That’s one of the big reasons women swoon over Gross. It doesn’t require much energy for Gross to unfurl his textured tenor into the atmosphere to be heard clearly by everyone in proximity.
Women actually find his getting married, at his young age, to the breathtaking beauty Eva Marcille, is sexy. In this day and age when the media is speculating rather frequently on the reasons successful black women cannot find a suitable mate within the confines of their race, Gross’ pending union counters malicious media generalizations.
Gross’ female fan base can also appreciate that he sees his profession not just as a way to stack the chips and floss his fame, he can also leverage his platform to help effect change. When Gross accepted the leading role in Our Family Wedding, he contemplated the mystifyingly violent relationship between blacks and Hispanics in the streets of L.A.
“I think L.A. was the perfect backdrop for this story because L.A. is heavily populated with African Americans and Latinos. I think it’s important … there’s a lot still going on between the two, [like] in high school with gang fights and stuff. … I think this movie is important ‘cause you can still have your differences but you can still come together in the end, so … I think it’s a good picture to paint.”
The fact that Gross — the star of Our Family Wedding opposite America Ferrera, Regina King and Forest Whitaker — is playing in a movie about getting married just a few months before he actually does get married, is a confluence of mutually agreeable circumstances.
“It was weird because this movie is a test run for me and my wedding. But I found myself picking out stuff that I didn’t want for my wedding, like no goats,” he says as the reporters in the interview room explode in appreciative laughter. “But I have a feeling that my wedding is going to be a little more calm than the movie.”
That comment incites a second round of giggles, but it’s a nice convenient segue into our next point: that calm. Lance is cool, composed and collected. Even though he’s a very busy man as of late — he’s got his role on “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” and his movie projects like Our Family Wedding in addition to planning his wedding — he carries himself like he‘s on a leisurely vacation. Even if the opposite is true, the fact that Gross looks like he’s in control of it all — or better yet worries only about the things he can control — gives him an air of peace that women find irresistible.
He attributes his calm demeanor to being shy. But don’t get it twisted, that Oakland, Calif., upbringing comes out when he has to handle his. Like when he made the move to make “America’s Next Top Model” winner Eva Marcille his bride-to-be. It takes a true player to gather up the nerve to propose to someone in front of both sets of families like he did.
“Right before I proposed on Christmas Eve, I took them [Marcille’s parents] in the room and asked for permission. And [her father] played a trick on me. He said give me a couple of days to think about it. And he walked right out the room and I was like ‘wait!’ But he came back in and said, ‘I’m just playing. I would love for you to have my daughter’s hand in marriage.’ So it was cool.”
The fact that Gross is unabashedly in love and doesn’t hesitate to declare how much Marcille means to him probably endears him to his female fans even more.
“She was it. She was it,“ he said when he met her at an audition. “I’ve always been the type to be in a relationship. I’m not single for long. And when I met her, I just knew. That was the one.”
That’s not the first time Gross had to step up and come strong. After he graduated from Howard University, Gross was offered a pro contract to run track after graduation. It would have been all too easy to just do what was expected of him, but he chose long-term happiness over immediate gratification.
“I’ve been running track for as long as I remember. But once I got to Howard, it became a chore and that’s when I lost my love for it. And I got a pro contract, but I turned it down to do acting. I think I made the right decision. I mean I just couldn’t see myself waking up every day to do running. I want to be lazy sometimes — sit up in bed and read a script,” he says.
Gross’ female fan base concurs that he made the right decision to forgo an immediately lucrative but limited career for one that he can do until he grows old.
His good guy appeal is bolstered by the fact that even though Gross is the star of the Our Family Wedding, he didn’t try to hog the spotlight. He knows how to “pass the ball” so that the entire team on the film wins. Gross enjoyed watching his castmates shine, mainly Forest Whitaker (who plays his disapproving father) and Carlos Mencia (who plays the equally disapproving father-in-law to be) who frequently mixed it up on-screen, causing mad conflict for the loving couple.
“That’s how the characters were, they tried to one-up each other. I was lucky because the comedic element came from them. They weren’t relying on me for it. Their interaction with each other was fun to watch,” he says.
Ladies love the fact that even though he is blessed with leading-man looks, Gross doesn’t believe the sun rises when he rolls up on the set. Just the opposite. His ego is such that he had no problem telling reporters that he is in awe of, and was nervous about, playing alongside the caliber of talent like Academy Award-winner Whitaker.
“Working with Forest was a dream come true. … the Oscar-winning Forest Whitaker. So I was nervous about that. He’s so humble and so laid-back and so down to earth. He found out a good way to break the ice. He found out that I was a [Los Angeles] Lakers fan. So he took me to a Lakers game. So he scored a lot of cool points,” Gross says.
He didn’t just work with them. Gross was (ahem and do pardon the pun) engrossed with taking his game to the next level, so he used his down time to go to class and study Whitaker’s every move.
“I just found myself watching [Whitaker] even in scenes I wasn’t in. I would just watch how he prepared his scene; how he got into character and the questions that he would ask the director. And I was amazed the number of questions he would ask. He would ask any and everything about the character. That’s what I took from it. But I was a sponge just soaking it up, hoping that some of his talent would rub off on me,” Gross says.
Conventional wisdom says that a man who has a good relationship with his parents will also make a good husband, which we’re sure Marcille looked into before accepting Gross’ proposal of marriage. Gross had no problems giving his parents props for making a very unpopular decision back in the day that most likely changed the course of his life for the better.
“The thing that happened, my parents took an early retirement and moved to Vegas. I thought that was the worst thing in the world at the time. But … I mean I love Oakland to death. But I think that’s one of the best things that my parents could have done for me,” he admits. “Now that I look back and all the friends that I was hanging with are either dead or in jail, so … at the time I couldn’t see it, but now I see it as a good thing for me.”
A man with a plan, who dreams big and wants to explore new horizons is always sexy to his fan base. For Gross, his boss in Atlanta is helping to make his dreams come true.
“Tyler Perry? It’s been amazing [on the show “House of Payne”]. He has been sort of a mentor to me just because I want to go on and write and direct and produce. That’s a good blueprint to follow that he’s created. And Tyler pretty much gave me my start, so that’s been a blessing to me,” Gross says.
And even though Gross is being taken off the market, the fact that he’s a model of manhood and will be a wonderful father to his kids, is just one more reason ladies love cool Lance.
