Drake Allegedly Almost Quit Degrassi Over His Character Jimmy’s Wheelchair

Drake reportedly almost quit Degrassi: The Next Generation over his character’s wheelchair storyline. The award-winning series ran from 2001 to 2015, boasting 14 seasons. Drake featured in the show’s first seven seasons, portraying the character of Jimmy Brooks. A major part of the character’s story was his paralysis following a school shooting, which left him wheelchair-bound.

Degrassi followed the lives of students at Degrassi Community School and addressed some of the obstacles faced by modern teenagers, including drugs, sex, and bullying. Aside from Drake, other early castmates include Miriam McDonald as Emma Nelson, Shane Kippel as Gavin “Spinner” Mason, Stefan Brogren as Archie “Snake” Simpson, Lauren Collins as Paige Michalchuk, Cassie Steele as Manny Santos, and Melissa McIntyre as Ashley Kerwin. A sequel series, Degrassi: Next Class, was launched in 2016 and ran for four seasons on Netflix before its cancellation in 2019.

Now, in an interview with The A.V. Club, Degrassi writer James Hurst claims that Drake once wanted to exit the show due to his character’s wheelchair arc. Hurst said he called Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Graham, in for a discussion after learning he wasn’t happy about the wheelchair plot point. He allegedly admitted, “Friends in the rap game say I’m soft because I’m in a wheelchair.” Hurst encouraged him to tell his friends that his character had been shot, adding, “How much harder can you get?” He says he emphasised the importance of his character’s storyline for viewers at home saying, “There’s a kid somewhere in a wheelchair, who’s completely ignored,” and telling the soon-to-be chart-topping rap artist “I need you to represent this person.”

Degrassi: The Next Generation was highly regarded for its unwavering depiction of real problems experienced by American teenagers. From school shootings to sexual abuse, the show chose not to shy away from the hard-hitting issues that could entertain on-screen as equally as they informed. For this very reason, viewers might have felt short-changed had writers seriously attempted to change the storyline of Jimmy Brooks, removing a chance to represent disabled students and also downplaying the very real effects of school shootings.

Drake’s role in Degrassi proved an important and popular one, which would have perhaps lost some of its authenticity if writers had hurried his character’s recovery or written off his injury entirely. Ultimately, Drake’s decision to ignore the pressure from his peers (ironically also a theme in the show) allowed for an underrepresented group to be seen and heard for the first time in the series. Marking the 20th anniversary since the airing of the first episode in 2001, Degrassihas maintained a reputation as one of the boldest teen drama series of its time. A reputation that might have diminished if it had excluded entire storylines for being “soft”.

Source: The A.V. Club