*Barack Obama has given former actor Drake his approval to play him in a potential biopic about the former president.
“I will say this, Drake seems to be able to do anything he wants. I mean, that is a talented, talented brother. So, if the time comes and he’s ready…,” said Obama during a recent interview on Complex’s 360 With Speedy Morman.
“Drake has, more importantly I think, my household’s stamp of approval,” he added. “I suspect Malia and Sasha would be just fine with it.”
Drake’s acting career began on the Canadian teen drama “Degrassi,” before he transitioned into a hip-hop artist. According to PEOPLE, the rapper first expressed interest in playing Obama in an interview with Paper in 2010.
READ MORE: Barack Obama Makes TikTok Debut to Promote New ‘Promised Land’ Memoir
“I hope somebody makes a movie about Obama’s life soon because I could play him,” he said during Obama’s first term in office. “I watch all the addresses. Anytime I see him on TV, I don’t change the channel, I definitely pay attention and listen to the inflections of his voice.”
Drake continued, “If you ask anyone who knows me, I’m pretty good at impressions. Slowly but surely, I’m not in the study mode because nobody’s called me about anything, but I just pay attention so when the day comes I’m not scrambling to learn how to speak like him.”
In related news, Obama is currently on his book tour promoting his new memoir “A Promised Land,” and during a recent interview with Breakfast Club, he addressed criticism that he didn’t do enough for Black Americans while he was in the White House.
“I understand it because when I got elected, there was so much excitement and hope. And I also think that we generally view the presidency as almost like a monarchy. In the sense of, ‘once the President is there he can just do whatever he needs to get done and if he’s not doing it then it must be because he didn’t want to do it,’” Obama told the hosts.
He then said he “had the statistics” to prove his accomplishments.
“By the time I left office, you had seen three million African Americans have health care that didn’t have it before. You had seen the incarceration rate, the number of Black folks in prison, drop for the first time in years… You had seen Black poverty drop to its lowest level since 1968. You had seen Black businesses rise, you had seen Black income go up,” Obama said, adding that “millions of Black folks were better off” when he left office.
WATCH:
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
