- 3 hours ago
Actor. Writer. Director. Comedy legend. Scary Movie (2026) marks the return of Marlon Wayans to the mega-hit parody franchise after a 25-year hiatus. Now at the creative helm, the Wayans are looking to sprinkle the unapologetic ‘Wayans flavor’ back into the Scary Movie film series. Here, Marlon opens up with GQ’s Zach Baron about life behind his slapstick on-screen persona—including how he dealt with losing 67 people in his life.Credits:Director: Kristen DeVoreDirector of Photography: Grant BellEditor: Grant SponableTalent: Marlon WayansHost: Zach BaronProducer: Sam DennisSenior Producer: Michael BeckertLine Producer: Jen SantosProduction Manager: Evie RoopTalent Booker: Dana MathewsCamera Operator: Shay Eberle-Gunst; Lucas VilicichGaffer: Nick MasseySound Mixer: Glo HernandezProduction Assistant: Hope MillnerGroomer: Tasha Reiko BrownPost Production Supervisor: Jess DunnPost Production Coordinator: Stella ShortinoSupervising Editor: Rob LombardiAssistant Editor: Fynn LithgowGlobal Head of Video: Leo FernandezExecutive Producer: Cara MarceanteDirector, Creative: Nick CollettDirector, Programming: Jeremy Clowney
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00My father, before he passed, said,
00:02you and your brother should work together again.
00:03I was like, pop, you know it's hard for five black men
00:06to do anything together?
00:07If you would have asked me, I would have been like,
00:09this man will be on TV once a week.
00:12I tried that, but the networks had a whole nother idea.
00:15Was it painful to watch like other people
00:17make your franchise?
00:18Oh, it was like watching your child become a crackhead.
00:27Marlon Wayans, thanks for doing this.
00:28Thanks for having me.
00:29I saw you say, relatively recently.
00:33I lie.
00:34Don't listen to any of you.
00:35Okay.
00:36Well, I saw you lie relatively recently.
00:38And I lie.
00:40If people could die and come back as somebody,
00:43come back as me.
00:45Yeah.
00:46I thought, I'm not sure if I've ever heard anybody
00:48else say that before.
00:49Oh, because I don't think you've met anybody
00:51that was as happy as I was until like, come back as me,
00:55come back as me before I turned 48.
01:01You know, after 48, there's like a five-year period,
01:05a four-year period where I wouldn't wish that on anybody.
01:08But my first 48 years, hands down, best life ever.
01:15I don't care if he was a billionaire, I don't care if he was a Rockefeller,
01:18I had the best life ever.
01:20Why?
01:21Unpack that one for me.
01:22I mean, I was blessed, man.
01:24I grew up with a mother that had 10 children who taught us to all love each other and had
01:30the greatest sense of humor.
01:32And she was just magical and whimsical and creative and hilarious.
01:39And when she was angry, nobody was angrier and funnier.
01:42We used to get her mad just so she could be funny.
01:45We used to call her Richard Pryor with tits.
01:48That's how funny she was and bitingly edgy.
01:50I had a father that no matter how much my mother cursed him out, and it was every day.
01:56To be married to somebody for 65 years and rarely repeat the same joke twice,
02:02you curse this man out every day, that's creativity.
02:04To look at the same thing and be like, what's new funny about you?
02:10That's genius.
02:11But he stayed with my mom no matter what.
02:13My father was God-fearing and, you know, Joe witnessed and taught us, you know,
02:18the love and respect of God and law and taught us to be good people and to love each other
02:23and to honor thy mother and father.
02:26And it gifted me with all these great siblings that even in their worst trauma was still hilarity.
02:37You know what I mean?
02:38They still poured into me, you know, and challenged me.
02:42And I grew up in a house with not one legend.
02:45I was fortunate.
02:46I grew up in a house with five legends.
02:48Who can say that?
02:50Like, besides maybe Michael Jackson, I literally grew up in a house with everybody I dreamt to be like
02:56was living or sleeping in the bunk bed above me or was in the room across from me.
03:03You know, Kim, Kenan, Damon, Sean.
03:09Then my other siblings, you know, loved me and poured into me and protected me.
03:13I had sisters that fought more battles for me than my brothers could.
03:16But my sister Devon, I'd get in a fight with a bully.
03:20She grabbed a bully and she was about 260 pounds with cornrows.
03:25And Devon hit him.
03:26Now punch him in the face.
03:28No, Devon.
03:28He's going to be me.
03:29You punch him or I'm going to punch you.
03:30Bow.
03:31I knew Jamie Foxx and I knew, you know, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock.
03:38You know, all these people in comedy and all these legends.
03:43Bernie Mac.
03:44I was there to give Bernie, Damon gave Bernie his first acting gig on Mo Money.
03:51I had a wonderful existence.
03:55I went to performing arts high school.
03:57So I didn't do regular high school.
03:58I went to school for something I loved every day.
04:01Do you know how special that time in my life was?
04:05Do you understand that that was like a God's gift to me?
04:08To study the thing that you know you're going to do for the rest of your life that makes you
04:13happy.
04:14And not care how you're really doing math.
04:16Not care how you're doing English.
04:18You just know that I'm going to get these 98s and this drama and that's what I really care about.
04:22And to make that my school and my purpose and to know that I can do it and to watch
04:28my brothers do it and just go, it's all a choice.
04:31It's all about the work you do.
