At one point in Clifford “T.I.” Harris’ acting career, he auditioned for the starring role in Drumline — Nick Cannon’s breakout film.
While visiting Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast recently, the ATL lead dished about his acting journey and revealed that he once auditioned to play Cannon’s role of Devon Miles in the 2002 film. Having to pass on the opportunity, Tip couldn’t dedicate any time to learning how to play the drums. However, he does credit the missed gig for launching his acting career with the aforementioned ATL.
Mentioning how his rising stardom in Atlanta put him into the mix with the who’s-who of the music industry, T.I. detailed his start on the big screen.
“Dallas Austin was a huge, huge, huge producer-songwriter — just an incredible talent and an incredible mogul,” he started. “And he was getting into films and he had this one film. I was working on my first album, he was telling me about his first film and you know, I was always like, ‘Yo bruh, put me in it.’ And he was like, ‘Aight, yeah man! Say less.’ And he sent me to go read and I read.”
He added, “They were like, ‘Man, you got to learn how to play the drums.’ And I was like, ‘I could play, like I could play the drums.’ They were like, ‘Nah, you gotta learn how.’ I was like ‘Mannn, I don’t wanna do that.’”
In 2002, T.I. was just building his name in the rap game as he had just launched his own label imprint, Grand Hustle Records. With limited time to learn a new skill, the budding rapper was also gearing up for his second-studio album Trap Muzik — which included the charting 2003 singles “Rubber Band Man” and “Let’s Get Away” featuring Jazze Pha.
“I just didn’t want to commit myself to it at the time. It wasn’t there,” he told Sharpe about becoming a drum major for the film. “But I read and I didn’t get it, and that movie went on to be Drumline. Yeah, I was reading for Nick Cannon’s part.”
He continued, “But look, that opened the door for me to do ATL! After I didn’t get the role for Drumline, I went back to Dallas and said, ‘Man next time bruh, just give me the role. I ain’t going to read or nothing! Just give me the role.’ And he was like, ‘Cool,’ and he just gave the role for Rashad in ATL.”
Sharing an inside joke that him and Cannon often share about the $57.6 million grossing film, he jokingly expressed: “A lot of times, Nick Cannon and I, we be going back and forth and we get on each other. I be like, ‘Yea man, you took my role.’ And he say, ‘Yeah but I’da traded you for your role.’ I said, ‘You couldn’t have did my role!’
“And we just have that kind of rapport. So I’m happy! You know, all things happen for a reason. What God got for you can’t no one take from you,” he ended.
Check out T.I. speaking about almost starring in Drumline below.