Will Smith’s Breakout Film Could Have Been Another Lead Role For Tupac
Will Smith and Tupac Shakur will forever be linked because of Jada Pinkett Smith, but it appears one particular movie could be another reason.
During an interview with Vivica A. Fox on Vlad TV, interviewer DJ Vlad dropped some unknown information that even left the actress in total shock. According to Vlad, as it was told to him by Outlawz member E.D.I. Mean, Tupac was up for the lead role in the 1996 film Independence Day.
In the film, Vivica landed the role of the lead characters wife Jasmine Dubrow. As Vlad and Fox spoke about her audition process for the movie, Vlad mention what was told to him by E.D.I., “He was actually up for the role that Will Smith got. He was doing his thing leading up to it with Poetic Justice and everything else like that, and he was really gearing up to be a movie star. He was going to leave music alone because the movies were just paying so much more, and he was becoming a lead character and everything else like that.”
Vivica was taken back by what Vlad said and who can blame her. Independence Day was Will Smith’s breakout movie and separated himself from being a sitcom actor to a big movie star. The movie did very well as it brought in over 800 million dollars with only a budget of $75 million. This “low” budget was also the reason why even Will Smith almost didn’t land the role in the movie. “One of the points we made was that we didn’t want this to be a movie-star movie. The movie was the star. We didn’t need a movie star to make it more expensive. And it would complicate marketing,” Independence Day director Robert Emmerich told the New York Times back in 1996.
Will Smith has yet to ever confirm Tupac going for the lead role on Independence Day. But one thing we do know that Smith confirmed in the past, is his jealously of Tupac Shakur. Appearing on The Breakfast Club January of 2020 Smith was asked about Tupac and Jada’s friendship.
When asked by Charlemagne Tha God if Will was ever jealous of Tupac Shakur, Will answered with a “F— yeah”. “Oh my god, dude. And, that was in the early days. That was a big regret for me too, cause I could never open up to interact with ‘Pac. Cause we had a little bit of a thing, because you know they grew up together and they loved each other, but they never had a sexual relationship,” explained Will Smith.
Tupac and Jada would meet each other at the Baltimore School for the Arts. According to Will, Jada could never forget Tupac. “She just loved him, and like he was the image of perfection, but she was with the fresh prince,” Smith said on The Breakfast Club.
Unfortunately Will Smith and Tupac could never speak with one another, and was one of Will Smith’ biggest regrets. “Even when we were in a room together couple times I couldn’t speak to him, and he wasn’t going to speak to me,” said Will Smith. “That was a huge regret of mine, I couldn’t handle it. I was the soft rapper from Philly, and he was ‘Pac!”