04:32It's hard work pays off.
04:33I had to be successful because there's no excuses for me.
04:36I knew how to do it.
04:38So that's why I say, the luckiest guy in the world, my first 48 years, if you can come back
04:44as anybody, come back as me.
04:46And the reason why I say the first 48 is because after that, my mother died.
04:51And after my mother died, everything went to hell.
04:54Yes.
04:55And then I lost 67 people I knew.
04:57I've heard you say the number and every time I hear you say the number.
05:00It keeps growing.
05:01Yeah.
05:01This is crazy.
05:03I lost two people last week.
05:05Yeah.
05:06But it teaches you the value of life.
05:08You know what I mean?
05:08I lost a guy that was the bully in my neighborhood.
05:12Me and my brother jumped him every day for like-
05:15So you were the bully in your neighborhood.
05:16No, no, no.
05:16We had to jump him.
05:17He was a big kid.
05:18And he used to pick fights with us.
05:19So me and Sean used to jump him every summer.
05:22It'd be like Rocky and Apollo.
05:25Dwayne's going to fight, you know, Will.
05:28And we did this three or four times.
05:30And then the last time Sean went through puberty, he was like, nah, I got this.
05:33And Sean fought and he finally won.
05:37And then y'all stayed in touch.
05:39No.
05:39Then we became really close friends.
05:41And then we had a really bad like dismantling of that friendship.
05:45And then we haven't talked in 20 years.
05:48And then I found out he passed.
05:50And I immediately called his family and I said my well wishes.
05:54And I don't want to hold hate in my heart because that's holding hurt in my heart.
05:58And I just called his brother.
06:00I called his sisters.
06:01I called his kids.
06:02And I was like, you know, my condolences.
06:04Called his girlfriend, just sent my love, right?
06:06Because I think that's the healing.
06:08And right after I did that, I called another friend of mine that I had a falling out with.
06:13And I was like, hey, let's go to lunch.
06:15Is this something you would have done when you were 25 or 30?
06:19What?
06:20Called people?
06:22Yeah, I think I probably would have back then.
06:26But then after probably 32, I was like, forget people.
06:30I'm tired of people.
06:31You get tired of being hurt.
06:32You get tired of being disappointed.
06:34And so you remove yourself.
06:35What brought you back around?
06:37That death.
06:39That Will died and you realize that you're in your 50s and mortality is a real thing.
06:46Yeah.
06:46And if you can fix it while people are here and enjoy the rest of your time with them,
06:52then you should express that and you should do that.
06:54But to sit in a bubble and just let things not be okay is not okay.
07:01It's okay to create boundaries, but don't let the trauma turn you into something that's not your light.
07:10Whenever I hear someone say something emotionally intelligent like that, I'm like, where did you get that from?
07:17The Bible.
07:19Really?
07:19I've been reading the Bible the last six months of my life.
07:23I go on my walks.
07:25I listen to James Earl Jones reading me the Bible, which is dopest because I got Darth Vader reading me
07:32the Bible.
07:35And it's so dope.
07:36It is the dopest thing in the world.
07:39And hither thee thus.
07:40It's just so fun.
07:42And I just do it and it fills me with spirit.
07:44My father told me, before my father died, my father was your witness.
07:47I said, what do I do when I miss you?
07:48Because I knew he was passing.
07:50He said, have you ever missed me?
07:52I want you, and he pointed to this Bible.
07:53He said, go pick up that Bible and read about me.
07:56He said, if you get to know my father, then you'll get to know your father.
08:01And I didn't understand what he meant.
08:02But I started missing my dad, and I started reading that Bible, and he was so right.
08:09My father was everything in that book.
08:11Really?
08:12Absolutely.
08:13He was a wonderful dude.
08:14That book gave my father all of the guidelines, the rules of how he navigated his life.
08:22And you opened it up again and just saw him again.
08:24And it's helped me.
08:25And that's why I'm into forgiving people, right?
08:29Why am I going to hold on to that?
08:30If Jesus can forgive people that were, he's being crucified, and he's asking God for forgiveness
08:37for them, for they know not what they do.
08:39Then why, as humans, can't we exercise that same strength?
08:43That is not weakness.
08:44That is complete strength and humility.
08:46And that's how I want to live my life.
08:48That's how I want to govern myself.
08:49So where do you look for your mother?
08:51What I?
08:52You look for your father in the Bible.
08:54Where do you look for your mother?
08:54My father in the Bible.
08:56I said, where do you look for your mother?
08:56My mama was like, Negro, I'm in every book.
09:00There's God in every book and there's mama in every book.
09:04And she's right.
09:04I pick up green eggs and ham to read to my daughter.
09:07And what is ham spelled backwards?
09:09Ma.
