Drake Was Going To Be In Machine Gun Kelly’s New Movie But Apparently It Would Have Cost ‘The Whole Movie Budget’

Machine Gun Kelly, the rapper-turned-punk rocker-turned-actor, has added yet another position to his resume. He wrote and directed the new stoner-comedy Good Mourning with his friend and fellow musician Mod Sun. The film is packed with appearances from folks in the music industry, and as MGK recently told CinemaBlend in an interview, this was initially supposed to include rap superstar Drake.

One would imagine that Drake would be a pretty big draw for a film, so it’s a bit surprising that he was apparently game to be included in Good Mourning, where he would be playing himself. However, it turns out that the endeavor was just too expensive, as MGK explained:

That was crazy because that originally was supposed to be Drake. And we hit Drake and Drake was like, ‘I can do it on this day.’ And then they couldn't get the house, the house on the date that he could do it. And then the other date it was like, ‘Oh, I can do it. Like I just need a jet from Toronto to L.A.’ and we're sitting here like, ‘that's the whole movie budget.’

So the issue wasn’t that Drake was requesting a ton of money, but instead that the film was on a budget and couldn’t afford to fly him out around the filming location's availability. Instead, they went with a Drake lookalike, who they end up referring to as “fake Drake” in the film. Later, an Instagram influencer who goes by Fake Drake started becoming popular online and making public appearances, which Machine Gun Kelly and Mod Sun referred to as a crazy thing they “manifested.” As MGK went on to say:

We were like, let's just do like a fake Drake. Like Drake's such, like an iconic, like, look, people will recognize and know who that is, even if we do, like, a fake one. And then we did that and we shot it and we were like, this is the funniest thing ever. People are going to trip. And then months later on my IG, it just started popping up like Fake Drake starts.

Good Mourning also stars MGK’s fiancée Megan Fox (they got engaged in January), with the storyline and titular misspelling being based on an actual text from Fox herself. The two stars have been all over the news since they got together for such headline-grabbing behavior as drinking each other’s blood and speaking openly about their kinky sex life. MGK and Fox have been through a lot in a short period of time, and starring in a stoner comedy together feels like a natural fit for the next step in their trajectory. 

You can see Good Mourning on VOD and in select theaters right now! Machine Gun Kelly even recently posted a nude photo online to promote the film, so don’t let him down now. As far as what else is coming to theaters in 2022, check out our release schedule.

Jeff McCobb
Senior Video Producer

Jeff started his career producing television commercials in his hometown of Fresno, California. After a few years, he came across the opportunity to make a living talking about his favorite thing: movies. Jeff is a film buff who is full of gratitude that he gets to spout opinions about them for a living. He currently resides in Los Angeles, where he spends his time complaining about Los Angeles.