Machine Gun Kelly Doesn't Want To Be Called MGK When He Acts

Machine Gun Kelly doesn't want to be called MGK anymore. Well, almost.

Colson Baker is know in shorthand as MGK, but he says he won't be keeping the moniker when he takes to the big screen.

With the release of his new film, The Last Son, this month, Baker says he wants to be respectful to the art and has dropped his stage name.

Speaking about his decision to go with his birth name, the 31-year-old said it's important to have that separation between his music and his acting.

He told The Hollywood Reporter: "I think it’s more just out of respect for the art.

"If you’re looking at a Basquiat piece and you have feelings about him personally, is that fair to the art because of how you feel about him personally?"

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MGK Baker went on to explain that he also thinks it's far less confusing to drop his musical persona when he's acting.

"There is music and then there’s movies," he said.

"I don’t feel like being Inception in a person. Like, there’s a character inside of a character inside of a character inside of a character. I’d rather it just be me playing a character in one world and then me playing a character in another world."

The Last Son is an ultra-violent western, which sees Baker star as a gun-wielding outlaw.

But while this is a clear break away from the world of rap and hip-hop, the actor admitted that there was a slight crossover.

He told the publication: "I mean, sure, there’s the obvious, which is, ‘Oh, he has a machine gun and there’s ‘Machine Gun’ in his name'.

"But if you look at that character, he’s tortured in his own, unique way. He has an Oedipus complex. He has a present relationship with his mom, which is something that isn’t in my life."

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Speaking about Baker's character, the film's director, Tim Sutton, said there are hidden depths.

He said: "He’s looking for love.

"I think he’s chaos and he’s punk rock and he’s anarchic, but he’s also an abandoned child. And I think that’s what makes Colson so good in the role — he also had to work through that void.

"That’s what the character is all about. He’s Billy the Kid, if Billy the Kid were an existentialist."

But while some might scoff at a rapper moving into film, one of Baker's co-stars was mightily impressed by his ability.

Heather Graham, who plays his mother in the film, said: "When you start to work with someone like that, you think, 'Well, do they know what they’re doing?' And then when I worked with him, I really liked how raw he was. He’s just kind of this raw talent, which I think is really cool.

"I really had a fun time working with him. I felt we connected in the scenes and that he was really emotionally present."

Topics: Music, TV and Film, US News, Machine Gun Kelly

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers is LADbible's Editorial Lead. After graduating from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History, he went on to write for the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express. So as you can imagine, he’s spent many a night wondering just how useful that second language has been. But c'est la vie.

@SmithersDom