09:11and her last name was green that was a she's everywhere man my mother and my father omnipresent
09:19and i feel like they're just protecting me guiding me and lifting me your older brothers
09:24keenan damon are kind of the family the the people who break your family into into hollywood
09:30late 80s i think yep um and they're much older than you are do you kind of remember
09:37life like before them making it yeah they were still my big brothers yeah damon was a mess and
09:46damon was always in trouble so they sent him to job corps in kentucky and see when you're the baby
09:51you know keenan was like going to college and he went to tuskegee you just know as the kid as
09:57the
09:57baby there's these you see legs yeah yeah they were like your life you see legs and shapes you
10:03don't really see you know you remember people but you don't remember them like that you remember
10:08moments keenan was smart enough he'd take us to a movie keenan would take us to the park keenan
10:13would go race with us or he would do something he'd buy us a bike you know keenan was a
10:18magical big
10:19brother but all i remember is legs and things happening but i don't know everything about
10:23every story because i'm so busy living my story with sean me and sean had the same story so we're
10:28these two little guys and all we see is legs and um i know i knew damon got in a
10:33lot of trouble i
10:33knew avire was pregnant young i knew deejra was pregnant young i knew vonny cut school a lot um i
10:39knew nadia had a loose eye and it was just i just there was just things and so yeah i
10:46remember my life
10:48before the fame and i remember the same happy that we continue to have so it didn't change it didn't
10:55change it only got greater the happiness people say money changes you it didn't change us at all
11:01we had a wonderful time i would say for maybe 25 years that was you know a beautiful run like
11:09fame
11:10just it allowed us to to laugh louder to eat better to enjoy each other and to and then we
11:16started
11:17working together and it was like oh my god this is life this is amazing this is everything that we
11:22dreamed to be and then you get older and you know people start getting on your nerves and then you
11:27you know then is that what happened life life no it was the getting on each other's nerves well you
11:32definitely get on each other's nerves but it's also we dream different right me and my brother sean
11:38who's like this we did everything together like his frame of reference was my frame of reference yeah
11:45we wasn't marlon and sean my father would call us marlon and sean so much so sean got a son
11:51his middle name
11:51is my sean i have a son my son's name is sean sean has a son his son's name is
11:58marlon so that's how
11:59close me and sean were in our childhood but even though we we you know we we we stay up
12:07at night
12:07my mother sent us to bed and we would immediately turn on the honeymooners we wasn't sleeping till
12:1211 30 new york the honeymooners came on at 11 30 me and sean was going to watch an episode
12:17of the
12:18honeymooners because we were studying because we was always like yeah when we get our own show
12:23imagine the audacity of these two five and six year olds going when we have our own show for the
12:31record you guys did have your own show we did yeah we we manifested that but hold on you were
12:36saying
12:36something about being close to sean and then we we just got older and sean was like we got to
12:43do it
12:43this way and i was like but that's not how i want to do it i want to do it
12:48that way you know everything
12:50we started doing is just like i wanted to go to college sean was like yo just come out to
12:55california
12:56and get on living color i was like i don't want to i love y'all but you guys are
13:00a lot and i don't
13:02want to be just lands i want to go find marlon so i went to howard for like two years
13:08and only with living color on the air with living i was a living color's brother at howard university
13:13i was i was and that's them and when that show came on everybody scattered like roaches
13:19yeah yeah and now i must have made a crazy and as soon as all everybody back and they talk
13:24about
13:24the episode it was it was a wonderful time and then eventually i went out to california but i and
13:29i wrote my brother a long letter before i i left i had this thing where i used to write
13:34my brother's
13:34long letters to express myself and i i told him i just i have to go for me this ain't
13:40about you i
13:40love you i'll see you i'll see you soon and this may be a mistake in your eyes but i
13:45have something i
13:46have to get there i don't know what and so i went back to school only to probably six months
13:50later
13:51joined in living car i got more money and then i joined in living color and then you know but
13:55even
13:55then i used to dream about one day getting an oscar and he was like for what and i was
14:00like bro
14:00because i was supposed to do the richard pryor movie he was like why you want to win an oscar
14:04for that's dumb why you want to play a comedian and do a drama about a comedian i was like
14:09because
14:09i went to perform at high school and that's what i dreamed to do i went to pa if you
14:14don't
14:15always grow together you kind of grow apart but in my family there's always this boundary and there's
14:20always this orb and there's always this thing that we will always be connected and we'll always work
14:25again together you worked basically the whole time sean seemed like he stepped away well it's not that
14:33he stepped away you know we dream different and i i have such a profound respect for somebody's um
14:43personal journey we wanted to be two different types of famous sean don't want to be worldwide this
14:51on the door over here and over there sean like i want to chill with my kid i want to
14:56hang out i want
14:57to you know go to hawaii and maybe sleep i want to you know sean we go on vacation sean's
15:04like yeah
15:04i could sleep here i'm like sleep i'm i'm up we went to mekonos he probably slept he had the
15:10best sleep
15:10of his life 18 hours i was in mekonos i probably slept two hours a night yeah but we're and
15:17we're just
15:18different and what you learn as you get older in order to protect boundaries you have to respect
15:23boundaries and i i only want for my big brother what my big brother wants for himself and whatever
15:29dream he ever has then that's what he will accomplish and he's always been like that he's
15:35manifested everything he wanted to do and he's also manifested his peace and so i think that's a
15:40wonderful thing and i can't wait to maybe one day i'm waiting for it i don't know if it's going
