Credit: @omarepps
It was 1991 when the famous actor Omar Epps and the famous late rapper Tupac Shakur starred in a film together. The title is Juice, and the movie was Tupac’s debut in the acting business. In the movie, Epps plays a kid named Quincy (Q) who isn’t sure he wants to spend his life going down the path to crime. His three friends spend a lot of time with him, they skip a lot of school, and they do the usual teenage boy stuff, and there are a lot of stories here.
However, we are not getting into that story, but we are going to talk about the things that we’ve learned about the role that Omar Epps played in this early 90s film. For example, he did not know it at the time, but his role in this film was the inspiration needed by others to pursue their own dreams. Additionally, the role allowed him to freestyle rap with the legendary Tupac.
Omar Epps Was Not Impressed by the Juice Script
It’s not that he thought it was bad. He did an audition and land a role starring in the movie, after all. The problem, according to Epps, is that the movie might have taken a long time to make. When he starred in the making of the movie in the early 90s, the script was much older. He said it was around a decade old at that point. So, if the script was written in the early 80s, it was filled with early 80s and late 70s slang and verbiage, and it did not work for a 90s movie about kids growing up together in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem.
Credit: @omarepps
In that manner of speaking, the script needed some work. Omar Epps and Tupac were given the green light to go ahead and freestyle much of the movie, and it worked like a charm. The director gave them some serious creative freedom. “He was just like, ‘You know what needs to be said; just say it the way you would say it.’ So basically me and Pac we freestyled the whole movie, know what I mean?” Epps said of the director’s instruction to go forward with their lines.
Juice Was a Learning Curve
An actor’s creative process is often difficult to get into. Some people find it easier than others, but Omar Epps hadn’t had the time or experience to get fully into the creative process at that point in his life. The ability to create his own lines and freestyle so much of the script – even the most iconic and most famous moments – is something that taught him well. So much of his own talent and his career was defined at that moment. This allowed him to learn to be in the moment and make what he had even better, and that’s why he is the Omar Epps we know and love today.
Inspiring Other Kids
When Omar Epps took the role of Q in Juice, he had no idea he was doing more than making another note on his resume and becoming even more famous. He had no idea that one day, other kids would grow up and say that because of Omar Epps and the other kids in this movie, I am doing what I am doing. But that is exactly what is going on in his life. In fact, he’s got one DJ thanking him for being the role model he needed when Epps didn’t even know he was a role model.
Credit: @omarepps
“Now listen, the Grammys, Gangsta Grillz, the parties, none of that…if it wasn’t for this man right here,” is how a man by the name of DJ Drama began telling his story as he stood next to Epps, the man he had looked up to for so many years before Epps even knew who he was, “Still DJ GQ to me man, legendary. Yo, I wouldn’t be a DJ if it wasn’t for him. Inspiration, love,” continued the famous DJ as he shared his story.
While Epps knows DJ Drama now, he didn’t know him when he was a kid starring in the movie Juice, and the two had no idea they’d go on to meet. Finding out that the man he played in that movie inspired other kids to do what they love and to go out seeking a future that works for them is big. Knowing that your choices and your life changed another’s life is a great thing. Omar Epps is talented enough to inspire, and everyone appreciates him for it.the legendary Tupac
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