Jerry Heller was unhappy with the summer smash hit film Straight Outta Compton, which chronicles N.W.A’s rise to fame and portrays the former manager as dishonest and a thief. He is even suing over his portrayal, but the producers of the film have officially dismissed his $110 million lawsuit and all claims that he was misrepresented in the movie.
This past November, Heller first filed his lawsuit and cited that F Gary Gray’s production presented him as being “sleazy” and “greedy” in addition to lifting details from a memoir he wrote without consent. Producer F Gary Gray, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, the screenwriters and Universal Studios are all listed as defendants in the lawsuit.
According to NME, their legal dismissal of the suit says, “The ‘Jerry Heller’ character in the film is not shown committing any improper or illegal actions, or even admitting that he had ever done anything improper.”
Their dismissal continues with, “Rather, the film depicts criticisms articulated by others about the plaintiff, which plaintiffs own memoir concedes had been very publicly leveled against him… It is impossible to conceive of a serious docudrama exploring this history that would not depict these disputes, and the first amendment protects the right of filmmakers to tell this story.”
Heller is portrayed by actor Paul Giamatti in the film and is documented as a major source of contention amongst the original members of N.W.A.
When Heller originally filed suit he said that the movie had used a series of lies in order to make for a good plot line for the film. Some instances he cited in his lawsuit included the $75,000 check he withheld, trying to convince Dr. Dre and Ice Cube to sign unfair contracts, the lobster brunches he had with Eazy-E when the contracts were signed and even firing Eazy-E toward the end of the film.
Heller also denied that he had given the producers permission to use his name and likeness in the film without any compensation from the film’s profits. He also asserted that the producers used scenes from his memoir without obtaining proper consent.
