Fans finally get to have a better look at Pop Smoke's posthumous acting debut in the first trailer of the new movie Boogie.
On Tuesday (Jan. 19), the first trailer of the movie Boogie starring Pop Smoke and actor Taylor Takahashi was posted on YouTube. The film follows Alfred "Boogie" Chin, a Chinese-American basketball player who struggles to balance his immigrant family's expectations and dreams of being an NBA player. Along the way, Pop Smoke's character and Boogie cross paths, creating undeniable tension as the two battle to be the best.
The Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon rapper's role as a b-ball prodigy is not far from his real life. During one of his final interviews with XXL for the Show & Prove column in 2020, Pop explained how he relocated to the suburbs of Philadelphia to enroll in Rocktop Academy, a prep school with the sole purpose of getting students college basketball scholarships. Unfortunately, a heart murmur cut Pop's basketball career short and he returned to Canarsie, Brooklyn, where he ruled the New York music scene with an iron fist.
The flick, which was filmed before Pop's passing on Feb. 19, 2020, is set to debut March 5, 2021, with Eddie Huang making his directorial debut. Huang's 2013 memoir, Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir, inspired the ABC TV show of the same name.
In June, Huang spoke with The New York Times about working with Pop in the New York City streets to make the film possible. “He gave me a thousand percent," Huang said of the rapper. "They were tough 16-hour days, overnights, and he shot five overnights in a row. Kids were coming on the bridge to watch us shoot the scenes. We would play Pop’s record. All our actors, the extras, the kids on the bridge watching us shoot scenes, everyone was doing the Woo dance. It was pretty special.”
Watch Pop Smoke show off his acting chops in the Boogie trailer below.
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