With Marlon Wayans, though, things were different. Sure, he’s just as busy as the next Hollywood star, but he still appreciated the importance of our fellowship. “I want you to really know who I am,” he expressed while rapping along to the Kanye West song that was blaring out of the speakers. “I know the interview is over, but is there anything else that you need to know? I don’t want to shortchange you.” At that point, we began to delve into a litany of topics that ranged from his newfound love for photography to his affinity for Twitter in an effort to get as close to the truth as possible.
Never Make Assumptions
One would imagine that as the youngest child of such a famous comedic family, Marlon would basically have had his career handed to him. With brothers Keenan and Damon setting the world on fire with their jocular genius, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that the younger Wayans siblings were born into the perfect situation. It’s the same assumption that was made about Janet Jackson with her larger-than-life family.
But the paths for Marlon and Janet weren’t paved with gold. In fact, living in the shadows of successful older siblings provided untold pressure. After all, no one really respected their talent, which forced them to work twice as hard just to prove themselves. When the topic was posed to Marlon, he initially laughed at the silver spoon suggestion. But that laugh was quickly short-circuited by his need for people to know the truth — that his journey has been far from easy.
“People think that you can just go to Hollywood and get the hookup,” he began. “Trust me, there is no hookup. My brothers and me talk about it all the time. If you want it, you have to show that you want it. Shawn and I created our television show by ourselves. When we were on ‘In Living Color,’ no one wrote for us. Why? Because we were Keenan and Damon’s little brothers. That’s tough. Those are hard shadows to live up to. They deserve to be in the history books for what they accomplished on that show. Shawn and I were lucky enough to be around to watch, but trust me, nothing was handed to us.”
“It was actually a blessing that no one respected us, because it forced us to sit down and do the work,” he continues. “So any sketch that you saw us on, we wrote it. When ‘In Living Color’ ended, I had no money in the bank. So Shawn and I sat down every night and wrote. Finally, we came up with our own show, which was the ‘Wayans Brothers Show.’ But no one gave that to us. No one gave us Don’t Be A Menace. Shawn and I literally worked from sunup to sundown to make that happen. It was the same thing with Scary Movie. And this is coming from two guys who didn’t know s— about writing. So we had to study, read books, apply what we were learning, and create something from scratch. You can go to my brother Keenan and ask him. He’ll be the first to tell you how hard we work. So for me, you don’t have to like what I do, but you will respect my work ethic.”
Embracing the Role of a Lifetime
His work ethic aside, there was still a two-ton elephant in the room that needed to be addressed. Hollywood newswires had been reporting that Marlon was going to portray Richard Pryor in the deceased comedian’s highly anticipated biopic. But so many questions swirled around that decision. Message boards, journalists and casual observers all speculated, “How did Marlon Wayans get this role?” And that question was no knock on Wayans, but more of an inquiry as to what happened to his predecessor, Eddie Murphy. When pressed on the subject, Wayans was at first hesitant to dive into the politics of Hollywood. But the more he spoke, an ease came over him and he was eager to dispel any notions that foul play was involved in his selection over Murphy.
“I know you want me to talk about the movie, but I really want to wait until it’s green-lit to talk about it,” he cautiously began. “You know, everybody was supposed to play Richard. Eddie Murphy had it, and Mike Epps had it … even my brother Damon, had it back in the day, so I really don’t want to curse it now that it’s been given to me. So until they yell ‘action,’ my lips are going to be sealed.”
But that answer felt too politically correct. For a man who prides himself on telling the unadulterated truth, his answer was too safe. So the question about the movie was posed again … only this time, he didn’t disappoint.
“I will say that it’s a blessing to even be considered for this role,” he admits. “You know, they say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. That’s what happened here. For whatever reason, Eddie fell out of the Pryor movie. And then people wanted to start saying, ‘Oh they kicked Eddie Murphy off the movie … Marlon Wayans replaced Eddie Murphy.’ No, I can’t kick Eddie Murphy off of any movie. I mean, how dare I try to prevent one of my idols from playing another one of my idols? Truthfully, they should be doing an Eddie Murphy movie, because that’s just how much of a legend he’s been. The real truth is that Eddie dropped out for business reasons, and I was lucky enough to get the spot. So no, I didn’t replace Eddie Murphy — I couldn’t replace Eddie Murphy in s—, because he means that much to me. That’s how much I love Eddie Murphy.”
At this point, Wayans’ demeanor began to change, almost as if he had spent sleepless nights over the notion that he would ever sabotage Murphy’s career. For many modern comedians, Eddie Murphy was just as instrumental to their development as Richard Pryor. So the idea that he would do that to Murphy was absurd.
“Listen, Eddie Murphy came to my house when I was 11-years-old, and that was the first time that I was ever famous,” he shared. “Everybody in the projects came out to see him. And when we walked him out to his limousine, I was yelling ‘No autographs, no autographs.’ That was probably the first day that people respected me, because we used to get picked on. We were the poor family with 10 kids, so we were always the butt of the joke. But that day changed my life. There were literally thousands of people out there to see Eddie Murphy. So it was that day, and the day that my brother Keenan went on Johnny Carson [“The Tonight Show”] that forever changed my life. In those two moments, the bulb went off and I knew that I could do this … I knew that I could make something of myself. And I’ve been working hard ever since.”