15:45to
15:45happen one day that i'll i'll search for that kind of peace and um but until then i'm on the
15:52grind
15:52is that the story because kenan too at some point seemed like he stepped back kenan i'm tired
16:01you go ahead and do that i'm tired you know but i was telling uh sean i was like you
16:07know but that's
16:08what how he raised us to he raised me to do this i want them to be tired i want
16:13my brother to chill out
16:16just the same way he took care of us when we was little i want my brother to do less
16:23so i can do more
16:24so he can enjoy his time chilling i want one day when i'm ready to chill i hope my kids
16:31is ready to pick
16:32up this baton and do it with the same tenacity that that i'm doing it right now in loving color
16:39you mentioned the show that you had with sean yeah i'm a grew up in the 90s so i can
16:45like remember what
16:46in living color felt like i can remember what your sitcom felt like i think at the time if you
16:53would
16:54ask me i would have been like this man will be on tv once a week for the rest of
17:00my life
17:02in like 98. i think that's what i would have tried that but the networks had a whole nother idea
17:07that was your dream and mine but it was like he could be on for two years and he gotta
17:14go
17:14they don't let him on for five years he had to go again then we're gonna give him a long
17:18hiatus
17:19but you know um so was there something about like tv that changed or something
17:24about your career that changed no everything is exactly the way it's supposed to be i haven't
17:30stopped working no no no i mean not at all i just was like like i said i think at
17:35one point
17:35it would have felt like okay he's going to create and i probably would have like when i did um
17:40after
17:40we did wayne's brothers i wanted to do more tvs but i was doing movies and see what happens with
17:46tv is
17:47you know they have their agenda of things that they want and i've never been that kind of artist where
17:53um you know you're gonna cap i could be casted in anything when i do tv and i'm doing something
17:59every week i want to do something that feels good to me i want to i want to be the
18:04visionary i want
18:05to create it when i did my show marlin it was the best time of my life i know every
18:10week i'm gonna be
18:11funny i know it why because i have the control to do it i know the audience i know where
18:16the jokes are
18:16i know the stories i lived that story it was very painful for me but here's what's funny about it
18:22this is what i do in my life i like to take the things that hurt me and go what's
18:27funny about that
18:27and that is it's a gift and so maybe my hiatus from television has been that i and i don't
18:35think uh
18:36the the studios and the networks and i don't think they understand that for artists like me
18:43when they go what do you want to do you let them go do what he wants to do i
18:49don't need all the other
18:50stuff i just need the what do you want to do that this when keenan didn't limit color it's like
18:57what
18:58do you want to do yeah he was like this when you get to that level of an artist you
19:05don't try to tell
19:06the artist what to do you allow the the space and you feel like people were telling you what to
19:13do
19:13no i feel like i don't want to be just casted in a tv show i feel like you know
19:18i felt like for the
19:20past 15 years we've been in a recession in terms of comedy i think people are scared i think executives
19:25are scared like you can't say that you can't say this and i'm like you're right you can't but i
19:31can
19:31why makes you think that you can't because i do it every weekend on a stage go check my tour
19:37schedule
19:37i've not come off tour in 15 years i know when on how to make an audience laugh with dark
19:44stuff
19:45do it all the time you're afraid to you're gonna lose this you're afraid of cancer culture i know
19:51that cancer culture don't exist those are a bunch of sensitive ass people they ain't gonna watch my show
19:55anyway so you want to be cancelled by the culture that don't embrace what you do but you gotta
20:01make the noise so you turn their head and go what what are these other people laughing that
20:06this feels like a great moment to mention scary movie six yeah coming soon are we saying the six
20:15oh we're just saying scary movie okay so rebranding it's the rebooticle yeah well i feel like a sequel
20:21i feel like i've seen yes i feel like i've seen people talk to you like you made five of
20:27them before
20:27we only made uh two there's our third one yeah exactly we we forget the other three we don't
20:34count so that's why we're just like we don't care we'll be again super successful yeah two even more
20:41successful yeah then what happened god everything is god man or the devil um then in this case the
20:50weinstein brothers it was yeah you know it's um they didn't want to make the deal and they wanted
20:58to pay for the the jokes and so we was like okay and then they went a step another way
21:03and we probably
21:04could have sued and all that but you know that's not me and my family work i don't i'm not
21:08gonna sit
21:08there in negativity this is about when we do it we do it out of love we do it because
21:13we're having fun
21:13we do it because you know we don't let the business get in the way of the creative and i'm
21:18not gonna sit
21:18there and hold tight to you know what we could do and i don't man vengeance is gods right and
21:26when
21:26you live your life like that not to once again i'll go back to the bible vengeance is gods i
21:32had to do
21:33nothing except me and my brothers walk away and go create new things like white chicks and little man
21:39and i created a haunted house which wound up rivaling scary movie five and you know burying it and you
21:45know we did our own but that wasn't intentional that's just what kind of happened and then having
21:51to get buried yeah by your movie and then they and but it wasn't intentional i was just going out
21:56to
21:56make a movie there they was trying to be intentional to go up against the movie i was creating because
22:01that's just sometimes how they ran their business and you know vengeance is gods man they haven't had
22:07one company taken from but two companies and that's not my doing that's their karma for the things that
22:13they've done all i'm gonna do is go make a movie and we do the new scary movie i'm not
22:19doing this to
22:20spite nobody i'm doing this to because we created it we love it and we just want to make the
22:27world
22:27laugh again i want this movie more so than funny i want it to feel good i want us to
22:34feel you know you
