TJ Atoms scored the role of Ol’ Dirty Bastard in the buzzy new Hulu series “Wu-Tang: An American Saga.”
But he told Page Six that he only started acting after he was plucked from obscurity on the Philadelphia streets.
Twenty-six-year-old Atoms told us he was in the city’s Rittenhouse Square — home to the famous “LOVE” sculpture — just after he graduated high school when, “a lady came up to me and she’s like, ‘I love your style. I’m doing this [music] video. I want you to be a part of it.’
“My first thing was like, ‘Hey, are you paying me because I’m not trying to do this for free,’” he said. “So I get there and it’s like a movie set for a metal rock band and I’m the only black kid there. We beat this car and later lit it on fire. So I fell in love with the whole experience of acting after that.”
It was the video for August Burns Red’s “Fault Line.” Atoms has since appeared in “Blue Bloods,” “Power” and “The Forty-Year-Old Version.”
It’s probably for the best that he got his lucky break because it sounds as if the nine to five may not be for him.
“I worked for my dad at his company called Big Brother Little Brother Moving Company in Philly… He fired me because he said I wasn’t working hard enough,” he said.
He told us he also worked at Insomnia Cookies as a delivery guy.
But he now says he gets recognized regularly — and not just in his native Philly.
Now residing in Bed-Stuy, the 26-year-old actor/rapper is now enjoying some of the perks of fame. He is also anxious to shoot the video for his debut song, “Potato Chips” to be released around Thanksgiving.
“I live in Bed-Stuy. It’s a vibe and it’s love,” he said, “Brooklyn shows me a lot of love everywhere I go. I’m getting a lot of love playing the character. I really appreciate that. I get little perks in Philly too: Someone offered to buy me a Philly cheesesteak. I respectfully paid for it but I appreciated it.”