Jamal Woolard
News

Jamal Woolard is new to the movie world.

He stars as Biggie Smalls in Notorious - and he recently sat down with Moviefone to discuss the role. Here are excerpts from the interview:

They held a massive search to cast the Notorious B.I.G. Did you go through the casting process?
Oh, man, did I ... I had to do all that, man. I had to get in my zone, I had to gain the weight ... I put myself in Biggie boot camp. I was in Charlotte and got a call from one of my friends. He told me about it; he was like, "Yo, man, I think you should go try out for it. You're the funniest, you a ladies' man, you know we from the 'hood. Let's go get it, son!" So I said, "Lemme try, ya know?" And I went out and I read on it. I seen the [other people trying out for the role], that's what made me gain the weight cause I seen how many big dudes [were] out, like, "Whoa, they huge!" I'm not that huge. So I ate. I was at 285, went to 340.

What else was "Biggie boot camp" besides putting on the weight?
You know, [studying his] behavior, mannerisms, his movement, his patterns, his hands, how he'd scratch the back of his head, [keep his] chin up high, cotton balls in the mouth, the walk, the speech, the rhymes, the delivery. I studied both albums, and 'Willie Nelson's Greatest Hits,' cause you know his mom loves country music, so I had to know what that sound like. It [was] a lot.