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  • 7/1/2024
BP says embodying Serge once again was a snap ... adding he's asked all the time to do the character by fans via Cameo ... so he had no trouble slipping right back into the role.

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People
Transcript
00:00Because I'm here to tell you, in 1984, it was a different, the world was different.
00:11I mean, the character in the first one, his name was not Serge, he was not foreign.
00:18And I'm here to tell you, they came to me and said, we can't make it funny.
00:23And I said, let me look.
00:25And I realized right away why it wasn't funny.
00:27The character was American.
00:28He was described as devastatingly good looking, which is why I wouldn't even go in, because
00:33I didn't want them to say, are you joking?
00:36And also, he was a real garden variety, typical early 80s gay character that only existed
00:47to be swatted like a fly.
00:49He didn't have any personality, he didn't have anything at all to offer.
00:53He was just a, like a cardboard, you know.
00:57And so they said, can you think of anything?
00:59And I said, well, this is what comes to me.
01:02And I did it.
01:03And then when we shot it, we were lucky enough to be invited by Marty Brest to improvise.
01:10And then it turned out that he just wanted to be friends, he wanted to connect, you see.
01:15And that was not the way it was at that point in American history and world history and
01:22film history.
01:24You had these cliches, as decades before had been the case with African-American characters.
01:32It was like, you can bring me the mail and then goodbye.
01:36And that we still have with some, you know, it's all changing now, but in those days,
01:43it was perfectly unremarkable to see a gay character in a script that was just there
01:48to literally be swatted or swatted out of the way, like a dog that comes into your yard
01:53and should.
01:54And so that was a turning point, because I said, I think he would want to be friends
02:01and he would want to connect and be playful.
02:05And that's the origin.
02:09And maybe that's also part of the soul of the first movie is, it's like, it's unexpected.
02:16And the marginal, you know, marginal characters in it, you remember also like Damon Wayans
02:21character and all that, they have something to bring to it.
02:25It's inclusive.

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