was like the average 25 year olds now so.

- Yeah.

- I'd seen and been through so much.

- Well speaking of Juice,

thank you for offering--

- You like that segue?

- I did.

I did.

It looked planned didn't it?

Y'all know there is just natural chemistry right there.

(laughs)

This was your first film ever, ever, ever?

Is that correct?

- Mhm.

- When I first heard that, I was like,

no way, there's no way that this was his first film.

The acting in that film was phenomenal.

And I think it showed me, are there Black people like this?

And by like this, I basically mean like, different from me.

I grew up in Kentucky.

- Okay.

- Which, you know, had its rough parts and everything,

but just like the depth that we saw of the characters,

and of course, Pac's performance.

I would imagine that you get asked a lot about

this idea that playing Bishop, which was Pac's role,

changed him by the end of the movie?

Is that something that you hear a lot?

- No.

- No?

- No that wasn't it.

Pac was already on his way, I mean,

he was writing his first album

while we were filming the movie.

He had already sort of been semi-famous,

'cause you know his whole experience

with Digital Underground.

And so, he was sort of breaking into his own,

and it was both of our first films,

but Pac was an actor, like a trained actor.

And that's why those performances were so great.

And I think that also the timing

of when Juice was happening, it was just magical,

because you also have to look at like,

we call it a culture now, but it's hip-hop.

It was all happening at the same time,

so it was all exploding at the same time,

and we were sort of that second wave after Spike Lee,

of the young culture, so for us

we were these four kids,

we could so relate to it, 'cause it was us.

you know, we didn't necessarily know each other personally,

but it was easy to put,

okay, he's that archetype, he's that archetype,

he's that, you know.

And Pac and I had a somewhat similar dynamic

to Bishop and Q.

- Oh yeah?

- you know, I was sort of the you know, responsible one,

and he was sort of the renegade,

but he was a great, great brother.

Great brother, yeah.

- Do you remember where you were

when you heard the news that you got the role?

- Yeah, I was at home.

- Yeah?

- I was at home and the phone rang.

It's before we had cellphones, y'all.

(laughs)

The phone rang and it was Ernest Dickerson,

and he said, hey man, you go the role,

and I was like, wow that was incredible.

And I called my mom and she was like, all right cool.

We didn't know exactly what was happening.

- Yeah.

- you know, 'cause even though it was it was my first film,

I was taking a train to set, you know.

I lived at the time, in East New York.

And we were filming all the way in Harlem.

So I ended up going to stay with the first AD.

- That's a stretch.

- Because he lived downtown Brooklyn, so it was easier to,

you know, it was still brass tax.

It wasn't like limos were coming to pick me up.

And we were helicoptering.

you know what I mean?

So it was still you know, it was still grounded.

The experience of it was still grounded.

But it was it was incredible.

It was incredible.

It was it was also dangerous, again we filmed in like,

in the middle of the hood in Harlem.

- Yeah.

And I'm sure Harlem was a different place back then too.

- Harlem was a very different place back then.

That's when they, you know?

I mean, Pac was befriending certain cats on the set

and the next thing you know.

While we at lunch they running up in his trailer.

- Oh, lord.

- Steal jewelry and stuff.

- Oh my gosh.

- This is the old New York, this is real New York.

- Right. I was gonna ask for a favorite

behind the scenes story.

Maybe, what is your most memorable behind the scenes story?

- One of my most memorable

behind the scene stories of Juice

is one day, one morning we came in

and we're reading the papers

and some woman had thrown her baby in the trash right?

Horrible, but it's also horrible

that that was normal to me growing up in New York.

You heard stories like that all the time.

Well Tupac was really really affected that day.

And he just kept talking about it, kept talking about it.

And then by lunch time,

he was like yo O, come in the trailer,

and he starts rapping, this song.

And I'm like man yeah that's cool.

And then so we wrapped the film

and a few months later his first album comes out

and I hear Brenda's Got A Baby.

- I knew you were gonna say Brenda's Got A Baby.

- And I was blown away.

- Wow.

- That right there I knew, oh he's special.

He's gonna go somewhere completely different.

- Wow, I love this story so much.

So shortly after that,

you are in, Daybreak and The Program,

both in 1993, hardworking man, same year, I can't imagine.

So Daybreak was like a dystopian sci-fi type movie,

very very different from Juice.

Genre wise.

- It's based on a play.

- Based on a play?

- Yeah.

- How did your preparation for this sci-fi role

differ from your preparation for the role in Juice?

- I guess it differed in terms of like trying to understand

the world of Daybreak.

'Cause as you mentioned, it was just sort of,

I don't know if it was so much sci-fi as it's like

pushing the boundaries of, you know, it's kinda like

this apocalyptic world.

- I think that's the word that I meant.

- So it was just kinda

try to imagine yourself in that circumstance.

What was fun for me, with Daybreak is that,

the role they originally wanted me for,

to come and read for,

is not the role that I responded to.

- Hm?

- And so I had told my team

about the role that I responded to.

And they were like,

but that's written for a white dude and I was like, so?

That's not, it's written for a 25 year old white dude,

you're a 18 year old Black kid.

And so what I did when I went into the audition,

was I just signed up for that role and then got it.

- Wow, you were like haha.

- Not so much that but it was just you know?

When you're young and I think your naiveté

can shield you from certain realities.

But that was fun for me.

That was a fun experience.

- How often did situations like that pop up in your career?

Where like there's a role that you want,

but like race is a thing that could've barred you from it

or should've barred you from it?

- It, I mean, it's happened a few times.

It's happened a few times.