To Play Snoop Dogg in a Movie, You've Got to Smoke His Favorite Weed Strain
Twenty two-year-old Jarrett Ellis will make his big screen debut this week in All Eyez on Me, a biopic of iconic rapper Tupac Shakur's "untold story" that premieres nationwide on June 16. The up-and-coming actor will be starring as legendary rapper Snoop Dogg in the new film. When I asked Ellis about his previous acting experience, he listed an elementary school production of The Three Little Pigs, plus a few "arty" student films he appeared in as favors to his classmates at Loyola Marymount University—from which he graduated less than a month ago. He's also been in the background of some music videos, including Vic Mensa's "U Mad" featuring Kanye West.
Growing up in Riverside, California—about an hour east of Los Angeles—Ellis was always far more into sports and streetwear than drama. In high school, inspired by his love of the "Jesus is My Homeboy" T-shirts, he worked on his own designs and brought them to local screen printers, launching a clothing line called Xtra Credit. That lead to a college major in Fine Arts Individualized Studies, where he created his own curriculum and explored the intersection of fashion and fine art.
His first clear connections to Snoop Dogg were starring at the raunchy cover illustration of Doggstyle as a kid, and once seeing the Pomona Steelers (a team in the Snoop Youth Football League) bus pull into a gas station.
"To me, it felt like the New England Patriots pulling up," Ellis told me, as we sat in his soon-to-be-vacated college apartment, a day before his first Hollywood premiere. "They had all this fresh gear, and I just wanted to play for them so bad. You'd hear how Snoop's really out there on the field coaching the team. He's a guy who likes to give back, and I think that's a big secret to how he got to where he's at now."
The opportunity to be in All Eyez came through a family friend who worked as an executive producer on the movie. While not quite a dead ringer, Jarrett says strangers do occasionally make the comparison, and he's had a few coaches call him Snoop based on his tall, lanky frame. Auditioning for the role was both intimidating and exhilarating. His month on set proved incredibly educational. He especially treasured the time he spent with Daz Dillinger, Snoop's cousin, producer, and frequent collaborator, who also worked closely with Tupac on some of his biggest hits. Daz was the one who let Jarrett know that Snoop himself heartily approved of both the movie and how he played him.
I caught up with Ellis to find out how he prepared for the role.
VICE: Tupac was killed when you were just two years old. Was his music and legacy a part of your life before landing this role?
Jarrett Ellis: My dad's from Los Angeles, so he's a big Snoop Dog, Tupac, West Coast rap guy. I grew up around that music, but I never really understood the message behind Tupac because I was so young. It wasn't until I went to college, and wrote a paper for my African American studies class on him, that I learned his mother was a Black Panther, and her whole life story. And that he went to art school. Which definitely got me thinking that if Thug Life can go to art school, maybe I can be an artist, too.
How do you think people in your generation perceive Tupac?
There's a kind of surface-level understanding of him as just a hard-core gangster. But there were so many different sides to this one individual. That's something I learned from researching his life and being on set. For instance, his poetry, his politics, how many different kinds of music he was into, and his good nature. Because of the way he went out—by the gun—a lot of times people think that's how he lived all the time. But there's a lot more to him. And I know for sure that portraying his complexity is one of the main goals of the directors and producers of the film.
VICE: Tupac was killed when you were just two years old. Was his music and legacy a part of your life before landing this role?
Jarrett Ellis: My dad's from Los Angeles, so he's a big Snoop Dog, Tupac, West Coast rap guy. I grew up around that music, but I never really understood the message behind Tupac because I was so young. It wasn't until I went to college, and wrote a paper for my African American studies class on him, that I learned his mother was a Black Panther, and her whole life story. And that he went to art school. Which definitely got me thinking that if Thug Life can go to art school, maybe I can be an artist, too.
How do you think people in your generation perceive Tupac?
There's a kind of surface-level understanding of him as just a hard-core gangster. But there were so many different sides to this one individual. That's something I learned from researching his life and being on set. For instance, his poetry, his politics, how many different kinds of music he was into, and his good nature. Because of the way he went out—by the gun—a lot of times people think that's how he lived all the time. But there's a lot more to him. And I know for sure that portraying his complexity is one of the main goals of the directors and producers of the film.
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