Tupac could have been “one of the greatest actors of our time” says ‘Dear Mama’ director

nme.com:

Dear Mama, a new five-part docuseries on the life and legacy of Tupac Shakur, is unlike any other deep dive on the legendary artist, says director Allen Hughes.The Disney+ series, which focuses on Tupac and his late mother, Afeni Shakur, tells his story through the lens of her activism and struggles, providing a more rounded exploration of Tupac as opposed to a one-sided portrait of the artist.“I wanted people to know when they saw the title, oh yeah, this ain’t gonna be no typical hip-hop shit,” Hughes told NME over a Zoom call. “If you’re gonna name something with Tupac Dear Mama, you know what you’re getting yourself into.”Hughes, the director of 2017 Netflix series The Defiant Ones, which charts the rise and success of Dr Dre and Interscope Records co-founder Jimmy Iovine, began working on the series after being approached by the estate of the Shakur family. “It’s been challenging working on it because unfortunately, the subjects, Afeni and Tupac, are no longer here with us,” Hughes revealed.“There wasn’t a lot of stuff available on her so there was all the digging and searching and investigating.

And then with him, you see him evolving constantly and it’s tough to navigate because as he’s growing, we have to make sure people understand why he’s making certain decisions.”For Hughes, the choice to include Afeni’s story as well as Tupac’s was key to uncovering some unanswered questions about the artist and the events leading up to his death in 1996. “I just had a lot of questions about him that I wanted to answer that nothing had ever answered,” Hughes explained. “And I thought, I’ll find out about him through his mother.