Lamar Jackson Reveals His Baltimore Ravens Teammates’ Reactions to His Acting Debut on “Power Book III: Raising Kanan” (Exclusive)

• Lamar Jackson tells PEOPLE his Baltimore Ravens teammates were “hype” about his acting debut on Power Book III: Raising Kanan season 4

• The NFL quarterback shares the other big name who slid into his DMs to congratulate him following the news of his casting

• Jackson played E-Tone on the penultimate episode of season 4 of the hit Starz series, and had scenes with Joey Bada$$ (Unique) and Mekai Curtis (Kanan)

Lamar Jackson might have a new nickname on the field when the 2025 NFL season kicks off in September.

The Baltimore Ravens quarterback made his acting debut in the penultimate episode of Power Book III: Raising Kanan season 4 on May 9, and as shocked as he was himself to get to make a guest star appearance, given he’s a big fan of the series, his teammates were even more surprised.

“They were hype. They were hype,” Jackson, 28, tells PEOPLE of his Ravens’ teammates reactions to the news of his acting debut.

Related: NFL Star Lamar Jackson Thought Power Book III: Raising Kanan‘s Creator Was ‘Lying’ About His Guest Star Role (Exclusive)

In fact, they’re so into that he reveals that they’ve taken to calling him by his character’s name. “They keep calling me E-Tone right now. They text me talking about ‘E-Tone’ and I’m like, chill out, man, chillax.”

“I’m cool with it, I like it,” he says of the excited response from his team.

The Ravens aren’t the only stamp of approval he got on his acting debut, though. Jackson also heard from none other than Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, the original Kanan Stark on Power, after PEOPLE revealed that he would be making an appearance on the season.

“After they broadcasted, they posted on social media, he DM’d me, he was like, ‘Let’s go,'” Jackson says.

His response to that DM? “You know, it’s 50 Cent. I mean, it’s 50 Cent, man, that’s dope. That’s dope as hell,” he recalls excitedly. “Hell yeah, I was hype as hell. I was hyped, man.”

Related: Lamar Jackson Jokes He Doesn’t ‘Like Competing Against’ Patrick Mahomes: ‘He’s a Great Quarterback’

Ahead of the March news of his casting, the two-time NFL MVP says he “didn’t tell anyone” aside from his “close family,” so between when the news broke and when the episode aired two months later, he found that some fans were convinced the cameo was “made up.”

“A lot of people, they keep hitting me up on social media like, ‘You weren’t in episode seven, you weren’t in eight.’ I’m like, I believe they said I was going to be in [episode] nine,” he says, adding that the fans have been “waiting impatiently” to see him onscreen.

During his brief appearance, Jackson played E-Tone, who was described as an “intimidating figure not to be messed with,” and got screen time with both Unique (Joey Bada$$) and Kanan (Mekai Curtis). In his first few seconds onscreen, he showed off just how deadly he was, too, as he killed David Kan (Yu Lu) for Unique in the bathroom of a club.

“I was really shocked with that part. When they told me, when I got to the dressing room, they were like, ‘You know what you’re going to be doing?’ I’m like, ‘Nah, no one told me anything.’ They were like, ‘Yeah, you’re going to be killing a guy at the club.’ I’m like, ‘What?'”

“I hope the world don’t think anything different of me, but it is what it is,” he says. “We’re just acting, it’s fun.”

Now that he has this experience under his wing, Jackson is keen to do more.

“Oh, definitely,” he says of whether he’d be interested in other acting opportunities following his football career. “Yeah, I definitely can do it after the NFL, definitely. I can do it during the NFL off-season [too], you know what I mean? But for sure, post-NFL, definitely.”

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Power Book III: Raising Kanan season 4 is now streaming on Starz.

Read the original article on People