Shaun Robinson: “So, Malcolm, how did The Best Man Holiday come about?”
Malcolm Lee, director: “There were a lot of people — fan, people behind the scenes who said ‘you should do a sequel or a television show. But sequels are tough because people have such high expectations. And when it comes out and people see it, they say ‘well, it was not as good as the first.’ But I wanted to do something with the characters in the 30s instead of their 20s. So around 2005, I came up with something.
Shaun Robinson: “Why did you want to make a sequel after these many years passing?
Sanaa Lathan: “That’s what I said. Like ‘why do you want to do a sequel this many years later?’ But actually, it was a really fun night (when Malcolm Lee invited the cast to dinner) an he invited us to Boa in Beverly Hills. And we were just so excited to see each other because we’re all friends.
“An so the drinks started flowing an the food started coming an he started to pitch the idea of the movie sequel. And he literally pitched it moment-by-moment, scene-by-scene. At first, I said this is not going to work, we’re kind of tipsy. An by the en of five minutes, we were on the edge of our seats, literally, like we were watching the movie. And then we were like, ‘okay, Malcolm, please write this!'”
Nia Long: “We had to convince the studio to let us to do this movie. There was no green light. We actually came together and championed this process. It was the exact opposite of how thing re done. It was completely unorthodox and different from anything I had ever done.”
Morris Chestnut: “Once we were all there at that dinner, it was just a good feeling an a good time, a good vibe. But there’s a lot of disappointment in this industry because people come up to you all the time and say I got this great idea, an then you never hear from them again. So the main thing was just to be optimistic and talk about being optimistic. When we got the call that (the studios) gave us the green light then everyone got excite to o it.”
Malcolm Lee talked about how success in Hollywood is based upon the material and, just as importantly, timing. After the entire cast was onboard to remake this film, Lee wanted to see how Jumping the Broom and especially Think Like a Man performed at the box office before they went to the studio with their pitch of The Best Man Holiday, slated to open up on Thanksgiving.
