{"id":87540,"date":"2025-10-20T22:14:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T22:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/87540\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T22:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T22:14:07","slug":"tupacs-poetic-justice-struggles-janet-jackson-drama-book-excerpt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/87540\/","title":{"rendered":"Tupac\u2019s \u2018Poetic Justice\u2019 Struggles, Janet Jackson Drama: Book Excerpt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn the aftermath of his breakout performance as Bishop in the film Juice, a young Tupac Shakur<\/a> was plucked by director John Singleton<\/a> to star as a postman named Lucky in Poetic Justice. The movie shot over a three-month span in California, and co-starred Janet Jackson<\/a>, at the time one of the world\u2019s biggest pop stars. The experience was, politely stated, a rocky one.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe following is an advanced excerpt from Jeff Pearlman\u2019s Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur<\/a> (Oct. 21, 2025 \u2014 Mariner).<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tPrior to John Singleton\u2019s focusing on Tupac, the young director\u2019s first choice for leading man had been Ice Cube, the former N.W.A rapper who starred as Doughboy in Boyz n the Hood. It was a brief pursuit\u2014Cube read the script, liked it, but took issue with some elements of the character that Singleton refused to change. Ice Cube was out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore making a formal offer to Tupac, Singleton requested that he and Jackson come to Reed\u2019s office for a screen test. It was the first time the rapper and the pop star met, and they seemed to have a nice rapport. They spoke about music, about acting, about the film. Tupac was reserved and warm. \u201cWe knew we wanted both, but the chemistry had to work,\u201d said Reed. \u201cI felt like it did. I remember him just being willing to do anything and everything he needed to give all of us the confidence he was right for the part. He made you feel like you were the most important person in the room.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLater that night, long after his meeting with Jackson, Tupac kicked back with his Oakland crew and\u2014over joints and drinks\u2014told them she was one of the hottest bitches he had ever seen, and he would most certainly have sex with her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBet on it,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing two weeks of rehearsal, Poetic Justice shot from April 14, 1992, until July 4, 1992. Along with Tupac and Janet Jackson, the film starred another pair of relative silver-screen newcomers\u2014the actress Regina King (coming off a successful half-decade stint on the TV show 227) and a stand-up comedian, Joe Torry. Initially, Singleton pushed the foursome to become a unit. He wanted them to have dinners and understand the intricacies of one another. \u201cThere was definitely a kinship,\u201d said Torry. \u201cRegina, Tupac, and I hung. Janet\u2014not as much. And I think, being honest, it was hard for Tupac. Janet was a star. She was the one with her own trailer, her own this, her own that. A little standoffish. And Tupac also knew that Janet was making a lot more than he was, and it definitely rubbed him the wrong way. He thought they should be equals. She didn\u2019t share that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTupac definitely did not have warm feelings for Janet,\u201d said Dupr\u00e9 Kelly, a friend and rapper from Lords of the Underground. \u201cI remember him talking about her\u2014\u2018 I got a car service bringing me to work every day. This chick has helicopters landing her on set. Every day I\u2019m eating chicken and waffles. She\u2019s getting her stuff catered.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe made it clear he was pissed about getting less than Janet,\u201d said John Cothran, who played Uncle Earl. \u201cTo me, that seemed absurd. Because I didn\u2019t even know who the hell he was.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIndeed, while Jackson was pulling in seven figures, Tupac made less than a hundred thousand dollars. For much of shooting, the cast was lodged at the Loews Santa Monica, and Tupac was placed in the smallest available room (Jackson had a suite). \u201cThere were about five of us Black employees,\u201d recalled Lesa McRoyal-Fouther, a reservation desk manager, \u201cand they\u2019d always send one of us to ask Tupac to turn down his music or lighten it up with the marijuana smoke. Other guests were complaining.