buy the vehicle on the spot.

“He drove out of there with a Range Rover and no driver’s license and dealer plates,” said Winter.

Jackson has traded in many vehicles since then. His wheels of choice today?

“I got a black Suburban outside,” he said. “Well, I got three of them.”

But he denies that money is still the obsession for him today that it was when he was younger.

“It’s just as important as it is for you,” he said. “When I wake up in the morning, when I’m at home, I wake up in a house where the man who owned it before me earned $500 million in his career and he doesn’t have that money anymore.”

That would be Mike Tyson. Jackson lives in the troubled boxer’s former mansion in Farmington, Conn.

“It reminds me that I have to be conscious of everything that I’m doing, regardless of how successful I become,” he said.

Jackson isn’t sure whether he’ll act again; he’s not ruling it in or out.

“Of course, in the future, there’ll be a point where I’m not running around rapping. I’ll be executive producing,” he said.

A career trajectory similar to that laid out by rap mogul Sean (Diddy) Combs appears to be Jackson’s unstated goal.

But even though he’s living within the law now, with gunmen no longer as likely to jump him on a dark street, Jackson will always be watching his back, in more ways than one.

“Two things happen when you become successful and you’re from the bottom,” he said. “People either are inspired by it or they envy it.

“Those are the facts, you know, so knowing the possibilities, I take precautions that probably a person who hasn’t come from there probably wouldn’t bother to take.”