North StarsShenae Grimes: Drake is ‘not the Aubrey I knew’ on ‘Degrassi’
They may have been close on "Degrassi: The Next Generation," but it seems that former co-stars Shenae Grimes and Drake (nee Aubrey Graham) haven't kept in touch after their onscreen graduation.
In a new interview with Dose.ca, Grimes, who played shy transfer Darcy Edwards from 2006 to 2009, admitted she hasn't stayed in touch with the 25-year-old Toronto rapper. In fact, she said she doesn't speak much to her other Canadian co-stars from the show, including "Vampire Diaries" star Nina Dobrev or "The L.A. Complex's" Cassie Steele.
"I know that they're all doing their own things and it's really great and I'm very proud," said the 22-year-old Torontonian. "I listen to Drake and Lil Wayne all the time, but that's not the Aubrey I knew; I don't know that guy." "
"That guy" played basketball star Jimmy Brooks from the show's launch in 2001. After ending up in a wheelchair after a shooting (it's a teen soap, remember), Drake's character pursued a music career before the actor departed the show in Season 8 (unwillingly, according to him) to start his own music career.
In 2009, the rapper signed a record contract with Lil Wayne's label, releasing his first studio album, "Thank Me Later," a year later. (Drake's second album, "Take Care," just earned five MuchMusic Video Award nominations.)
"He's been rapping and whatever for years, but none of us really expected it to blow up like it did," Grimes told Movieline in 2009. "We didn't really know if he walked the walk because he didn't really share that side of his life with us. It was Aubrey Graham of 'Degrassi,' and then that Drake world was a different world for him."
As for Grimes, she left "Degrassi" in 2008 to star on the CW teen drama "90210." Of her post-"Degrassi" success and that of the rest of the cast, the actress says she isn't surprised.
"I did it first so I don't think of it as a weird thing. I think of it as the natural progression of things," Grimes said.
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