Jerry Heller is mad as hell about his portrayal in Straight Outta Compton.
The former manager of N.W.A. spoke with TMZ about his irritation with the film's success and Oscar buzz, calling his portrayal "demeaning and degrading."
"Everybody all over the world is going to think that about me," he says.
Played by Paul Giamatti, Heller was painted as a sleazy manager who kept money from the performers and only cared about Eazy-E's career. After the film was released, he filed a $110 million lawsuit last November against Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E's widow Tomica Woods-Wright.
[seealso slug="straight-outta-compton-review"]
Heller believes his negative portrayal in the film was religiously motivated, citing Cube's 1991 diss song "No Vaseline" as an example of the rapper's anti-semitism.
"It’s always easier to take a shot at the white Jew," he says. "He sort of felt that I ... took Eazy's side against him."
Heller also shared a bizarre story about coming into the office one day to find the rappers plotting to kill Suge Knight (a storyline that does appear in the film), a divisive figure looming over the group.
'Eazy says 'I think we should kill him,'" he says. "I said 'Let me just think this through for a second' ... I talked him out of it."