Today, I want to get into another Diddy story that’s being revealed now that all the skeletons are falling out of his closet. This one has to do with Diddy’s demanding nature during the casting of the movie *Notorious* and him virtually forcing Derek Luke to portray him in the Biggie movie, despite Derek Luke not wanting to play the role.
Derek Luke, the talented actor we all know from *Antwone Fisher* and *Friday Night Lights*, was approached to play Diddy in *Notorious*, a biopic about The Notorious B.I.G. But Derek wasn’t feeling it. He didn’t want to play Diddy in the movie and he flat out said no.
cheatsheet.com reports,
Derek Luke said on the Breakfast Club, “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. 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
Diddy, known for his relentless drive and ambition, just wouldn’t take no for an answer. He kept pushing Derek to take the role, ignoring all the valid concerns Derek raised.
Derek turned him down multiple times, explaining he needed more time to prepare and was worried about the responsibility of portraying a living legend. But Diddy was persistent—he wanted Derek, and he wasn’t about to let Derek flat out telling him no, stop him.
So eventually, Derek caved under the pressure. He agreed to play the role within just one week of filming starting. That means they had everything else set up as far as the production of the movie, the casting, everything. So it was a lot of pressure on Derek Luke and Derek took the role not because he felt ready, but because Diddy’s insistence left him with little choice.
That’s what he told The Breakfast Club, so you can just imagine the full story and the parts he left out, especially considering how Diddy likes to wield his power in the entertainment industry and threaten people’s careers.
cheatsheet.com goes on to report,
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.
Derek said, “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,”
And Derek Luke did end up doing a good job in the movie. It’s just a shame that he was pressured to do a movie he didn’t even want to do in the first place. And then had to get ready for it in only a week.
Leave a comment and let me know what you think about Diddy pressuring Derek Luke to play him in the Biggie movie.
