Many of us know him as “Eddie King” from “The Five Heartbeats,” but his real name is Michael Wright. Wright is a helluva talent and always had the ability to not just act his characters out, but become every character he played- from the “Heartbeats,” to “Sugar Hill” and beyond. There was one major career flub that was revealed recently, which Wright regretted more than any other move he’d made in his career and it had something to do with the ’91 film “New Jack City.”

“New Jack City” Director Shares Confession Actor, Michael Wright, Made To Him

The year 2016 marked the 25th anniversary of the iconic 1991 classic, “New Jack City,” and to celebrate that, the writer of the film, Barry Michael Cooper,  revealed to Ambrosia For Heads, a few behind-the-scenes facts that we never knew. One of those facts is that the role that rapper, Ice T, played- the undercover cop, “Scotty”- was originally written specifically for Michael Wright. Here’s what Cooper explained about that:

Michael Cooper: “He [Michael Wright] was the original ‘Scotty.’ They gave it to Michael Wright. Mike said, ‘I can’t do that.’ Years later he said, ‘Barry, that was the worst mistake of my life, man.’ I said, ‘Naw. It just wasn’t the time.’ Later on [he and Wesley Snipes] played brothers in Sugar Hill. Ice-T came in. Dope rapper; I didn’t know how he was as an actor—’cause I didn’t count [Breakin’ II]. When he got on set, he’s another one that doubled down. He did a very, very good job, and has since turned to a very capable actor. He was fearless, man! That scene at the end when he said, ‘I wanna shoot you so bad my di*k is hard,’ I didn’t write that. That’s ad-lib. He came up with that!”

We could definitely see Wright nailing that cop role and it would have been a big contrast to his “Eddie King” character. Ice T did his thing with the ‘Scotty’ role, but Wright would have also brought that seasoned raw, street element to the role nonetheless. Ah well…although turning down the part was Michael Wright’s biggest regret, we all live and we learn…then keep it movin,’ just as Wright has done.