Drake Wants To Return To Acting

Although Drake's career as an actor has been on the back burner since his rise to fame as a rapper, the former "Degrassi: The Next Generation" star isn't opposed to returning to his roots.

The problem, however, is the lack of quality material that he's offered.

"That's probably my biggest goal, is to get back into acting and really pick the right projects," Drake told XXL magazine. "I've been reading different scripts, but I know what I want to do and what type of project I want to be involved in, and I've just been getting the typical projects that they'd offer to a new rapper, and it's like, 'Ehh, that's not really what I want to do or how I see myself.'

"I can actually act," he added.

Before breaking out with 2009's So Far Gone mixtape, Drake made his first splash in the entertainment world on "Degrassi" as Jimmy Brooks, a standout basketball player who becomes paralyzed after a shooting incident. The rapper, then known as Aubrey Graham, played Jimmy for seven seasons, and his character even pursued a career in music, mirroring Drake's real life.

Since Drake parted ways with the television series, he's focused primarily on his career as an MC. Last year, however, he told MTV News he would be open to returning to acting via a comedy, particularly of the Judd Apatow variety. A former castmate of his and the rapper even had their own project green-lit, a sitcom that will be produced in Canada.

"I like to give things to people, so whether it be a movie or I have a TV show that me and one of my best friends [fellow 'Degrassi' actor] Mazin Elsadig did," he said. "We write. It's comedy comparable to, like, Judd Apatow and Michael Cera, but with black people in it. So, I mean, there's all kinds of forms of self-expression, and it carries over, obviously, into music. My music is really personal. It's really based on honesty, so it's not much acting involved. And, you know, [Lil] Wayne is a character when he performs. When he spits, he's animated. With me, with rapping, it's more intimate, it's more organic and more personal. My music, I think there's more acting on the business side of it than the music side of it."