22:35keep referencing the 90s and you think that feeling you reference childhood that feeling of man we are here
22:41to have a good time we're here to laugh we're here to make fun of each other but it's in
22:48jest
22:48and it's with love and that's what me and my family have done we did it with living color
22:52we did it with don't be a menace we've done it with white chicks we can take and make fun
22:57of a group
22:58of people and the people we're making fun of they laugh the loudest that's called a good joke was it
23:04painful to watch like other people make your franchise oh it was like watching your child become a
23:08crackhead it was just like but you gotta let them you gotta let them they gotta go they gotta go
23:12get
23:13that crack they're gonna learn you know they're gonna learn sooner or later when they do you know
23:18tack down the tv so i'm i'm still here we gonna be here when they're ready to come home but
23:24tack down
23:24the tv you know but we it but it we let it go i wasn't like when it came out
23:30we even see the movie
23:31yeah matter of fact when i did part six we didn't look at part three four and five yeah did
23:37you try
23:38to get the movies back there was a point we i was i personally wanted it back because i i
23:44i felt like
23:44we weren't done yet i felt like oh there's so many more stories to tell there's so much more to
23:51do it
23:51cindy shorty ray and brenda i felt like it you know because i did the haunted house franchise i was
23:58like
23:58i had a like i was reinvigorated i was like oh no what if i could do that and it
24:04just it eluded us
24:05you know and then uh a couple of executives over there at miramax and you know i try to tell
24:10my
24:11agents about it it's like ah it's gone that's gone another way i'm like how's my project gone another
24:16way and then um you know um john glickman and i'm always going to give up you know there was
24:21a point
24:22where executives and especially when it comes to the wayances you need a uh an executive
24:31that's willing to and i don't know it's a weird way to say it pull their big hairy balls out
24:38and go yo fuck it we're taking a shot and we're doing this i'm risking it all and i'm doing
24:45this
24:47when kenan did in living color it was um who was running fox when kenan did in living color
24:55the name just ran by me i know who it is but can i get my phone i have to
24:59call kenan ivory
25:02when you didn't let me color barry diller was the guy that was one that that pulled was was like
25:08we're going for it it was him and churning right churning came on afterward
25:17all right got you love you so you were saying basically it takes an executive i'm not going
25:22to say the next part but it takes the executive and encourage it takes an executive with some courage
25:28to to to make these decisions to willing to risk it all because your job's on the line
25:34to trust somebody's instinct which means you're trusting your instinct it took so long for a living
25:40color to get picked up because it was so loud and so crazy but and everybody was scared of it
25:46but those
25:47guys was like there's something here and it was an explosion when we did uh wayans brothers it was like
25:55this is going to be the flagship show of a brand new network wayans brothers and they
26:02they took to their credit you know with the weinsteins don't be a menace it's a crazy movie
26:09about a spoof on hood movies they that one in scary movie it was like we're going to do it
26:15wait
26:15they had the balls to do it and in this case it was john glickman that was like to get
26:22you guys the
26:23franchise back the only way to do the scary movie is to do with the wayans and and and uh
26:31that
26:32that was him pulling them do you like your deal going ads out huh do you like your deal better
26:37this time do i like my deal better yeah i like the whole not just the deal better it's not
26:42about
26:42it was not it's never about the deal i like the company better i feel like there's people i will
26:47life is at this point for me where i gotta enjoy what i'm doing and i gotta enjoy who i'm
26:52doing it
26:53with life is too short to be around people that's gonna be yelling and mistreating people and throwing
26:58phones and i don't want to i don't want to be a part of that like if you can't behave
27:02i don't want
27:02to make money with you i don't want to spend i'm doing a comedy over here i can't be around
27:06your bad
27:07behaviors bad energy that juju is rubbing off on me that's not my spirit and uh you know i really
27:14enjoyed my my time working with jonathan glickman and uh and ally and everybody it's me it's still
27:19miramax yeah just a whole different regime and it's been a a great partnership a great ride
27:28everybody over at uh it's like full circle everybody over at paramount josh who runs um uh greenstein he
27:36was over at um he was over at weinstein's when and was the head of marketing and was made head
27:43of
27:43marketing in the room on scary movie and so keenum was teaching him how to cut comedy trailers and he
27:50was like an assistant that became like head of marketing because he fired the marketing head of
27:55marketing and but now he's you know yeah big chief over at um at paramount and we're all having this
28:03great wonderful experience together they a lot they helped me make a great movie and us make a great
28:10movie and it's one i'm proud of and it feels good and ken and sean who were talking about before
28:15are
28:15both part of it yes was it hard to get them back in the mix well i mean initially they
28:22came to me
28:22to do the movie and i was like i can't do it out my brothers there's no no money in
28:29the world there's no
28:30situation in the world that i'm never gonna do that with my family that's my family so if we can
28:37do it
28:38sure i i'm more than happy to if they want to do if they didn't want to do it i
28:43was going to do it
28:43but i did you have to talk them into it oh yeah i had to hypnotize those bastards but they
28:49was like
28:49you know they were you know because it was a lot of i guess they were holding on to a
28:54lot of you know
28:55maybe some trauma from the experience that they went through and it was just like specifically in
28:59regards to this movie or with hollywood in general well i think with the movie and hollywood
29:04their experience you know it's been a lot and so and i'm just constantly working so you know but
29:10they they trusted you know what all the vision they trusted what i was going to do and you know
29:16and um
29:16we were able to make a deal that everybody felt good and it was important for us to bring anna
29:22anna and regina back because shorty and ray without you know brenda and and uh cindy you know
