Over the past weekend, the sci-fi thriller 'Battle: Los Angeles' came in first place at the box office with a total of $35.6 million dollars, and for its stars Aaron Eckhart, who was in 'The Dark Knight,' and Michelle Rodriguez, having been in 'Avatar,' being in a blockbuster is nothing new for them.

For the other cast members, such as Cory Hardrict, Ne-Yo, Ramon Rodriguez, Jim Parrack and Adetokumboh M'Cormack, though, this is huge for their careers, especially for the Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Ne-Yo.

Having appeared in 'Save the Last Dance,' 'Stomp the Yard' and in an episode of 'CSI: Miami,' the Arkansas native is still trying to prove to the world that he can contribute more to the entertainment field than some hits songs.

"The main attraction to doing this was, for one, I'm a huge sci-fi buff, a huge action film buff," he told us. "I just love the creativity that goes into the sci-fi element of the film.

"On top of that, the main attraction was the fact that it had nothing to do with music. It was not a movie based around music. It wasn't about the music in the film. I didn't have to be Ne-Yo in this movie. I could be Shaffer Smith, the aspiring actor, in this movie. So that was the main thing. Because after 'Stomp the Yard,' which was my first film, everything that came in was, 'You're an ex choreographer,' or 'You're an aspiring jazz singer.' And I told them, 'If I'm going to do the acting thing, let me act. Let me really do something that's not me.' "

Ne-Yo seemed to echo the sentiment shared by his label mate and collaborator Rihanna, who recently told a British tabloid that she wasn't interested in the proposed remake of 'The Bodyguard' because she's not a fan of "singers who do singing roles."

"I mean the script has to be absolutely amazing," he added. "I would've given my right arm to do something on the 'Ray' film, the movie about Ray Charles. Or I know that my company, we're looking at doing something about Sammy Davis Jr., something like that, sure. But as far as just the whole Nuevo, he's an R&B singer who has aspirations and big dreams, but he lives with his momma or what. Nah."

With a strong desire to be taken serious in the film world, the 31-year-old crooner insisted on auditioning for the role, even though the producers had reached out to him.

"They brought the role to me," he revealed. "But I told them, 'I want to audition. I want to cold read. I want you all to really treat me like a person going out for this role. Do not give me this role just because I'm Ne-Yo.' Because, to be completely honest with you, this role has nothing to do with Ne-Yo. Me being Ne-Yo is not going to help me in this film at all because I'm not dancing, I'm not singing and I ain't got a suit on. So that's what I did, and they dug it. It was like, 'There's one or two things that we think you could be better at, but when you get with the other actors, they'll help you figure those things out.' "

As one of many African Americans in the films, Ne-Yo isn't playing some soldier in the background for marketing purposes, or a comedian to lighten up the mood in an intense film. He's actually one of the Marines at the forefront of the battle with some backstory to his character.

"Corporal Harris is a little bit conservative. He's a little geeky for a marine. He's kind of nerdy, to be honest with you. His troop is about to head out. So his wife is forcing him to put together their entire [wedding] in the two weeks he has left before they head out. He's just a very conservative guy and then, all of a sudden, the proverbial sh-- hits the fan, and now he's got to pull out his hard-ass abilities. He's got to pull the Marine out and save the world."

With more than one film under his belt, and more projects still to come out, Ne-Yo is not in a hurry to go by his real name (Shaffer Smith) like Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson or Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges.

"I don't know," he pondered. "Perhaps, at some point. I mean the world doesn't know Shaffer Smith. The world knows Ne-Yo. So I think probably for the first few films I'll keep the Ne-Yo moniker, but as time goes, you know what, to be completely honest, I feel like at the end of the day I don't ever plan on ever stopping music. I'm going to do music until the world doesn't want to hear me sing a song anymore."

Along with his music career, and his growing film work, Ne-Yo recently became a father to a baby girl, Madilyn Grace Smith, with Monyetta Shaw, and being a parent has certainly prioritized his plans.

"A lot of people say, 'One day at a time.' I say, 'One minute at a time,' because nowadays every minute counts for something," he shared. "Every single minute of the day counts for something. If it's not on Skype, seeing what Maddie is doing, it's reading over this script. If it's not reading over this script, I'm in the studio working on this song for this artist or working on a song for me. Or I'm at the rehearsal hall making sure that the tour we're about to go on is all the way right. So every single minute of the day has something in it. And there's barely time to go to the bathroom. And it's real. But that's what life is. As much as you can, for as long as you can. Because once your time is up, it's up. You don't get a do over."

While 'Battle: Los Angeles' continues to play in theaters, it won't be long before Ne-Yo is back on the screen again in another war film.

"I am personally waiting on 'Red Tails,' " he confessed. "'Red Tails' is George Lucas's film about the Tuskegee airmen. I play one of the fighter pilots by the name of Andrew Salem, aka Smoky. He's from Alabama. I had to develop a really thick Alabama accent. He chews tobacco. It's really, really a character role. I actually shot that before I shot this, which is odd. But I mean George Lucas pulled money out of his pocket to pay for this film. So this is his baby. So the one thing that I do know about George - I don't know a lot about him - but the one thing I do know is that it's not going to come out until it's absolutely right."

At the end of the day, Ne-Yo is back at his day job and doing what got him this opportunity.

"I'm putting together a new album as we speak," he said. "The 'Libra Scale' album was my opportunity to do a little bit of experimentation. For some people it worked. For others it didn't. It wasn't a typical Ne-Yo album. But I can't do typical. Typical gets boring. So I took a risk. Like I said, for some it worked. For others it didn't. This next album is for everybody, but it's meant for those people who didn't so much get what 'Libra Scale' was. So it's kind of a back to the basics thing. There's no complicated story to try to follow. It's just listen to the music, vibe out, play it in your car, play as you're cleaning your house on Sunday morning. Just vibe out to the music. That's what it's about. So be looking for that around September."