I swear there are headlines I write sometimes where I feel like Daniel After Dentist and think to myself, "Is this real life?"
This is one of those times.
In a story that defies logic, comedic actor Danny McBride (PINEAPPLE EXPRESS) claims that Kanye West – yes that Kanye West – once asked McBride to play him in a musical biopic about his life. Now I shouldn't have to state the obvious here but I'm going to regardless. McBride was absolutely gobsmacked that West would specifically reach out to him for the role, considering that West is black and McBride is white. Danny McBride recalls the phone call quite vividly, as one probably would given the bizarre nature of the request. He also stated that Kanye West went so far as to travel in person in order to meet and discuss the project face to face:
“Kanye asked me to play him in a movie of his life. That was a pretty stunning phone call to get. I don’t know why he wanted me to do it. Maybe that sense of ego I’m able to portray? I have no clue. …that was a pretty incredible day. Maybe someday we’ll make the film. Who knows?"
Now granted Danny McBride playing Kanye West would never work for a variety of obvious reasons. However, if West did want McBride for the ego reason as Danny McBride speculates, that would make a lot of sense. For one, McBride has made a career playing egotistical, arrogant, brazen, and brash characters. The most notable examples of this are his roles as Kenny F*&king Powers in HBO's Eastbound and Down as well as Neal Gamby on Vice Principals. Danny McBride is a natural when it comes to those roles. Furthermore, saying Kanye West has a gigantic ego is like saying Donald Trump likes Twitter. It's an understatement of massive proportions. Having McBride take on the role based solely on the ego aspect makes a weird kind of spiritual sense if not a practical one.
The only way I think a movie where Danny McBride plays Kanye West in a biopic works is one – if it's done as a straight comedy and two – if McBride appears as himself without blackface. (The pitfalls and peculiarities of blackface are something Robert Downey Jr. could certainly speak to.) Now THAT would make for an interesting film and possibly a hilarious one as well.
As off the wall as this idea sounds, this is par for the course for Hollywood. Before HARRIET released last year, the biopic about abolitionist Harriet Tubman languished in Development Hell for twenty-five years. Early on in the process a Hollywood exec actually suggested that Julia Roberts play the title role despite her being whiter than Casper the Friendly Ghost. What I'm trying to say is when it comes to Hollywood, behind the scenes stories are often times stranger than fiction.
Feel free to unleash your thoughts in the comments section guys. I am generally interested in what people think about this bizarre news. Would you have been down for McBride playing Kanye West in a film? Is there any possible way this could have worked? Is the famous rapper batshit crazy insane for even suggesting this? Let us know!