Exclusive: Watch Demetrius Shipp Jr. Audition for 'All Eyez on Me' in New HBO Special

Get an exclusive glimpse at HBO's new behind-the-scenes special on 'All Eyez on Me.'

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com

Director Benny Boom's long-awaited 2Pac biopic All Eyez on Me finally hits theaters June 16. Ahead of the film's release, HBO will debut a First Look special on the film featuring previously unreleased behind-the-scenes footage and cast interviews. In an exclusive clip from the special, star Demetrius Shipp Jr.'s audition tape for the role of the late Tupac Shakur is seen for the first time.

"My assistant came and said, 'I don't know how to tell you this, but 2Pac is in the lobby,'" producer L.T. Hutton says of the moment he first realized All Eyez on Me had found its star. "I walk out, and lo and behold, I'm like 'Yo, it's 2Pac.' This kid was 2Pac, in every sense of the word."


All Eyez on Me also stars The Walking Dead's Danai Gurira as Afeni Shakur, The Vampire Diaries' Kat Graham as Jada Pinkett, Dominic L. Santana as Suge Knight, and Jamal Woolard as the Notorious B.I.G. Previously, Wollard played Biggie in director George Tillman Jr.'s 2009 biopic Notorious.

The biopic's release date, June 16, coincides with what would have been 2Pac's 46th birthday.

In an interview with GQ in May, Boom responded to criticism from director John Singleton, who left the film in 2015. "This project is happening the way that Pac wants it to happen, and there's nothing that's gonna stop it," he said. "At the end of the day, what God has for you, can't nobody take away from you. So John has to understand that God did not line this project up for him. That's it."

Catch HBO's First Look: All Eyez on Me June 7 at 10:05 ET on HBO and HBO-related platforms.

Latest in Pop Culture