29:29it's the core four so the movie feels good it's like one big the waynes are working together again
29:36me and shawn are working together again me anna regina and shawn are working together again this
29:43morning i had the thought i was like well if this is possible is white chicks too possible
29:48oh definitely i mean i was talking to keenan about uh ideas for white chicks too this morning so i
29:54think
29:55it is possible but i just want to know the world wants to laugh right i know the world wants
30:00to
30:00are you in a position to do that too or is it the same thing where you've got to go
30:04figure out who
30:05has it and get it back and no that that's just all about choosing the right home for it and
30:11you know
30:11making sure we we you know we find the right partnerships and the right feel and it has to feel
30:17good and you know we have to be after the same agenda and we have to have the same ideas
30:21and what the
30:22scope of the movie is and what the budget of the movie is and you know um but those are
30:27easy choices
30:28i think the most important thing for us is to see if the world wants to laugh again what's beautiful
30:34that makes me feel good or us feel good as a tribe is i look at the success of a
30:40movie like michael
30:42and i know why that movie did well because it felt good you want to dance in the theaters when
30:50you're
30:50hearing michael when you're listening you remember that time of when thriller came out and you was in
30:56the sixth grade and man the nostalgia of that was just you know i see why uh um devil wears
31:04prada
31:05makes money see michael was the beginning of the party right that's the music right that's the fashion
31:11that's the the lifestyle that's the you know this is all the stuff that we we haven't experienced really
31:17at a big level since covid and hopefully when scary comes out that we bring the laughs and that we
31:26now have everybody kicked off ready to have a great summer those movies did really well we talked about
31:32scary one scary movie one scary movie two do you have a theory about like why people love those films
31:39so
31:39much we're a guilty pleasure people like our brand of humor people like to laugh we bring out the 15
31:46year
31:46old and 45 i was going to ask what the guilty part was we we don't we because we it's
31:53okay to laugh at
31:54a fart joke it's okay it's okay to have laugh at you know a guy with a little hand it's
32:01okay it's okay to
32:03laugh at these situations that people like oh should i laugh at that sure you should it's funny and here's
32:11what's funny about it should i laugh at you know these two black guys in this situation playing white
32:16girls when you actually when you flip it you're able to look at yourselves and be like oh wow that's
32:23funny we are like that sometimes and we're equal opportunity offenders when we do a movie like white
32:29chicks we got the brother chasing the white girl that's been a big thing in our our community you get
32:35terry cruz and he then he finds out that he's mad when he finds out not that you're a dude
32:41he's mad
32:42that you're not white like this our brand of humor we're not um we're we're not violent we do violent
32:52things but we're not violent we're looney tunes well you can push wiley coyote off a cliff
32:58and he's going to his his death and you see that little cloud of smoke and you laugh it's tom
33:06and
33:06jerry gets hit over the head with a hammer and he gets this look and you laugh see it's how
33:13we do
33:14things with kids gloves we always have that is our humor it's not to attack it's not to hurt it's
33:20not
33:20to break down it's only to make you laugh i've heard you say that you feel like
33:27parody is like an unappreciated art right am i right about this i think it's the hardest
33:36the hardest movie to write is a parody really yeah oh yeah yeah you're like people don't respect it
33:41no and people people think comedy is easy go for it bro go for it you see when it's done
33:49right
33:50when it's done right that means they really studied that means they really worked because
33:54you've got to watch 150 to 200 movies three to four times each some of those movies gonna watch 20
34:02times before you come up with the concept of what your that's insane so that's really the process bro
34:09bro we wrote 750 pages to get 150 pages to cut it down to 110 to go shoot 135
34:19this is a process everything on your and you're watching all of it huh and you're watching all of
34:25it all are you are you a fan of the movies that you're watching some and some you hate yeah
34:32but
34:32you still got to watch it because you go oh but here's what's funny about it sometimes the ones that
34:36you hate the most are the ones that gift you the most comedy and you go oh that's dope and
34:41sometimes you
34:42watch it and you get nothing then you rewatch it and go oh what about this thing for this character
34:46and it for us it's not about throwing a bunch of stuff together which is not mission it has to
34:52make
34:52sense right and that's the part that's very hard it's how do you take all these movies and house it
34:58into one movie and still tell a cohesive story with these characters in 2000 you could expect people
35:05have seen like uh scream yep i know you did last summer but now it feels like the landscape is
35:12much
35:12more fragmented you know i think there's like a substance joke in the trailer for this movie i'm
35:16like i'm like have like do people know what that is like maybe they didn't move it like i wonder
35:20if
35:20it's more challenging to do a movie like this now no i think it's it's it's challenging for some
35:27it's very challenging for us every parody is a very challenging movie to write it's not easy
35:33but i know substance seems like it's random but when you think about the character that
35:37they were doing substance with it makes sense and when you see where the joke goes you're gonna be
35:41like oh that's wild that's wild work but you're gonna laugh because it's just like i didn't see
35:47that coming so you basically using all these different things to set up a joke for our characters
35:54um you're starring in the film yes uh there's a quote let me let me grab it there's a quote
36:00you i've heard
36:01i've heard you say it more than once for 20 something years i've been a star i'm not content
36:06i want to be a superstar i want to be one of the 10 guys who get sent the best
36:10scripts yeah unpack that
36:12for me if you if you would well my whole career has been creating stuff i've always been the guy
36:19that
36:20i have to write it i have to produce it i have to star in it i have to do
