Ice Spice is ready for her close-up — and for her acting debut opposite Hollywood royalty.
The Think U The S**t (Fart) rapper has been officially cast in Spike Lee’s upcoming remake of High and Low, the 1963 crime classic from Akira Kurosawa, which has reportedly already started filming with Oscar winner Denzel Washington in the lead.
The unexpected news was confirmed Wednesday by Variety and spawned polarised reactions among certain cinephiles and rap fans, who are respectively baffled Lee would remake another classic and choose an unproven talent to star opposite Washington.
Spice, born Isis Naija Gaston, shot to stardom in a matter of months. While she first started rapping in 2021, her debut song Munch (Feelin’ U) in 2022 charted on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart after Drake played it on his Sirius XM radio station.
Spice has only released one EP, but has already worked with industry titans like Nicki Minaj, received four Grammy nods and won an MTV Video Music Award for best new artist. She’s even become friends with Taylor Swift and attended the Super Bowl with her.
Lee’s movie is being co-produced by A24 and Apple Original Films, the latter of which confirmed on social media Wednesday that No. 5 is “now in production.” The post included an image of Lee and Washington, for whom this is indeed the fifth collaboration, flashing five fingers.
“She’s famous for 2 seconds and gets to star next to Denzel Washington when Black actors who worked on their craft all they life will never work with him,” wrote one user on X, formerly Twitter, with another joking: “WE GAVE THIS GIRL TOO MUCH FAME.”
Despite some social media pushback, others noted that many of Lee’s most famous films included first-time performances from unproven actors who later became stars: Rosie Perez in Do the Right Thing, Halle Berry in Jungle Fever and Mekhi Phifer in Clockers.
“Ice spice > could be? Maybe? The next Rosie Perez,” wrote one user on X, with another person arguing: “Spike Lee is one of the best filmmakers in the world—as original and inventive as Kurosawa—and why not Ice Spice? Performing is performing.”
Lee previously directed Washington in Mo’ Better Blues (1990), Malcolm X (1992), He Got Game (1998) and Inside Man (2006).
The original High and Low was based on an Ed McBain novel and chronicled a volatile hostage negotiation.
Whether Lee will fare better remaking this particular film than he did Chan-Wook Park’s Oldboy in 2013 remains to be seen. Spice is certainly still an active and increasingly burgeoning rap star, whose debut studio album Y2K is expected to drop later this year.
Spice is headlining both weekends of the Coachella Music Festival later this month.