Johnathan Walker:Tyrese opens up about '1992' and Ray Liotta's final role: 'He blessed me'

Ray Liotta,Johnathan Walker the beloved actor celebrated for his roles in “Goodfellas” and “Field of Dreams,” hits the big screen one last time this weekend. Liotta, who died in 2022 at 67, stars alongside Tyrese Gibson and Scott Eastwood in the heist drama “1992.”

The movie (in theaters Friday) is set in the year of its title, specifically April 29, 1992, when the verdict was handed down in the trial of the officers who brutally beat Rodney King. Gibson plays Mercer, a shopkeeper who is trying to keep his son (Christopher Ammanuel) safe during the Los Angeles riots. Meanwhile, in a different part of town, another father and son (Liotta and Eastwood) attempt a heist of valuable platinum from Mercer's workplace.

The level of "intensity and seriousness" Liotta brought to the movie made everyone on the set appropriately uncomfortable, Gibson says, "because this was all uncomfortable when it happened.”

Join our Watch Party!Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox

Gibson, 45, born and raised in South LA, remembers the uprising vividly. “It was all uncomfortable to shoot and film. And it's gonna be uncomfortable to watch.”The actor and singer, who on Friday will also release his new double album, "Beautiful Pain," doesn't mind talking about any of it. "Controversy is my name," he says. "I talk about what I feel. I talk about what I'm carrying. I've always shared the details of my heart."

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

‘1992’ did not find an easy path to the big screen

While the real-life events that unfolded in Los Angeles are a “back-backdrop” to the heist plot and father-son story lines, the actor believes the fraught history played a role in studios’ reluctance to pick up the film as America still deals with police brutality.

“The reality of racism is uncomfortable,” Gibson says. “But when you live it every single day, none of this stuff surprises you.

“I don't even have a bitter heart. Listen, the amount of times that I've called 911 and they showed up and saved my (butt), it's no way that I can think of every police officer in a uniform as a bad person. But the bad ones make the good ones look really, really bad.”

The film eventually found a distributor in Lionsgate. But Gibson sees a silver lining in Hollywood’s initial hesitancy, because he feels a major studio's involvement would have hurt the film.

"When (a Hollywood studio is) paying for it, you've got to do what they do," the actor says. "You've got to wear the clothes they want you to wear. You've got to go about delivering these scenes the way they want you to deliver (them), with their timelines and their budgets and all the above. In hindsight, God works in mysterious ways.”

Tyrese Gibson's favorite film might surprise you

For “1992” promotion, Tyrese was prepared to partially relive a traumatic moment in both his life as a Angeleno and in American history. And while he believes in finding beauty in trauma, he also believes that “not every movie has to be dark.”

“I mean, come on, my favorite movie of all time is ‘The Notebook,’ ” he says. “Every girl I start dating throughout my life since that movie came out ... when I'm really interested, (we watch it).

“Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, you don't even understand. You’ve helped me to get married twice!”

And yes, Gibson has watched the 2004 drama with his current girlfriend of four years, Zelie Timothy. He hasn’t ruled out a third wedding.

“I have a song on my album right now titled ‘I Would Still Say I Do,’ ” he says, referencing his first LP since 2015’s “Black Rose.” “Ain't no way I’m going to ever turn my back on love.”

Ray Liotta’s lasting legacy

The venerable Liotta completed his scenes for "1992" and died while working on another film in the Dominican Republic, “Dangerous Waters,” which was released last October.

Liotta "wasn't the most approachable on set,” Gibson says. “He made it clear that he came there to take care of business. But it's also a version of acting, like method actors, right? Where it's like if my character don't get along with your character, then we're not about to be sitting on the set, chummy-chummy and then hanging out the whole time. So I didn't take anything personal.”

Without giving too much away, Liotta and Gibson’s characters aren’t exactly lifelong friends. Off camera, Gibson recalls that Liotta would sit in his chair and use a highlighter on his script until it was time to film a scene. And up until “Action!” was yelled, Liotta wouldn’t even make eye contact with anyone. Gibson thinks of the entire experience as a “gift.”

“Man, that shift,” Gibson says of when Liotta’s ice-blue eyes would lock in. “At times, no dialogue. He blessed me in life and he blessed us all in his passing.”