Kat Graham has hung up the Bonnie Bennett hat — er, spell book? — and is taking on a role a bit closer to her heart. This time, she’s portraying Jada Pinkett in All Eyez on Me, a film about the life of Tupac Shakur, something Kat has always been interested in. “I pride myself on being kind of a ’90s expert, so I felt pretty comfortable about the information that I needed to get to play this woman,” she told HollywoodLife.com in an exclusive interview.
“Being the conspiracy theorist I am, Ive always been haunted by the Biggie [Smalls] and Pac murders and have always felt that justice was never served with these crimes. Ive done everything I could do to research and watch everything on them,” she told us. “This is so different because it is done in such a film, big budget, way. Nothing on this scale have been done!” She added that she knew very little about their relationship, just like us. “You know that they went to school together, that they were really good friends, then I think that they had a lot of love for each other. I think that’s where a lot of it ends.”
Kat also revealed that she actually had to explain to some of her friends that they were connected. “People were really blown away by it — what are the odds that you go to school with someone and they end up rising to the kind of success that both of them had. It’s a very very uncommon occurrence.”
As for what else went on between the two, Kat didn’t want to reveal much. “I wasn’t aware of the kinds of ups and downs and these very specific moments they had when they were younger,” she said. “There’s a scene that I think will have to be on the DVD where Pac works at a pizza parlor, and I had no idea he did. There’s so many little hidden gems and big moments emotionally for both of them.”
All Eyez On Me hits theaters everywhere on Friday, June 16.