Before making his acting debut in the 2006 film ATL, T.I. said that he once auditioned for Nick Cannon’s lead role of Devon Miles in Drumline.
During a recent interview on the “Club Shay Shay” podcast, T.I. revealed that he failed the audition for the 2002 movie because of his inability to play the drums.
“Dallas Austin was a huge, huge, huge producer-songwriter — just an incredible talent and an incredible mogul,” the “Whatever You Like” rapper started. “And he was getting into films and he had this one film. I was working on my first album, he was telling me about his first film and you know, I was always like, ‘Yo bruh, put me in it.’ And he was like, ‘Aight, yeah man! Say less.’ And he sent me to go read and I read.”
He added, “They were like, ‘Man, you got to learn how to play the drums.’ And I was like, ‘I could play, like I could play the drums.’ They were like, ‘Nah, you gotta learn how.’ I was like ‘Man, I don’t wanna do that.’”
T.I. told the host Shannon Sharpe that he didn’t want to commit himself to becoming a drum major for the film at the time. “But I read and I didn’t get it, and that movie went on to be Drumline. Yeah, I was reading for Nick Cannon’s part.” He continued, “But look, that opened the door for me to do ATL! After I didn’t get the role for Drumline, I went back to Dallas and said, ‘Man next time bruh, just give me the role. I ain’t going to read or nothing! Just give me the role.’ And he was like, ‘Cool,’ and he just gave the role for Rashad in ATL.”