Director Eddie Huang Praises Pop Smoke’s Performance In ‘Boogie’ Movie

Prior to his passing in 2020, Bashar “Pop Smoke” Jackson made his acting debut in the upcoming film Boogie. The movie’s director, Eddie Huang, recently spoke highly of working with the Brooklynite for the Focus Features motion picture.

“At first I made this film and I was like, ‘Look, this is for my family and this is to represent for all of us overseas Chinese in America,’ but this is Pop’s film,” Huang told Yahoo Entertainment. “It’s absolutely dedicated to Pop. I really miss my brother. Once I met him, the film changed.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eddie Huang (@mreddiehuang)

The Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir author added, “[Pop Smoke] also probably had the fastest computer processor in his head I’ve ever seen. I could tell Pop something, and he would immediately adapt and make that change. And he didn’t have an ego about it, and he wouldn’t get scared about it. And he wouldn’t have self-doubt about it. He just did it.”

The 20-year-old Pop Smoke was murdered during a criminal home invasion in Hollywood Hills, California. The rapper’s posthumous studio album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, is still charting in the Top 3 of the Billboard 200 eight months after it was released.

Eddie Huang’s Boogie is scheduled to arrive in theaters on March 5. The movie about a Queens-bred, Chinese-American basketball player named Alfred “Boogie” Chin also stars Taylor Takahashi, Taylour Paige, Pamelyn Chee, Mike Moh, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Alexa Mareka, and Perry Yung.