It’s time to get your popcorn and tissue boxes ready, again — The Best Man Holiday is now available on DVD and Blu-ray. Writer and director Malcolm D. Lee is proud fans can finally add the second installment of the franchise to their home library. He promises to deliver some great behind-the-scenes and deleted extra footage that is so hot that he can’t recall if even he made the cut.
Read what he has to say. –mike james
What type of extras, bloopers, deleted scenes, etc. can we expect on The Best Man Holiday DVD/Blu-ray?
The Best Man Holiday DVD/Blu-ray has between 15 to 20 deleted scenes that are good but did not work for the movie overall. There is an alternate ending. I happen to love this ending as well as the original. There is a little gag reel behind the scenes showing the lighter moments on the set where the actors couldn’t contain their laughter.
Are you in any of the deleted scenes?
I did put myself in the movie, but we cut it out. I can’t remember if it is included on the DVD but if I did it’s me as one of the football players. I say one line to Morris [Chestnut], “It’s your night L-Boogie.”
Is it true there was a deleted scene where the women dance for the men to an Aaliyah single?
No, no … It was written in the original script. We just couldn’t have two performances in one movie.
Were you aware that one of the biggest questions fans asked each other was “Did you cry?”
Absolutely, I saw the social media stuff, the Twitter, Facebook on my page and The Best Man Holiday Fan Page. They all said they laughed and they cried. They said they saw the movie multiple times, which I thought was amazing. I think it’s a movie that’s universal and that anyone can relate to these characters. It is very rare that African Americans can emote this way and see themselves in this on-screen dimension.
Can you tell us about the progress of the next Best Man movie?
I’ve got a pretty solid story. I can tell you it will be a destination wedding. It will have a “best man” in it. With the third one [movie], we will see if there will be new characters. We don’t know if Quentin [Terrence Howard’s character] is going to marry.
Were there any actors you originally wanted to cast in the original Best Man?
I had people in mind but these were people who were like big stars —Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and Chris Tucker. I had read an article where Will and Jada said they had not come across a script where they could do a movie together. This was back in 1997 and 1998. Will Smith was becoming a huge star and I had said I was gonna write this script [The Best Man] for Will and Jada. Will would have played “Tucker” and Jada [would play] Nia Long’s character [“Jordan”]. I have the perfect cast now and I couldn’t be any happier.
