In rare footage, interviews of Tupac Shakur have hit the internet including one that occurred 23 days before his demise.
Gearing up for FX‘s Dear Mama docuseries, Access Hollywood shared rare footage of Tupac. Access had the rare honor of interviewing Tupac on the set of the Gang Related movie, 23 days before losing his life. Along with Tupac talking about his passion for acting, Shakur and co-star Jim Belushi were also filmed singing Frank Sinatra songs together.
Tupac made his acting debut in the Ernest Dickerson movie, Juice. Tupac hit a homerun with his role as Bishop. His performance would then land him the opportunity to co-star with Janet Jackson in John Singleton‘s Poetic Justice. Another stellar performance by Tupac as he would go on to star in four more movies before his demise.
Interviewed back in 1993 by ET for Poetic Justice, Tupac touched on the importance of applying himself and leading my example.
“It’s important that I apply myself and respect the young Black male in whatever I do,” said Tupac in the rare interview released Sunday (April 23). “I just wanna make myself be political by having my principles and living by my principles.”
ET also caught up with Tupac 3 years later as he was on set for Gridlock’d. In the rare clip Tupac talks about taking risks in life. “People can tell you don’t do this or don’t do that, but my whole mind state is that if we don’t ever go outside of the boundaries we will never change anything. We will never begin anything. We will never start anything,” said Tupac also revealing his plan to remove himself from rapping and focusing more on acting.
Shakur’s final movie role before his demise was Gang Related. Access was able to interview him in one of Tupac’s last interviews.
“I can act. No one alive I think with sanity has as much life experiences to draw from,” said Tupac. “Where I used to look up to Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino it was because of their intensity. But, they couldn’t touch me with intensity. Neither one of them had been shot 5 times. Neither one of them have been to jail.”
