Jada Pinkett-Smith, who befriended Tupac Shakur early in the rappers career, slammed the new biopic All Eyez on Me and the portrayal of their relationship in a series of tweets Friday.
Forgive me my relationship to Pac is too precious to me for the scenes in All Eyez On Me to stand as truth, Pinkett-Smith wrote. The reimagining of my relationship to Pac has been deeply hurtful.
The actress then pinpointed a trio of scenes that didnt align with the actual events, including scenes where Shakur read her a poem, their goodbye and an alleged backstage argument.
Pac never read me that poem. I didnt know that poem existed until it was printed in his book. Pac never said goodbye to me before leaving for LA. He had to leave abruptly and it wasnt to pursue his career, Pinkett-Smith tweeted. Ive never been to any of Pacs shows by his request. We never had an argument backstage.
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Pinkett-Smith added that her criticism of the film wasnt aimed at actors Demetrius Shipp Jr. and Kat Graham, who portray Shakur and Pinkett respectively.
All Eyez on Mereceived sub-parreviews upon its release Friday. There were already aslew of personnel issues surrounding the biopics production, like initial director John Singleton exiting prematurely (slamming the fools in charge when he left) to reports offorced deadlines.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Graham defended the film, her Pinkett portrayal as well as Singletons claims that producers fucked up the biopic.
We talked about the importance of not creating a caricature, of not just impersonating Jada Pinkett, Graham said. That, to me, is disrespectful. I wanted to embody her and show what made her tick. We also wanted to bring some parallels to what I was personally going through, which is pain and the feeling of losing someone. I wanted to capture this dynamic that Jada and Pac had, which was a very specific, fun, and loving dynamic.
As for Singleton, Graham said, I know he hadnt seen it at the time he made those comments. Its so fucking hard to make a black biopic. It is fucking hard to get the money, and if its based on a musician, to get the clearance together. Its so hard to make a movie period, let alone one that features as much diversity as this film. When I see other working actresses that are brown, I get so excited.