Benny Boom, the director of the Tupac biopic, All Eyez On Me is dropping a few gems about the film nearly two years after it premiered in theaters. According to Boom, Nipsey Hussle was supposed to portray Snoop Dogg in the film, but was not able to due to scheduling conflicts.
“Nipsey was supposed to play Snoop… we wanted him to play Snoop in All Eyez On Me,” Boom told Too Fab in an interview published on Wednesday (June 26). “We didn’t have any other person that we wanted to play him.”
Boom and the casting crew reportedly approached Nip about the role, but he was unable to do it because of his touring schedule. Boom also noted that the late rapper wouldn’t let anything – even a movie – interfere with his commitment to his community. So, the role of Snoop eventually went to Atlanta’s Lakeith Stanfield.
“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 added. “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.”
In addition to All Eyez On Me, Boom also claimed that Nipsey had a number of acting roles lined up. He said the rapper was supposed to star in The CW’s new show, All American. Boom reportedly introduced Hussle to the show’s producers, who offered him a role as a Crenshaw gang member.