Mandela Van Peebles is the star of his father’s new film, “We the Party,” opening in theaters today. The 17-year-old budding teen actor recently chatted with next Movie.com about the new film, his famous father Mario Van Peebles, and more. Check out some of the interview highlights below:

On the movie poster you strike a Michael Jackson pose on your toes. There are a lot of new dances featured in “We the Party,“ like the Dougie. Can you do them all?
I do not dance often. It’s true there’s a lot of dancing [in the film]. I could do the Dougie, but I don’t dance anymore, ’cause gangsters don’t dance.

What about the scenes acting opposite your father?
We’re pretty close. It’s coming out of love. He loves me and he wants the best for me, so if he’s saying, “Look, you really should work on this scene. You don’t know your lines well enough,” I try my best to work on it. If I have a booger in my nose, he’s going to tell me. At the same time, it’s kind of a symbiotic relationship. If he’s trying to make the movie young and fresh, I try and help him out as far as what teens would say, how to ad-lib the lines and stuff like that.

Whose career in Hollywood would you most like to have?
Will Smith is an amazing guy. I would say he has had a very cool career, it seems. He’s able to make his own movies. He put his son in it. It kind of mirrors [the working relationship I have with] my dad.

Why does everyone in your family’s first name begin with M? (Melvin, Mario, Megan, Max, Maya, Makaylo, Morgana, Marley)
Our initials are MVP.

What’s your favorite music these days?
Actually I like Bob Dylan, but I like rap a lot as well. One of my favorite rappers currently is Future from Atlanta, and he sings this song “Tony Montana.” But that’s not my favorite song or anything. I downloaded his new mix tape and it’s pretty good. I listen to a new mix tape every week. But YG [who plays C.C. in "We the Party"] just dropped 400 Degrees so I’m going to hop on that soon, probably next week.

We The Party opens in theaters today.

Read the entire interview at NextMovie.com

Photo: Philly.com