As long as he had the spins and the Puff Daddy dance down, you'd figure that actor Derek Luke would be cool playing Sean Combs in "Notorious." Portraying the man Rolling Stone magazine once crowned "the king of hip-hop" was appealing for Luke, but he almost turned down the part in "Notorious."
"I wasn't interested in the part, because I felt like this was Big's movie, not Puff's," said Luke, who has acted with Denzel Washington ("Antwone Fisher") and been directed by Spike Lee ("Miracle at St. Anna"). "I was saying I would love to play Puff from scratch. I would love to play him from start to finish."
Still, Luke couldn't pass up being part of the big-screen version of Notorious B.I.G.'s life story.
"When it came down to it, because of my love of music, and because hip-hop had influenced my swag on the screen, I had to be a part of it," he explained. "But I do think Puff needs his own joint."
And why not? We all know how Biggie's life ended. But Diddy's story was far from over that tragic night in Los Angeles in March 1997. Combs has not only helped keep Biggie's legacy alive, but he's created his own. There have to be a million Puff Daddy stories to tell, ones that are already well-known and those that took place behind the scenes. Luke would love to be involved if Combs ever decides to produce his own biopic.
"No doubt," the actor said about playing the music vet again. "If he asked me to. He asked me to be a part of this."
Luke said he wouldn't bring the same interpretation of Combs to a new film as he did to "Notorious."
"It would be a different portrayal," he said. "It would be a totally different energy if I played a full-length Sean Combs picture."
Maybe in a Combs biopic, we would see that onetime-signature patch of gray hair Diddy rocked back in the '90s.
"There was controversy about putting that in," Luke laughed, explaining why his character in "Notorious" doesn't have it. "Sometimes he would cover it up."
MTV News has some B.I.G. things on the horizon surrounding the "Notorious" release. Stay tuned for more in the coming days.
Diddy Auditions For James Bond Gig And Wants Superman To Be Black
Jennifer Aniston Weekends With…Brangelina?
(E! Online)
