While follower counts have been known to aid casting decisions in today’s Hollywood, Spike Lee is turning to the memes.
Ahead of his A24 film Highest 2 Lowest‘s Cannes premiere next month, the Oscar winner revealed he cast A$AP Rocky in the feature after seeing a meme comparing the Grammy-nominated artist to his co-star Denzel Washington.
“What’s funny is that I was looking at Instagram four or five years ago and people were saying that A$AP looked like he’s Denzel’s son,” he recalled on the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast. “I seen those memes and then in the film we used that.”
Rocky’s upcoming role alongside Washington and Ice Spice comes after he made his on-screen debut in 2015’s Dope and most recently starred in A24’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.
“A$AP, man, he fire,” Lee praised him. “I mean, there’s some scenes where him and D head to head – he ain’t backing up. Like, ‘I’m here too.’ So very, very happy with the way the film turned out and looking forward to sharing it with the world.”
Denzel Washington in ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ (A24)
A reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 Japanese film High and Low, Lee’s latest directorial outing stars Washington as a titan music mogul, widely known as having the “best ears in the business,” who is targeted with a life-or-death ransom plot.
Lee previously told Deadline that Rocky plays “the main role” in his film.
