Ice Cube has admitted he did push his son a little into playing him in Straight Outta Compton, because he didn’t want him to miss the opportunity.

O’Shea Jackson Jr plays his rapper father in the film about the rise and fall of rap group NWA, which featured Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Dr Dre, DJ Yella and MC Ren.

Ice Cube revealed: “I don’t know if I was pushy, maybe a little bit, as far as pushing him to get it, get the role. Do what he has to do to man this great, great opportunity. I was probably pushy up until then.

“But I didn’t want to be up until the point where I was asking him to do something he didn’t want to do. So I pushed him at the beginning and then I backed off to just see if he would take the lead and run with it.

N.W.A. as they appear in biopic Straight Outta Compton
Straight Outta Compton tells the story of rap group NWA (Jaimie Trueblood/Universal)

“‘Cause if I had to push him the whole way, then he don’t wanna do the movie. He’s just doing it for me.

“So I saw him get laser-focused, I saw him work with many acting coaches in LA, New York and then I saw him embody this role like a seasoned actor. He did a masterful performance.”

And O’Shea insisted he was not nervous about playing his dad.

He said: “I wasn’t nervous about playing him, I was nervous about being in a movie you know? I had never acted or anything like that.

“I heard these stories my whole life, I felt like I needed to be in on set, I needed to be with the cast because it would further increase the authenticity of Straight Outta Compton.”

Straight Outta Compton is released on Friday, August 28.