O’Shea Jackson is Ice Cube’s son. Soon, you’ll know Ice Cube as O’Shea’s dad.

O’Shea Jackson Jr. got his start as the guy who played his dad, the rapper/actor Ice Cube, in Straight Outta Compton, but his versatile screen work since raises the possibility that one day soon, Ice Cube will be known mainly as O’Shea’s dad.

Mention that to Jackson and you get a big laugh, the kind that comes easily to the young actor, who recently made his second publicity swing through Philadelphia (the first for Compton) to promote Long Shot, the Charlize Theron/Seth Rogen romantic comedy in which he plays Rogen’s biggest booster and best friend.

Jackson is a graduate of the USC film school, where he studied screenwriting, and his writer’s eye for a good role has helped him make shrewd choices (Ingrid Goes West, Den of Thieves) designed to show a broad range of on-screen skills.

In Long Shot, for instance, he plays Lance, a wealthy tech entrepreneur who’s been Rogen’s best friend since college, but the character is more than a sidekick. It’s Lance who pushes Rogen to believe he can date a woman (Theron) apparently out of his league, and late in the film we learn things about Lance so surprising (and fundamental to the film’s appeal) they can’t be revealed here.

In Long Shot, Jackson also got to do a different kind of acting – riffing in front of the camera with Rogen, who prefers an improvisational style.

“First of all, I knew I was going to hit it off with Seth right away. It was like our first meeting, and he shows up with his dog, Zelda, and that made me super-comfortable right away and certain that he was a good person, Jackson said.

When Jackson noticed my baffled look, he explained that Zelda is the name of a vintage Nintendo character that he and Rogen loved, a shared interest that instantly established a connection and cemented their friendship.

“The whole experience was great. Seth and Charlize and everybody made me feel very welcome, and the work was exciting. Seth isn’t afraid to stray from the script. That’s how he is. He uses that improv element to make the conversations seem real. He’s able to make that work, and it’s fun to be a part of. You’re really on your toes. For me, it was like back in film school days, where it’s all about energy and invention,” Jackson said.

At USC, Jackson was preparing for a career as a writer when director F. Gary Gray began working on Straight Outta Compton, the story of the rise of Ice Cube’s L.A. hip-hop powerhouse NWA.

Jackson hadn’t thought much about acting, but he felt nobody knew his father as well as he did (certainly no one looks like Ice Cube as much as Jackson) and decided no one could bring as much to the role.

“This was about my family, and I just felt nobody could do it like I could do it,” he said. “Nobody had the insight I had and the passion to put that on screen.”

Persuading Gray was another matter. The director needed to be convinced that the untested Jackson could do the work, and the process took two years. During that time, Jackson worked with acting coaches and auditioned repeatedly. It paid off. The movie was a $100 million hit, and Jackson’s performance was praised. He was getting offers for high-profile projects but surprised everyone by taking a role in the offbeat Aubrey Plaza indie film Ingrid Goes West, directed by Hatboro’s Matt Spicer.

Why?

“I’m a weird guy,” Jackson said, laughing again. “I dig energy, and I believe that you need to listen when the universe is trying to tell you something.”

And the universe (dogs named Zelda!) spoke to him one night at an awards show where he saw Plaza and tried to introduce himself but was blocked by one entourage or another, and off she went. He posted on Twitter that missed chance to say hello and immediately got a DM from the actress, who said she was producing a movie, she needed a love interest, and thought he’d be perfect.

Jackson responded enthusiastically and signed his email “Batman” because that’s how he signs his email. That had Plaza believing he had somehow already read the script, because the character in Ingrid is a Batman obsessive. Upon such weird coincidences career directions are determined.

“I was nervous about going the indie route, because I had so many offers, but there were just so many funny things. The planets had aligned. I felt I had to do it,” he said.

Again, Jackson’s performance – subtle and comedic and intentionally different from his Straight Outta Compton role – earned praise.

“It also got me to Sundance, where I got to meet a bunch of new people, and I was lucky enough to be named one of the break-out stars there. That was huge. There were people around me who wondered if I was making a mistake. But that movie and that role was important for me, and it was after that that my dad said for the first time that he was really happy with my choice.”

From there, he trained his writer’s eye on Den of Thieves, a cleverly constructed (spoiler alerts have all expired) thriller with Jackson in a deceptive/decisive role as an informant brutally questioned by a cop (Gerard Butler) chasing bank robbers.

“In thinking about what we wanted the movie to be, we wanted Heat and Usual Suspects to have a baby,” said Jackson, who said that on the set, everyone called him “Keyzer O’Shea.”

Another shrewd choice for the actor, who showed that he could withhold, keep secrets, and spring surprises on the viewer.

Since then, he’s made Godzilla: King of the Monsters, to be released this summer. And Just Mercy, in which he plays exonerated death row inmate Anthony Ray Hinton, chosen for the role by star/producer Michael B. Jordan.

Next up: a father-son comedy with his dad called Rocky Mountain High.

Ultimately, Jackson said, he wants to produce his own superhero movie, based on a video game character he loved growing up. I asked him whether he’d ever been offered anything in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“I think I curse too much for Marvel. I don’t think I’m allowed in the mouse’s house just yet.”