Straight Outta Compton’s Jason Mitchell has confessed he was scared of messing up his performance in front of Dr Dre.

The New Orleans actor plays Eazy-E in the film about the rise and fall of rap group NWA, which also featured Ice Cube, Dr Dre, DJ Yella and MC Ren.

Eazy-E died of complications from Aids aged just 31 in 1995, and so Jason was the only actor not to have the person he was playing on set guiding his performance. But he revealed Dre still gave him some pointers.

Dr Dre
Dr Dre was there on the set of the movie (Andy Kropa/AP)

Jason said: “Dre is pretty reclusive on the comments side but he will tell you if you get it wrong, and that’s kind of scary. Because when you think about Dre telling you that you got it wrong, you can be sure it’s a straightforward answer, because he’s a straightforward guy.”

But the young actor admitted he may have had it a bit easier than the other actors, who were having to perform in front of the actual people they were playing.

He said: “I can’t imagine what those other guys were going through, with somebody over their shoulder. ‘Cause they might not be saying anything, but I think just naturally inside yourself it adds a little bit of pressure.”

Straight Outta Compton is in cinemas now.