Space Jam child star Brandon Hammond revealed why he quietly left Hollywood after Castleman disease diagnosis

Space Jam was a film that changed the game for the cross over of favorite cartoons and athletes, but despite the stellar cast – Brandon Hammond was arguably the best in the film.

At 13 years old, Hammond was in everything from the basketball movie, to Menace II Society and Waiting to Exhale.

From there, he starred in Soul Food, where he played the character Ahmad.

But playing Michael Jordan for the Looney Tunes flick 30 years ago today, was one of his biggest credits.

However, despite having over 20 credits to his name, Hammond suddenly stopped working in Hollywood after his 2004 horror, Murder Prevention.

Now, in an interview with People, Hammond reveals what caused him to go AWOL and how he feels about his changing career now he’s no longer acting.

Brandon Hammond played Michael Jordan 30 years ago (Warner Bros.)

"I was diagnosed with this super, super rare, autoimmune condition called Castleman disease," Hammond told the outlet, noting it happened in the late 90s at the height of his fame.

"What most people don't know is that I was diagnosed not long after. So Soul Food comes out in '97, September 26th. We're at the NAACP Image Awards in '98, [that's] February of '98 and we have an amazing night. We won for Outstanding Motion Picture, I won for Outstanding Youth Actor — I believe Irma won, Vanessa won. We just kind of swept that night. It was just an unbelievable night. Three or four months later, I am fighting for my life, basically."

According to the Mayo Clinic, Castleman disease is a ‘group of rare conditions that cause enlarged lymph nodes and a wide range of symptoms.’

It notes that the ‘most common type affects a single lymph node, usually in the chest or neck,’ but it can ‘occur in other areas.’

Symptoms include:

· Fever.

· Weight loss that happens without trying.

· Fatigue.

· Night sweats.

· Swelling.

· Enlarged liver or spleen.

It can also cause inflammatory symptoms and issues with organ function.

As for how it presented in Hammond’s case, he said: "I had all these chest pains, and my eye was flushed out red, just all types of physiological things were happening to me that we could not explain. And I was traveling all over — to Baltimore, to the National Institute of Health, to Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Cedars-Sinai, UCLA, USC, and could not figure things out.”

Hammond's condition meant he had to quit child acting (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)

He added: "And then I had a biopsy because they were seeing that my lymph nodes were swollen. And that's when I got this diagnosis for this thing called Castleman's disease. I had never heard of it before, but apparently, it's super rare in children and it's super rare in Black people. So when you talk about rare, I'm the rarest exception to that rule."

This led Hammond to give up his career, and he revealed the lengths it took for him to keep it a secret.

"A lot of people don't know that because people have asked, 'Hey, what happened? Why'd you stop acting?' And I used to give these really kind of vague answers and responses because I wasn't ready to talk about it," he said. "I was kind of told not to talk about it. Of course, in hindsight, I regret that, right? But I was just following what I was told to do. My agents told me to keep it under wraps."

Now 41, Hammond is working on a reunion documentary titled Sunday Dinner: The Soul Food Reunion, which will feature other Soul Food cast.

"I just want people to realize how important a film this was to me, really, because this is like my love letter to a film that has meant so much to me, both personally and professionally," he said of the project. "The fans are a large reason why I could even approach something like this. They've kept it relevant, they've kept it in the zeitgeist, right, and I appreciate them so much for that. And finally, also being able to tell my story with it is really important to me. This is definitely me taking my power back."