Spike Lee gave fans some new details about his upcoming movie Highest 2 Lowest starring Denzel Washington and A$AP Rocky.
During a recent conversation on Carmelo Anthony’s podcast 7PM in Brooklyn, Lee praised the Harlem rapper’s acting skills and said he’ll be playing Denzel’s son in his “reinterpretation” of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 classic noir kidnapping caper High and Low. He also said Denzel is playing a music mogul who has a reputation for “having the best ears in the business.”
Part of the reason the director decided to cast Rocky as the iconic actor’s son is because of chatter he noticed online about fans saying the two resemble each other. “What’s funny is I was looking at some Instagram [post] four or five years ago,” he said. “And people were saying that A$AP looked like he’s Denzel’s son and in the film we used that.”
Lee was also impressed by Rocky’s acting chops, telling Melo and his co-host Kazeem Famuyide that he wasn’t intimated on set. “And A$AP, man. Fire,” Lee said. “I mean, there’s some scenes with him and D head-to-head, he ain’t backin’ up. It’s like, ‘I’m here too!’ Very, very happy with the way the film turned out and looking forward to sharing with the world.”
He also mentioned that while Ice Spice is in the movie, as previously reported, she’ll be having more of a cameo role.
There’s no official release date yet, but Highest 2 Lowest will premiere at Cannes on May 19. This will be Spike and Denzel’s fifth movie together and their first since 2006’s Inside Man.
You can watch the full interview below.
