Tupac Shakur Biopic Director Says Nipsey Hussle Was Supposed to Play Snoop Dogg
The director of All Eyez on Me reveals that Nipsey Hussle was his first choice to portray Snoop Dogg in Tupac Shakur's biopic.
On Wednesday (June 26), Too Fab caught up with director Benny Boom outside of a restaurant in Miami Beach. That's where Boom admits that the late rapper, who was gunned down in front of his clothing store, The Marathon, was originally meant to play Snoop in the film about 'Pac's life.
"Nipsey was supposed to play Snoop... we wanted him to play Snoop in All Eyez On Me," Boom said. "We didn't have any other person that we wanted to play him."
According to the film's director, Nipsey was approached to play the role. However, due to his own music and touring schedule, Nip couldn't make the time to fly out from L.A. to the film's set in Atlanta. Boom also said that the slain rapper wouldn't let anything interfere with his commitment to his work in the community.
"It's crazy because I didn't realize, as much as I knew Nipsey — I didn't realize how much he was driving things in his community," Boom said. "And to take him out of L.A. for that amount of time that we needed to come to Atlanta where we shot, would've just threw him off his square a little bit. Just the timing didn't work out."
Boom also claims that Nipsey, who was posthumously honored with the Humanitarian Award at the 2019 BET Awards, was supposed to star in The CW's new show All American alongside Demetrius Shipp Jr, who plays Shakur in All Eyez on Me. Boom introduced Nip to the show's producers, who offered him the role as a Crenshaw gang leader. Even though Nip's physical presence will be missed, Boom claims the show will definitely feature plenty of Nipsey-inspired scenes.
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