Shannon Elizabeth Shares How “Training Day” Director Antoine Fuqua Helped Her Get Her Start
Shannon Elizabeth Shares How “Training Day” Director Antoine Fuqua Helped Her Get Her Start
Virginia ChamleeMon, May 18, 2026 at 7:35 PM UTC
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Shannon Elizabeth (left), Antoine Fuqua
Credit: Steve Granitz/FilmMagic; Cindy Ord/Getty
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Shannon Elizabeth says director Antoine Fuqua had an unexpected role in propelling her to stardom
In a new interview, the actress shares how her first gig was as an extra in a music video directed by Fuqua
After appearing in the video and making connections there, she ultimately made the move to the big screen
Shannon Elizabeth is sharing the surprising Hollywood connection that helped propel her to stardom: director Antoine Fuqua.
Speaking on the Monday, May 18 episode of the Pod Meets Worldpodcast, Elizabeth, 52, recounted how, when she was in high school in Texas, her dad read in the paper that a music video was hiring extras. The actress auditioned and landed a bit part, saying it was her "first chance to be on a real set."
"And so the whole time, I was just hanging out with everyone ... and I was following the director, and I was following the producer, and watching every everything I wasn't in," she said. "Well, it turns out that the director was Antoine Fuqua."
The director, 60, helmed a number of music videos in the early 1990s for artists like Brian McKnight, Coolio and Prince. He would go on to direct films including 2001's Training Day, starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke, and the 2026 biopic Michael.
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Jason Biggs and Shannon Elizabeth in 'American Pie'
Credit: Michael Ansell/Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock
"This was, like, in the beginning of his career," Elizabeth said of the director.
Meanwhile, the producer of the music video was based in New York, and encouraged the young extra to take up modeling.
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"And I was like, I don't really wanna model, but I wanna act," she said. "And at the time, actors did commercials and models did commercials. So I thought, 'Well, maybe it's a way that I could get in there and maybe get my SAG card. 'And he said, 'Why don't I come to your house and talk to your parents?' And my parents were super skeptical and, like, 'Why is this guy coming over? What does he want? What's gonna happen?'"
She continued: "And I brought him to the house and he just talked to him and said, 'Look, if you wanna come out to New York during your senior year, senior break, Christmas break, come out to New York. I'll set you up with some photographers and some agencies and just see what happens.' So I took him back to his hotel, I came back home, and my parents were really impressed because he wasn't asking for money. He was just offering to help."
"And they said, 'If you wanna do this, then we'll support you and we'll go out there and we'll see what happens,'" she added. "So we went out to New York around Christmas, I did some photos, and I got signed with an agency. So nine days after I graduated, instead of going the route of college or sports, I decided to take the leap and do that and see where it led."
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Elizabeth would go on to star in American Pie, the 1999 raunchy comedy that followed a group of high school friends on a mission to lose their virginity before graduation, as the beautiful foreign exchange student Nadia.
Following the comedy's success, she appeared in popular early 2000s titles including Scary Movie (2000), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), Thirteen Ghosts (2001) and Love Actually (2003).
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