36:24it all it's very rare that i get
36:26like a a requiem for a dream or i get an opportunity like him with jordan peele calls you up
36:31and goes
36:31hey do you want to do this dark psychological uh horror and i mean but for me i'm probably one
36:42i'm
36:42i'm i'm versatile right because i've had to do so much because i went to performance high school
36:48because i do stand-up comedy because i came from sketch because i write parody because i've i've i've done
36:55action i've done it all i've played everything from a white chick to a little person to a junkie i
37:02play i think that's why i'm surprised at the characterization like i look at it and i'm like
37:06white chicks hundred million dollar movie scary movie hundred million dollar movie little man like
37:13i'm like that's not superstardom uh you're everybody's version of superstardom is different
37:20right i want to be the guy that no i don't care what it is it's 100 million dollars because
37:26i know
37:26that he's giving me 150 percent performance in this and i know that i could follow him to drama
37:33i could follow him to romance i could follow him into comedies i could follow him into action i can
37:38follow this actor this this this this committed i i spend my life every weekend i i work i'm working
37:48working working working to be this thing that i i i'm not there yet and it's coming and is that
37:56is the obstacle internal or is there like external stuff that you've had to get past it's it's it was
38:03internal internally i had to do the work my brother would always tell me you have to be an unstoppable
38:08force of nature in order to make it as a black man in this industry and i was like i
38:14get that and so
38:15that's what i've become and i work to become an unstoppable force in nature because if i showed
38:20you my schedule you would throw up just looking at it you'd be like i don't know how somebody's
38:24going to do this and they don't have a weekend off i haven't had a weekend off in probably a
38:28year and a
38:28half like i i'm just grinding but you have to do that in order to become this this thing that
38:35you're
38:36working to be because when you get there you can't complain about the amount of the workload you just
38:41got to show up like it's natural there's no nothing that phases me in terms of the work i like
38:46doing
38:46the work i don't know if you're gonna find many people that go i like to do the work i
38:52like it all
38:53there's not a part that i hate i love the writing i love the producing i love the editing i
39:00love the
39:00interviews i love the travel i love stand-up i love it all i love the specials i love the
39:06audience i
39:07love the fans i love the fame i love it all this is god brought me here to do something
39:11special and
39:12i'm gonna do it internally i had to show myself that i can do the the acting the writing the
39:18producing
39:19the drama the comedy i have to do a lot of studying i've logged now 50 000 hours they say
39:2510 000 hours
39:26is if you log 10 000 hours at anything you can be considered a professional or considered an expert i've
39:32logged 10 000 hours in five different disciplines in our industry and i'm just right and all i need
39:39now it's external and it's not the audience see the audience knows i was raised i was raised in that
39:46house they're like i that guy is amazing it's the people's the industry it's the people that write the
39:52checks it's the people that you know um stardom is not just something you do alone there's a machine
39:59that helps you do it i've been the machine there's been and my family's been that machine but when i
40:05get with this machine to help this machine oh that's when the explosion happens you go i see the
40:11industry i see what it is and had that always been the goal i mean you're talking about dramatic roles
40:17like you know you mentioned him and you were in air and respect and on the rocks like that just
40:24the last six years and then you mentioned requiem for a dream so i think 2000 i think there was
40:30a
40:30moment then where i was like oh that's interesting i wonder if he's going to do a bunch more of
40:33these
40:33and you didn't was that by design or because there was nothing else to do it just it wasn't what
40:39you
40:40know i wasn't chose to do those things that's not the i don't know if it was god i don't
40:44know if it's
40:44the universe i don't know what's the industry i don't know what but i didn't get any opportunities to
40:48do that but when i do get the opportunity every time i'm gonna knock it out the park why because
40:55i do the work i dig into the character i as soon as i get that script i put together
41:00that character
41:01i sit in the process i do the work physically to to show up to set so that i can
41:06let the the material
41:08go to become that person that i'm or that character that i'm going to play i just do the work
41:13i just it's the way the industry sees you and all i want is for them to see me as
41:19whatever it is
41:21i'm going to do the work i'm going to wow the audience i'm i'm always gonna i'm always going
41:26to give 150 percent seth rogan once told me he thought actually drama was easier than comedy
41:33to do do you find the same thing seth rogan is so right i never thought i would say that
41:42no he's right it's it's light years easier really what a comedian does a comedian all right for like
41:51drama right drama is is it's really accessing your your trauma right accessing your truth accessing
42:01because then you have to mix your truth with the character's truth but it still has to stem from
42:06your emotions right you as marlin what i've been through in my life that can relate or it hasn't
42:12relate but how would i react in that situation what are some things that that help connect me to this
42:18situation that the character is going through there's no performing in a drama if you're performing
42:25you you're actually you're you're overacting in a drama you gotta be you gotta be still you have to be
42:34you have to search it's internal you have to search you have to open up this safe in your heart
42:39comedians right something happened to me that's traumatic the first thing i do is go what's funny
42:44about this that's been my life so my parents died soon my parents died what's funny about this and i
42:53went
42:53i was like i did a special called good grief and i took this thing the most painful thing i
42:59ever been
42:59through in my life and i did a beautiful special that was absolutely hilarious and then that point
43:05in that special minute 57 i broke down crying because i didn't realize where i was running from
43:11then the reality of my parents being gone hit me and i was like oh but i locked that away
