“I made a deal with my mom that if I couldn’t find an acting job in a year, I’d go back to school,” he said in 1998.
He never went back. Instead, he broke into the industry through commercials. Then he was asked if he wanted to audition for something bigger.
“I didn’t even know what that meant at the time,” he admitted.
Still, he said yes — and everything changed.
The movie that made him unforgettable
At 27, our star landed his first film role in Juice (1992), a film about 4 friends growing up in Harlem. The actor portrayed Raheem — the calm, grounded presence in a volatile group of friends. The film didn’t just become iconic; it helped launch Tupac Shakur’s acting legacy.
Looking back, plenty of fans still can’t wrap their heads around how he pulled it off. He was playing a 19-year-old in Juice — when in reality, he was already 27.
The audition process took six callbacks. The payoff was cultural immortality.
