Comic Joe Torry claims the storied tale of Janet Jackson requiring their “Poetic Justice” co-star Tupac Shakur to get tested for HIV/AIDS during filming has been missing key details for years.
The film debuted in July 1993 and saw the two artists play nemeses who forged a love connection during a road trip from Los Angeles to Oakland, California. It marked Jackson’s first movie role, starring as Justice. The “Keep Ya Head Up” rapper portrayed postal worker Lucky.
On screen, the two acts showcased chemistry as love interests but only shared a single peck. Earlier in the film, Jackson passionately locked lips with her real-life ex-boyfriend rapper Q-Tip.
Torry, however, claims that midway through the film, when Justice and Lucky finally explore their intimate connection at the beach, production plans initially called for them to have a full-on love scene.
Torry addressed the AIDS screening rumor on the “Willie D Live” show. He first began recalling how the first cause of concern regarding the cast’s health transpired after the “Control” singer caught a cold from her ex while filming their heated smooch fest.
“Tupac was feeling himself. Remember, Tupac was 20-turned-21 at the time,” said the Def Comedy Jam alum. “He had a lot of girls in and out the trailer late. He was doing what he wanted to, OK.”
“Girls was saying stuff like, OK, ‘He gave me an STD’ or it was something about he had a dirty d**k. … They was in and out, so it looked like OK he gettin’ busy,” Torry stated. “So her people and them saw that. It was like, eh, before we get really, really, really, really, really deep, ‘cause they gon’ have a more intense love scene.”
The “Tales from the Hood” star further explained, “They gotta kiss. They gonna be there for like a day. They was supposed to have a love scene, make love on the beach, and all that.”
“That scene was supposed to be a lot longer than it was,” he revealed. “It got shortened because one, Tupac was not showing up, and two, his, I guess, his activity kinda scared them. So they was eh — and AIDS was like new then, people didn’t know — so yeah, we might need to get an AIDS test.”
Bobby Brown dating Janet Jackson before he met Whitney is such a random piece of black music history. pic.twitter.com/esczQYFq0R
— Sisa (@TheTitanBaddie) January 31, 2023
“But Janet would have never did that. That ain’t even Janet. … I used to talk to her about that. She was like, ‘Ain’t say that. I ain’t do that,’” noted the actor.
Torry also claimed that Tupac refused to get tested, and by the time the beach scene was filmed, production was fed up with working with him, which also contributed to the lack of intimacy between Justice and Lucky.
The revelation led some people to revisit the pop star’s past romance with Bobby Brown. “Janet made 2Pac get a HIV test before they filmed Poetic Justice…But she was out here getting her cheeks clapped to smithereens raw by Bobby Brown,” read a comment.
In his 2022 documentary, “Biography: Bobby Brown” he declared his peer the “crush of my life.” They briefly dated in secret in the ’80s. He would go on to meet and marry Whitney Houston.
In an interview from 2017, the late John Singleton confirms that he crafted the HIV test rumor as a publicity stunt and details how he came up with the idea.
— #JanetsLegacyMatters (@janetslegacy) February 16, 2021
Also, in rare interview from April of 1996, Tupac apologizes to Janet for taking part in the PR stunt. #JusticeForJanet pic.twitter.com/Cimguut555
A separate resurfaced tweet read, “Janet Jackson dated bobby brown AND jermaine dupri but made Tupac get an aids test for a movie… Make it make sense lol.”
In a 2017 appearance on “Drink Champs,” film director John Singleton claimed that he fabricated the rumor to generate publicity for the project.
