Lamar Jackson added a skill to his résumé this offseason: acting.
Making his debut on the television screen, Jackson made a cameo appearance in the ninth episode of the hit crime drama show Power Book III: Raising Kanan, which aired on May 9. A ruthless competitor on the football field for the Baltimore Ravens, Jackson played the cold-blooded and dangerous enforcer E-Tone, an associate of one of the main characters in the show.
One of Jackson’s first scenes depicted him mercilessly killing a man in a bathroom stall with a silenced gun. Another scene shows Jackson shrugging off the deed while conversing with a character protrayed by rapper Joey Bada$$.
Jackson, speaking to the media during the first day of mandatory minicamp on Tuesday, said he had tweeted about the show, jokingly saying he wanted to be in a few scenes. Little did he know that the show’s executive producer, Sascha Penn, would actually grant him the opportunity.
“Shout-out to Sascha—that’s the producer,” Jackson said. “That’s the guy who actually got me on the show. I tweeted about it. I was like, ‘Man, Raising Kanan lit’ or whatever. He posted about it and I commented on his Instagram post—I’m like, ‘Don’t kill me off. I actually want to be in the show.’
Jackson said the episode’s filming took place in New York last summer. Jackson called it a “dope gig”, adding that he enjoyed the shooting, amusingly making sure to clarify that he meant shooting the scene, not the character in the show. And the Ravens quarterback, a two-time NFL MVP meticulously dedicated to his craft, was blown away by how much painstaking work goes into even just one scene.
“I had a lot of fun with it,” Jackson said. “And a lot goes into that. Shout out to all the actors and actresses because man. All day. For one scene.”
