While Jack Harlow is primarily known for his rap career, he’s recently taken the dive into acting and has been cast in the White Men Can’t Jump remake in his first major film role. It may seem like an odd choice, but director Calmatic has revealed that Harlow was the perfect pick while interviewing with Collider:

Harlow previously said he worked hard to get the role, trying to be “egoless” and not letting his fame as a rapper earn him the role. Woody Harrelson played a similar role in the original 1992 White Men Can’t Jump, although the remake will have a different story while still keeping the spirit of the classic film.

“It was a moment where we were really having a hard time figuring out who we were gonna go out to for this role, and before we even had a big list of names, someone just brought up the name Jack Harlow. I think it was one of the interns. They just said, ‘How about Jack Harlow?’ And it was one of those moments where everyone just froze for a second and looked around the room like, ‘Oh, shit, it might be him.’ And so, we brought him in to audition, and we put him through the ringer. We were there for a few hours, and he killed it, man. To everyone’s surprise, he did a great job. He definitely locked in.”

White Men Can’t Jump Director Also Made House Party, Releasing Tomorrow

     Warner Bros. Pictures

Calmatic is primarily known for directing music videos and commercials but has recently started working on feature-length films, including House Party, which releases tomorrow. It’s another modern remake of a classic 90s film of the same name and stars Jacob Latimore and Allen Maldonado, along with several celebrities, such as Snoop Dogg, starring as himself.

The director had also revealed that Jack Harlow brings different energies to the concert stage and the movie set, saying it was almost difficult to recognize Harlow while he watched him tour:

This isn’t the first time a rapper has turned to acting, as Will Smith, Ice T, Ludacris, Childish Gambino, and Ice Cube have all launched successful acting careers after initially gaining fame from their rap careers.

“He turned it up even more on set and was way beyond our expectations of an actor and a performer. It was weird because, after we got through filming, he went on tour and I would see him on stage in front of thousands of people and be like, ‘Who’s that person? Because for the last 60 days, I’ve known this person who is just very focused, but also cool to hang around. I can’t believe that that person is also one of the biggest rappers in the world right now.’ I think that combination of his stardom plus his charm on camera is gonna be the sky’s the limit for him, when it comes to acting.”

White Men Can’t Jump releases in 2023, distributed by Hulu. It stars Sinqua Walls and Jack Harlow, with a script written by Kenya Barris and Doug Hall.