Omar Epps Speaks On The Film ‘Juice’ & Reveals He & His Cast Members Were Given The Freedom To Improvise Because The Script Was Dated, Says The Infamous Locker Scene w/ Tupac Was ‘Off The Top’ Of Their Heads

Omar Epps Speaks On The Film ‘Juice’ & Reveals He & His Cast Members Were Given The Freedom To Improvise Because The Script Was Dated, Says The Infamous Locker Scene w/ Tupac Was ‘Off The Top’ Of Their Heads

Omar Epps is opening up about the process behind filming the classic film ‘Juice.’

During a recent interview on ‘The Crew Has It’ podcast, hosts/actors Michael Rainey Jr. and Gianni Paolo from the hit series Power Book 2: Ghost sat down with iconic actor, Omar Epps. During their chat, Omar Epps spoke about his role in the classic film ‘Juice’ and revealed that he and the late Tupac Shakur improvised throughout most of the movie. He explained,

“My forever best lesson was the experience of filming Juice, my first film…The script for Juice was written 10 years before we did it, so all of the verbiage and slang was way different. From dudes in the 80s and 70s, like ‘Hey sucka.’ We was like, ‘Nah.'”

Tupac “2Pac” Shakur

Omar Epps

Omar Epps goes on to reveal that the director gave them creative control and encouraged them to improvise, noting that even the infamous locker scene between Epps and Shakur was improvised, which may come as a shock to many. He said,

“Earnerst [Dickerson] (the director) was dope and he was just like, ‘you know what needs to be said, just say it the way you would say it.’ So we basically, me and Pac freestyled the whole movie. So all of these great moments, even with Pac, the great locker moment and all that, this is off the top. One of us would sort of anchor it back to the beats, like ‘I’m gonna say this and it’s like okay, yeah.'”

He added,

“That was great because it helped me improve my process of being in the moment and not being so rehearsed.”

See the interview below:

‘Juice’ was released in 1992 and is an American crime thriller film directed by Ernest R. Dickerson, and written by Dickerson and Gerard Brown. It stars Omar Epps, Tupac Shakur, Jermaine Hopkins and Khalil Kain. The film touches on the lives of four black youths growing up in Harlem, NY following their day-to-day activities, their struggles with police harassment, rival neighborhood gangs, their families, and their pursuit of power and happiness, which they refer to as “the juice.” The movie became a classic in pop culture and in the black community and is regarded by many as one of the most iconic films of its time.

Omar Epps currently stars in Power Book 3: Raising Kanan on Starz.

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