Kendrick Lamar Turned Down Role In Miles Davis Movie, Don Cheadle Reveals

Kendrick Lamar was asked to be in Don Cheadle’s 2015 Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead, but he ultimately turned down the role – for good reason, though.

Appearing on Way Up With Angela Yee on Tuesday (October 1), the esteemed actor reflected on his appearance in K.Dot’s “DNA” music video in 2017 and revealed that years earlier, he’d offered him the role of Junior in Miles Ahead.

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“To talk about acting, when we shot [the ‘D.N.A.’] video, Kendrick was so with it. […] He stayed in character the whole video. […] He was really committed,” Cheadle said around the 23-minute mark. “He was someone that I had thought about casting in my movie I did, Miles Ahead, and have him play the role of Junior.

“We talked about it for a long time and ultimately he said, ‘I don’t think I’m ready to do that. I’m kind of working on a project right now and I have to see that through and I also don’t wanna come in here halfway,’ and I was like, ‘No, I get it.’ And it was [his 2015 album] To Pimp A Butterfly and I’m like, ‘I think you made the right choice on that one!’”

Nearly ten years later, Kendrick Lamar is now set to make his big screen debut with South Park co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

A video that surfaced on social media on Monday (September 30) appeared to show K. Dot and co. shooting scenes for the upcoming live-action comedy in Pomona, California.

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While the project is largely being kept under wraps, various details have come out since it was first announced almost three years ago.

The as-yet-untitled film will “depict the past and present coming to a head when a young Black man who is interning as a slave re-enactor at a living history museum discovers that his white girlfriend’s ancestors once owned his,” according to a synopsis.

Brian Robbins, CEO of Paramount Paramount which owns the distribution rights to the movie, described it as “one of the funniest and most original scripts we’ve ever read and it’s certain to create some fireworks” at CinemaCon earlier this year.

Handling writing duties is longtime South Park writer, producer and voice actor Vernon Chatman, who has also worked with Killer Mike and Snoop Dogg on Trigger Warning With Killer Mike and Doggie Fizzle Televizzle, respectively. He was also a writer for The Chris Rock Show.

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Parker is directing the film while Stone, Kendrick and his longtime collaborator and fellow pgLang co-founder Dave Free are on board as producers.

No other casting information has yet been revealed, although fans can expect the movie to hit theaters on July 4, 2025.