Drake and his Degrassi costars are looking back on their time in the Canadian TV show as part of the upcoming Whatever It Takes documentary.
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A trailer for Degrassi: Whatever It Takes arrived on Wednesday (Aug. 27), and features Drake — born Aubrey Graham — recalling his time in high school, notching the role and even having one of his first kisses on the set of the show.
“I didn’t have a great time in high school — I just didn’t really fit in,” Drake says to kick off the clip. “And then, one day, my mom called me and told me, ‘You got the role.’ And I just grabbed my bag and left. What a wild journey that started.”
Drake also talks about a scene in which he’s kissing Lauren Collins, and he realizes that the actress was actually one of his first kisses. “She had to be one of my first kisses for sure,” he said. “Damn, I never thought about it like that.”
Cast members outside of Drake participating in Whatever It Takes include Dayo Ade, Stefan Brogen, Shenae Grimes-Beech, Jake Epstein, Shane Kippel, Miriam McDonald, Stacie Mistysyn, Melinda Shankar, and Amanda Stepto.
“Degrassi changed the landscape of television with real, unvarnished storytelling and did it unapologetically from a teenage perspective,” said director Lisa Rideout in a statement. “I was inspired by how fearless the series was in tackling issues that others wouldn’t touch. This documentary celebrates the iconic Canadian franchise while revealing the impact it had on the people who made it and the audiences who loved it.”
Drake starred as Jimmy Brooks from 2001 to 2008 in Degrassi: The Next Generation, playing the role of the school’s star basketball player who ends up in a wheelchair after being shot by a schoolmate. The wheelchair storyline allegedly nearly made him leave the show.
“There was a letter from a law firm in Toronto, and it was from Aubrey,” show writer James Hurst told AV Club in 2021. “It was an odd letter that said, ‘Aubrey Graham will not return to Degrassi season six as Jimmy Brooks unless his injury is healed, and he’s out of the wheelchair.’ I said, ‘Get him down here.’ He came in and was like, ‘What letter? I don’t know about that.’ And I said, ‘All right, I understand. But how do you feel about the wheelchair?’
Hurst continued: “He’s like, ‘All my friends in the rap game say I’m soft because I’m in a wheelchair.’ And I said, ‘Well, tell your friends in the rap game that you got shot. How much harder can you get? You got shot, and you’re in a wheelchair.’”
Back in 2023, Drake posted a voice note to Instagram in which he revealed that he succumbed to peer pressure and got high with a group of kids right before his audition for the show.
“I go back to this day when I was like 13 or 14. I had an audition for a TV show that ultimately shaped my life, and before my audition, I went to this kid’s house,” he recalled. “And I, out of, I guess, a desire to be accepted, I would succumb to peer pressure, and I got high with these kids right before my audition.”
Drake added: “I kind of wonder, like, if something bad happened that day or, you know, maybe I’m still high, maybe I’m in some coma. And this is just me playing out my ideal life. And yeah, that concept has stuck with me for a lot of years. I mean, it feels like reality, it feels tangible. But I definitely wonder sometimes.”
Degrassi: Whatever It Takes premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 13. Watch the trailer below.