Dennis Quaid on “Gang Related”: Chinese Food in the Trailer and a Poet’s Heart

Five days in a row, Dennis Quaid and Tupac Shakur shared Chinese food in the trailer because both loved eating it. Prior to filming Gang Related, Quaid had known the rapper only superficially. In August 2024, the actor looked back on the PBD Podcast on their work together on the 1997 film, in which he starred alongside Tupac, James Belushi, and James Earl Jones. During breaks between filming, they talked about acting, their childhoods, and their mothers.

Not a Gangster, but a Poet’s Heart

Quaid called Tupac a major talent with a hunger to learn and a “poet’s heart.” He was not a “gangster,” he said, but vulnerable and curious about other people. Tupac also recounted back then how someone had tried to kill him in New York once before-so funny that it still sounded real.

“Six months later he got killed,” said Quaid, who was visibly moved by the memory. “That really hit me.” Gang Related only reached theaters after Tupac’s death in 1997, as did Gridlock’d in January 1997. What was said represents Quaid’s recollections and is not otherwise confirmed.