Gravy aka Jamal "Gravy" Woolard is Notorious B.I.G. aka Christopher Wallace

PHOTO Right: Leading Ladies that were interviewed for major motion picture...

& Willie Nelson's Greatest Hits
Jan 14th 2009 | by Kevin Polowy

Talk about B.I.G. shoes to fill. When he was cast in 'Notorious,' Jamal Woolard didn't just land his first acting gig, he landed a starring role playing one of his biggest influences. Woolard is Christopher Wallace, aka the Notorious B.I.G., aka the late icon widely considered the greatest rapper of all time...

Woolard isn't a no-name plucked from obscurity, though -- he's also a rapper known as Gravy. In 2006, he was shot in the rump outside a Manhattan radio station, and rather than rush to the hospital, he went on with a scheduled on-air appearance, bullet lodged in his behind. Now that's ... what's the word? ... gangsta. -- By Kevin Polowy

Do you see many similarities between yourself and Biggie?

Yeah, 'cause my first dream was music ... And just being from Brooklyn, couple of blocks from where he was. I never met Big, closest I got to Big, sad to say, was his funeral. But just playing somebody you're fans of ... It's like, if you could do Big, how would you do it? When I was in high school, [I used to think] what it would feel like to be Big. And what's crazy is, I had my daughter when I got on set, when my dreams was being fulfilled. And he had his daughter when he got his first Bad Boy check. So that's a similarity. And I had my daughter on March 10, and he died on March 9...

And I went out and I read on it. I seen the [other people trying out for the role], that's what made me gain the weight cause I seen how many big dudes [were] out, like, "Whoa, they huge!" I'm not that huge. So I ate. I was at 285, went to 340.

What else was "Biggie boot camp" besides putting on the weight?

You know, [studying his] behavior, mannerisms, his movement, his patterns, his hands, how he'd scratch the back of his head, [keep his] chin up high, cotton balls in the mouth, the walk, the speech, the rhymes, the delivery. I studied both albums, and 'Willie Nelson's Greatest Hits,' cause you know his mom loves country music, so I had to know what that sound like. It [was] a lot.