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom a talent standpoint, the Janet-Tupac financial gap was unjustified. For all her stage presence, Jackson was a one-note actress. She arrived on time, remembered her lines, but brought little to the table. Tupac was the opposite. He was the best part of the movie\u2014\u201c Every scene he\u2019s in, he owns,\u201d said Jenifer Lewis, the actress who played the mother of Tupac\u2019s character, Lucky. But he was also chronically late and unwilling to memorize his lines. Once, in a unique display of chutzpah, he arrived an hour behind schedule to film a highly anticipated love scene with Jackson. The middle of his chest was covered with a large, gooey piece of gauze. When asked the cause of the injury, Tupac lifted the paper to reveal a new tattoo\u2014one he had had done (impulsively) the previous night. It read \u201c50 niggaz,\u201d atop a rifle. Singleton was apoplectic, and told Tupac the tattoo not only violated his contract but made the scene tricky to shoot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat am I supposed to do?\u201d asked the director.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFuck if I know,\u201d Tupac replied, then stormed off to his (tiny) trailer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Torry, as the days passed, Tupac\u2019s attention waned. His tardiness increased from a few minutes here and there to a few hours several times per week. He not only failed to memorize the script, but tried ad-libbing far too often. He was high all the time, drunk some of the time\u2014and it showed. As a musician, being impaired can inspire creativity. As an actor, it lends itself to sloppiness. \u201cHe was usually ready when he got to set,\u201d said Cothran. \u201cIf he got to set.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThough not in Tupac\u2019s class as an actor, Jackson was a pro\u2019s pro\u2014a by-product of spending almost two decades in the spotlight, and knowing what it meant to have a crew of people depend on you. Predictably, she was turned off by Tupac, by his approach, by his weird efforts at being sexual, by his need to always steal attention. He was a child in a man\u2019s body. It all felt like some sort of act\u2014an insecure kid trying to prove his worth. It was exhausting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tShit hit the fan late in the process, when it was time to film a kissing scene. In the days beforehand, Tupac talked nonstop about overwhelming Jackson with his lips and tongue. He thought he was being cute. She did not. Three days before the sequence was to be shot, Nicolaides was summoned to Jackson\u2019s trailer, where she sat with her fianc\u00e9, a dancer named Ren\u00e9 Elizondo Jr. \u201cYou know, Tupac\u2019s reputation is that he\u2019s a cat about town,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t want to swap saliva with him until I\u2019m really sure that he\u2019s healthy and clean.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOK,\u201d Nicolaides replied. \u201cHave you talked to John about it?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tJackson looked disgusted. \u201cJohn just walked off when I mentioned it,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I\u2019m asking you to handle it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe forty-three- year- old Nicolaides did not relish what\u00a0was to follow.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe had worked on a bevy of high-profile films, including When Harry Met Sally and The Princess Bride, and knew all too well the wrath of an actor\u2019s ego. He took a couple of deep breaths and walked over to Tupac, who was sitting alone in his trailer<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSooooo . . . Tupac,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTupac looked up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ll just spit this out to you, man,\u201d he said. \u201cJanet wants you to have an AIDS test before you kiss her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou kidding?\u201d Tupac asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNo,\u201d said Nicolaides.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFuck her,\u201d Tupac said. \u201cI ain\u2019t doing shit for that bitch. Tell her to go fuck herself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cUm, OK,\u201d Nicolaides said. He prepared to leave, and Tupac flashed a big smile.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSo . . . you\u2019ll do it?\u201d Nicolaides asked optimistically.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHell no,\u201d Tupac replied.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI honestly think he found it amusing,\u201d Nicolaides said. \u201cAnd the truth\u00a0is, I can\u2019t blame Janet for asking. It was the early 1990s, and people were still dying of AIDS. And Tupac, God love him, had a reputation.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBut he never got the test.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCopyright \u00a9 2025 by Jeff Pearlman. An edited excerpt from the forthcoming book\u00a0Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur\u00a0by Jeff Pearlman to be published by Mariner Books<\/a>. Printed by permission.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the aftermath of his breakout performance as Bishop in the film Juice, a young Tupac Shakur was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[412,146,85,46,18271,59884,56533],"class_list":{"0":"post-87540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-janet-jackson","13":"tag-john-singleton","14":"tag-tupac-shakur"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}