Please introduce yourself. What do you do? Why? What do you want people to know about you?
Idris “IICE” Pearson is a writer, director, former Christian hip hop artist, actor, and radio host. He was born and raised in Columbia, SC and is the CEO of Children Of God (C.O.G.) Entertainment which he established in 2011. He recently released his second short film, Forgiveness, which has been accepted into multiple film festivals.
Idris has won best director at the Redhawk Crescent Indie Awards as well. Though he is more comfortable behind the camera, he will also step in front of the camera, giving his all to bring a character to life. Idris’ motto is “In order to lead you must first follow.” One of his favorite quotes, which came from Nelson Mandela is, “I never lose, I either win or learn.”
What qualities make you different and unique from everyone else in the industry?
What makes me different is understanding that there isn’t anything in the film industry that hasn’t been, but being able to take a story and make it unique for the audience to fall in love with.
Describe THAT moment when you realized you’re doing what you were born to do.
The moment I realized that writing and directing is what I was born to do was when I was on set without my mentors, and I realized that I was leading the team without thinking. I had the feeling that I was invincible and couldn’t be touched by anything or anyone.
What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve had to go through and how did you grow through it?
My biggest challenge that I had to go through was being confident. Confidence was a constant struggle because I did not go to school for film and I was either surrounded around those that went to school or has done it longer than I had. How I got through this was realizing that there were so many directors that did not go to school for film and then I honed in on what I wanted to do and studied the craft to not only be good, but be great.
Who are the TOP 3 people you’d want to meet?
My top three people I would like to meet are:
1) Spike Lee – Spike is an icon and I would want to meet him to evolve as a writer and director, but also because he always wanted to help build careers.
2)Quentin Tarantino – another icon, but I would like to sit with him, because to get an understanding of the unique way of his writing style and why he does the thing that he do.
3) Ryan Coogler – I would want to sit with Ryan to see what his mindset was to direct Black Panther and what it was like to go from short films to feature films.
Drop your social media links.
https://www.facebook.com/IIce803
https://instagram.com/idris_iice_pearson?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=