43:18and i went back
43:19to the jokes now when you do a drama that's the beauty of comedy is i take my pain i
43:25make you laugh
43:25but that doesn't mean i absolutely healed that doesn't mean i dealt with the pulp of those
43:31emotions i take those emotions and i put them away in a safe somewhere and i don't i get i
43:36don't think
43:37about it and then i get the script and it's a drama and i get to go access those things
43:48that you didn't
43:48deal with and then you could let those things out and then you feel the power of all that you
43:54did not
43:56deal with you could do it in therapy you can do it in prayer you could do it but until
44:01you actually
44:01emote and let that out and that's what we do as comedians that's why great comedians make for great
44:08actors robin william fantastic actor why because he could make you laugh and cry in the same scene
44:15jim carrey you know eddie murphy you know those guys richard prior the more trauma you got and
44:22the funnier you are after the trauma the better dramatic actor you you can be this is you've also
44:28taken that trauma toward your stand-up which is like more and more personal every year as far as
44:36i can tell layers of an onion bro you went from talking about your parents and your grief around
44:41that to uh it's a special you you're touring but haven't recorded i haven't recorded the special
44:47yeah which is about uh one of your kids yeah my my uh my my the transition yeah but it's
44:54not their
44:55transition it was my transition right going from denial to acceptance and the five stages of grief
45:02that i went through in order to get there see it doesn't sound like a comedy it sounds
45:07doesn't it sounds like a drama but i put dramatic structure under my comedies because as a writer
45:12that's what i've learned from writing you know every comedy i write has some kind of dramatic
45:20structure so you have that dramatic structure and for me that's the heart and it's like a great sitcom
45:25in every great sitcom 22 minutes long there's like a minute of heart so in every great special i try
45:32to go
45:32i need two minutes of heart but it's it's your life it's more than two minutes it is but most
45:38of
45:38it is a joke joke oh that's crazy i can't believe he said that and but it's just the truth
45:43and it's
45:43the jokes and it's different sides and it's all the stuff that i didn't deal with and then
45:47how do you feel have you ever considered writing a movie as person because i i think of your stand
45:52-up
45:52is very personal and i don't i i don't always see the personal side of you in your films no
45:58much
45:59you ever consider writing a film sort of as personal as the stand-up absolutely i have one
46:04that i'm actually crafting in my head right now that's very personal and uh you know uh but see
46:12i i i don't know i just think that when i do comedies like i'm really broad and entertaining and
46:19not
46:20you know i don't know i i guess i i don't want to not bore the audience but i know
46:26their level of
46:27expectation when it comes to me doing a comedy and so i i try to lay off dramedy but i
46:33i think
46:34i think if i can make one just for myself even but um but i have one in my head
46:42yeah yeah and will
46:44you record the the special that you're touring now will that like be something that people yeah that's
46:48the plan i think i wanted to film it i think i'm gonna film it pride month i'm looking for
46:51because you've been doing it for a while i only been doing it two years okay all right to me
46:56that's
46:56a while but maybe not well it's a while most some guys tour material for like 10 years bro
47:02but in the meantime i literally i have like three new sets in my i just i as soon as
47:08i do that one
47:08i know that one so sometimes when i'm on tour now i just do a whole nother hour something about
47:13it
47:13is still like you're still working something out every time i work it i find something new yeah you
47:18know uh i recently had chapelle came and saw it when i was in date and he go man man
47:24it's powerful
47:25it's powerful it's powerful man he said that's powerful and i was just like he's like that was
47:31a beautiful set and uh you know when when when a goat like dave tells you that you know you
47:36feel good
47:37so um especially when it's about my trans child
47:43um on that beautiful note we started by me
47:49asking you about that line if anybody could be reborn
47:54be reborn as you and then you said look it was up till 48 true rough five years where where
48:03are we now
48:03should we should we hope to be reborn as marlon lance i'll tell you june 6th
48:11no that's when the day after scary movie comes out
48:19if not then you should be michael
48:26and honestly i will say this i would say um even me at 53 if i could have anybody come
48:35back if i could come back as anybody i'd probably come back as me because even though i went through
48:40all that i went through and only god knows what i went through to come out of that
48:47and know that and have my relationship with god intact and even though my parents are gone
48:54to hear their whispers and for me that my father told me before he passed said you and your brother
49:01should work together again i was like pop i don't know man new edition keep breaking up you know it's
49:07hard for five black men to do anything together four tops man there's only three of them left
49:12and he was like yeah but you guys do magic together i said pop we dream different i'm at this
49:17point
49:17in my life i want to do this i know sean but you know magic y'all do i said
49:22all right he said for me
49:24i looked at my dad on that hospital bed
49:28i said all right i said for you he said you promise
49:33i said yeah i promise you shake on it and he knows me and he knows if he asked me
49:38to do something
49:39that i as his baby boy i honor my father i honor my mother and so um i think this
49:47movie is special i
49:48think my dad seen that the world needs to laugh again not just me and my brothers to laugh together
49:55again but the world to come together in a theater and to just go have a good time and to
50:02bring that
50:02nostalgic feeling of laughter and and comedy back because you all go through so much hardships in
50:08life and it's good to have those moments where you release and those happy healthy endorphins it
50:14doesn't always have to be tears laughs are necessary and we haven't had them in a long time and i
50:21just
50:21hope that you know this brings back comedy if anybody can it's not for seth rogan which one
50:32thank you appreciate
50:33you
50:33you
50:33Appreciate it.
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