Why Drake turned down Harvey Weinstein before sexual assault claims
One timetabling fact that is no secret, but often forgotten about, is that Drake started off as an actor before becoming a musician. And by musician, we mean one of the biggest acts in musical history, enjoying a career studded with multiple Grammy Awards, the highest-certified digital singles sold across the USA, and a legacy that includes popularising R&B features in hip-hop, thus changing the genre forever.
But enough of his fascinating, awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping music career. What about his stint as an actor? As it turns out, not as successful, but with a metric like that to compare to, only a very few actors’ careers would hold up.
Drake first gained recognition in the entertainment industry when he was a teenager on the Canadian television show Degrassi: The Next Generation. Throughout the noughties he played the character Jimmy Brooks, a wealthy basketball star whose plotlines of dating and arguing with his best friend takes a drastic turn after a school shooting leaves him paralysed.
Playing Jimmy allowed Drake to explore themes of identity and disability, and he received praise for his sensitive and nuanced portrayal of his character, a character arc that over the seasons moves from a popular student athlete to a reflective young man. And in a delicious foreshadow of what was to come for Aubrey Drake Graham, Jimmy even pursues a career in music.
While Drake would soon make the transition into music full-time, he would keep one foot in the world of acting: upon occasion, the bestselling rapper would appear in a film or show. So it’s not necessarily a surprise that he was courted by the notorious Harvey Weinstein himself.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in an interview dated back to 2017, mere weeks after Ronan Farrow first publicly reported the accusations of sexual assault and rape surrounding Harvey Weinstein, Drake not only revealed that the disgraced – and now jailed – mega-producer had reached out, but exactly why the rapper said no.
“I vetted him with five people and got bad feedback about working with him,” Drake’s longtime manager and business partner, Adel “Future” Nur, said. Impressively – and perhaps shockingly, considering how long this information took to be relayed to the public – this was years before Farrow’s explosive investigative New York Times piece.
Drake’s other acting credentials include a minor role in the 2007 film Charlie Bartlett and lending his voice to the character of Ethan in Ice Age: Continental Drift, 2012. He has also made a series of cameos as himself, such as the viral moment he appeared as a Ron Burgundy fan in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, in 2013.
And yet the role of Jimmy in Degrassi will long remain special for good old Drake. He partook in the 2025 documentary Degrassi: Whatever It Takes retrospective, a move that surprised not just fans, but the documentary producers, too.
“I didn’t have a great time in high school,” Drake said in the documentary, lending some insight into why it still remains relevant to him today. “I just didn’t really fit in … Then one day, my mom called me and told me, ‘You got the role.’ And I just grabbed my bag and left. And man, what a wild journey that started.” To put it lightly.