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IAN SPELLING
NYT Syndicate
Marlon Wayans is the youngest of the 10 Wayans children and, as such, he's always been called"the Baby Wayans." He even named his production company Baby Way.
He turned 45 in July, however, has two kids of his own and has been performing for more than 25 years, starring in everything from The Wayans Brothers (1995-1999), Scary Movie (2000) and White Chicks (2006) to A Haunted House (2013), The Heat (2013) and Fifty Shades of Black (2016).
So is he really still the Baby Wayans?
"I'm always going to be the Baby Wayans," he replied, speaking by telephone from his office in Los Angeles."I'm always going to be the Baby Wayans ” it's just who I am, and I never want to stray from that in my personal life, I think. And I'm proud of it.
"Professionally, I think the past six years has been Marlon the baby becoming Marlon the man," he said."That's why Naked is about my character growing up, and that's why my new show is called 'Marlon,' because I'm really trying to focus and grow 'Marlon' to be hopefully, one day, as strong a brand as 'Wayans.'
"This journey, I've been doing it on my own and growing as a big boy on my own," he said,"having successes and failures and learning and growing and expressing at a pace I like, with the schedule I like. I'm a workaholic. The past six years, since I've been doing my own thing producing with Rick (Alvarez), we've done a lot, and I think our best years are now ahead of us.
"So it was 20 years of learning with my brothers," he said, referring to Shawn, Keenan Ivory and Damon Wayans."It was five years of learning by myself, and now I'm like, 'OK, now I think God got me ready to execute.'"
The result of that is Wayans' sudden swarm of projects. His latest movie, the romantic comedy Naked, will debut on August 11 on Netflix. Then, on August 16, he'll headline the NBC sitcom 'Marlon'. He's also currently working on his first stand-up special.
Naked, a remake of a Swedish film called Naken (2000), casts Wayans as Rob Anderson, a good guy, if an immature one, trying to marry the love of his life (Regina Hall) ... with"trying" being the operative word. For mysterious reasons, he's forced to relive the hours before his wedding over and over again until he gets it right.
"I've always been a big fan of Groundhog Day (1993)," Wayans said."To me it's one of the top 10 movies, comedies, of all time, just the concept, the way Bill Murray played it. And so I wanted to bring the magical comedy back, because nowadays everything is based in reality and I just think the magical comedy and escapism is what we need right now."
Wayans never saw Naken, but read the Naked script and helped build it into a vehicle that would play to his strengths. As a result, there's plenty of broad comedy, much of which finds Wayans butt-naked and frantically running all over the place.
"The journey the character goes on, with all these obstacles, it felt natural, although it was magical," he said."And I think, if you're going to do the things you do to try and put a smile on your woman's face, dammit, do it right. I fell in love with the concept of that.
"I've always been a fan of broad comedy, whether it's Jim Carrey or Charlie Chaplin or Jerry Lewis, especially their movies that have heart," he said."Also, I know I'm used to doing these big, broad parodies, but recently I've retired parody and I want to act, and this gave me a chance to do that too.
"So this is the kind of movie I want to make," Wayans concluded."I want to make movies that have substance and that have heart, and that can do more than just be funny."
Only five days after Naked takes its initial bow, Wayans will return to the small screen in 'Marlon'. He plays Marlon, a recent divorcee still very much connected perhaps too connected to his ex-wife (Essence Atkins) and their kids.
"I always wanted to do a show about my life, about my family, about me as a dad with my kids, about my relationship with Ang," Wayans said, referring to Angelica Zachary, his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his two kids."For years Rick and I tried to figure out how, when and what network. I went through a couple of deals with ABC and shows that didn't turn out, but then this one, I was like, 'This is the show I want to do.'
"Even though there's divorce in the show, it's really about love," he said."This show is about a family. It's a different kind of TV family, with a different kind of TV dad. So I just felt like it was time, for me and for a character like this. And you know what? We did 10 episodes and I'm proud of every last single episode, because, once again, it's about something.
"It's really funny, it's crazy as hell, it's physical, but it has good intentions and it has obstacles and objectives and strong characters and really strong actors," Wayans continued."At the end of the day, you have 21 minutes of comedy and one minute of some real heart, kind of like the Ralph Kramden and Alice moment at the end of The Honeymooners (1955-1956)."
Wayans has made his name in comedy, particularly parodies, but he's also done solid dramatic work in such films as Above the Rim (1994), one of his earliest credits, and particularly Requiem for a Dream (2000). It has surprised more than a few observers that he hasn't tried his hand at drama more often.
"Well, what I had to learn is that I'm a different animal than a lot of people out there, because I'm a guy that's never waited on Hollywood," Wayans said."To this day, it's weird, I've never really been in the machine. I've always been my own little machine, outside of the machine, that every now and again comes to visit the machine and then gets spit out and has to become his own machine again.
"I write, I produce, I act, and I write and I produce out of the necessity to perform, because there's not that many roles and it's not like I'm sitting there picking and choosing and going, 'Ah, this one's in the pipeline,'" Wayans said."Everything I do, I create. So, when you create, you go with your strength, and my strength is comedy, and my strength was sketch, and so that's what I focused on.
"Now I'm going to focus on projects that showcase more and involve more of me, a little bit of drama," Wayans continued."I don't know if I'll ever develop a drama-drama for myself, but I'm going to have comedies and have dramatic moments in them, like 'Marlon.'"
Wayans paused ... dramatically.
"Hopefully, over time, I'll get to that point where people will go, 'Uh, let me see this guy in a drama,' and maybe I can develop a drama," he said."I work hard as a stand-up comedian, as a writer, as a producer. I work really hard in everything I do and I give 150 percent effort, and I feel like it's preparing me for something.
"One day I just want to be credible in any project you put me in," Wayans concluded."I would love my audience to find me credible and not judge and go, 'I can't believe that comedian is doing that drama.'
"I just want to be that star that you go, 'I'll follow him anywhere.'"
