Soul Men Honors Mac, Hayes

The film, Soul Men, arrives in theaters this Friday and will surely bring in audiences who would like to see the final performances of the movie's stars - comedian Bernie Mac and soul singer Isaac Hayes, who died a day apart in August.

Mac and costar Samuel L. Jackson play singers in the comedy, trying to find the groove they lost when their band broke up. Hayes appears in the film as himself. The music in the film is inspired by Stax Records, the record label that Hayes belonged to in the 1960s.

Jackson, 59, said to Reuters, "It bothers me more that Bernie didn't get to see the movie than that he passed." However, the film, he said, is "an amazing tribute to what he is and who he's been."

Actress Sharon Leal, 36, who plays a singer in the film, added that Hayes was an inspiration on the set. "We were lucky to have the soul man himself on set, even for a couple of days, to kind of put his signature on a film that was really representative of what he did for so many years," she said.

Leal also added that while Mac had an oxygen tank on set, to assist him with his sarcoidosis (a chronic tissue inflammation of the lungs), he would often joke around with the cast.

Mac, who was 50 when he died on August 9, starred in his own sitcom, The Bernie Mac Show, and appeared in the "Ocean's 11" films.

Hayes died on August 10 at the age of 65. He was an Oscar-winning composer for the film, Shaft, and voiced the character of Chef on South Park.