Sean Diddy Combs Wouldn’t Take No for an Answer When Derek Luke Refused to Play Him in ‘Notorious’
Sean Diddy Combs was at the center of a movie based on his protege Biggie Smalls called Notorious. The feature had Antwone Fisher star Derek Luke portray the music mogul. But initially, Luke declined to play the part.
Derek Luke felt there would be too much heat on him if he played Diddy
Luke had some strong reservations against playing Diddy in Notorious. The biopic would follow Bad Boys artist B.I.G. from childhood and on to his ascent to rap superstardom. Luke would become aware of the project way before the film was fully realized. But at the time, Luke was given very little details about what to expect from the feature.
“One of Puff’s guards sent word that they wanted to holla and I was like, ‘Word, okay.’ So I met him, greeted him, nothing to it,” Luke said in an interview with The Breakfast Club. “I think he said he may have had something coming up and that was it. It was real brief. I don’t know how long after that, I was on Rodeo and I heard somebody calling my character’s name. Somebody yelled out of the car and they called me Boobie from Friday Night Lights, and I looked and it was Puff. We were talking, still nothing.”
When Luke finally learned what film Diddy wanted him to star in, Luke respectfully declined.
“I get a call and they were like, ‘Yo, we doing Notorious.’ I was like, ‘Eh, nah. That ain’t really for me. Let somebody else rock that,’” he said.
Luke felt playing Diddy in a biopic was a lot of responsibility. And since the film was ready to go, he’d have little time to get into character.
But a persistent Diddy wouldn’t take no for an answer, and eventually won Luke over.
“Then I got a call from Puff and I was like, ‘I’m gonna pass.’ And then he came back again. Somehow, he called and me and my wife was like, ‘Well, maybe this is a sign. Maybe this is a divine sign,’” he remembered.
Derek Luke only had a week to prepare for ‘Notorious’
Luke didn’t have long to become Diddy. Notorious moved quickly, giving Luke only a week’s worth of preparation time. But a week was all that was needed for Luke to nail the controversial artist.
“I had a week to prepare and I wanted to find out who Diddy was as a human being. I wasn’t interested in mimicking him because they could get anybody to do that. I wanted to inform people and find out what Diddy’s whole point in becoming a producer was. So I called his mother and she gave me a lot of information,” Luke once told The Mirror.
Being Diddy meant there were parts in the film where Luke had to rap on stage. It was only during those sequences that Diddy would come look at Luke’s performance in person.
“Real Biggie fans came from all around the world. Me and Jamal Woolard, who plays B.I.G. came on and the next thing you know people are going crazy. That was one of the only days that Diddy came to the set. I’d called him that day because I was so confident. He said, ‘Man, you called because you were killing it! You wanted to show off,'” Luke recalled.
Diddy had to leave after watching Derek Luke’s ‘Notorious’ performance
Long before Notorious hit theaters, Diddy always saw Luke playing him in a feature film. But when Diddy finally saw Luke’s performance for the first time, he was a little too freaked out by the portrayal.
“It’s rare that you get a movie made about you when you’re still relevant, but [they] took on the challenge,” Combs once told MTV News. “People asked me years ago who you’d want to play me, and I said Derek Luke … so it was just destined. I got to see him do his thing, and it was scary for me. I had to leave, ’cause he was acting just like me.”
Diddy offered similar praise to rapper and actor Jamal ‘Gravy’ Woolard, who played Biggie Smalls in the film.
“Gravy, the guy playing B.I.G., it was just too eerie for me to be on that,” Diddy said. “Gravy’s killing it. If I tell you he’s killing it, then that’s all we need to say, you know what I’m saying? I don’t think anybody could have done a better job.”
But Diddy wanted to make sure to point out that Notorious wasn’t his movie, and gave credit to the late rapper’s family.
“A lot of people don’t know this, but it’s not my movie. It’s Miss Wallace’s movie. It’s from a mother’s perspective. I’m just there as support,” Diddy said.
