Marlon Wayans on playing Richard Pryor: 'I'm ready' - Los Angeles Times
When it was announced that Marlon Wayans and not Eddie Murphy would be portraying Richard Pryor in the long-discussed biopic of the comedy giant, the news was greeted with Internet jeering. Wayans wasn’t surprised when he read the disparaging comments -- you can’t hang your star on films like “White Chicks” and “Little Man” without consequences.
“Look, I want to be able to make the stupidest movies ever, because they make people laugh and they make money,” Wayans recently said with a smirk. “But that’s not all I want to do. And I think I’ve proven to some people -- the ones paying attention -- that I can do more. Everybody else, well, they can wait and see and make up their mind.”
Wayans believes he is on the verge of winning over skeptics and just maybe establishing a name for himself that goes beyond his status as “the other Wayans” -- or maybe even “the other-other-Wayans.” The 37-year-old is the youngest of 10 children in the show-business brood that came to fame on “In Living Color,” the 1990s television show created and written by Keenen Ivory Wayans and Damon Wayans. His position in the family photo has given Marlon Wayans plenty of opportunity -- he and sibling Shawn got their own show, “The Wayans Brothers,” for four seasons on Fox beginning in 1995 -- but also an ongoing challenge in establishing anything resembling an individual identity.
He also veered away from expectations in 2004 with his role as the doomed heist man Gawain MacSam in “The Ladykillers,” the Southern crime farce by Joel and Ethan Cohen. Those two performances may have gotten him an audition for the Pryor film, but he locked up the role with a screen test that has already created a buzz about the movie in Hollywood circles. Bill Condon, the writer-director of the Pryor film, and Amy Pascal, the co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, locked in on Wayans after watching the tape of him re-creating Pryor monologue material.
Condon directed and wrote the screenplays for “Dreamgirls” and “Kinsey"; picked up an Oscar for adapted screenplay with the 1998 film “Gods and Monsters,” the story of “Frankenstein” director James Whale; and was nominated again in the same category for the 2002 film version of “Chicago.” He declined to be interviewed for this article -- he said it’s premature to publicly discuss a project that won’t reach theaters until next year -- but producer Mark Gordon said the Wayans screen test was “absolutely marvelous” and made him the “clear choice” for the film.
“Obviously there are a number of requirements to playing Richard Pryor -- you have to be funny, of course, but this role also has so many colors to it that you need to be a strong actor who can handle the dramatic scenes,” Gordon said. “There were discussions with Eddie Murphy . . . Eddie Murphy is a great star, and I have no doubt he would be a great Richard Pryor. But Eddie Murphy is Eddie Murphy in the eyes of the audience. Marlon Wayans is a great actor and will be a great Richard Pryor, but he brings less baggage.”
‘He changed comedy’
Wayans grew up listening to Pryor on vinyl records but only through a closed door. In the New York projects where the Wayans family lived, Keenen and Damonwould secretly listen to their father’s comedy albums and their little brother Marlon would in turn secretly listen to them listen to the albums.
Despite his cultural stature, Pryor was someone who might admire the filmography of Wayans, with its mix of class and crass. Pryor had no problem with lewd material -- and Wayans likes to think the long-gone comedy giant would approve of the “Little Man” who will portray him. “I think he would smile. And most of all, I hope, wherever he is up there, he laughs when he sees the movie.”
Marlon Wayans on playing Richard Pryor: 'I'm ready' - Los Angeles Times
When it was announced that Marlon Wayans and not Eddie Murphy would be portraying Richard Pryor in the long-discussed biopic of the comedy giant, the news was greeted with Internet jeering. Wayans wasn’t surprised when he read the disparaging comments -- you can’t hang your star on films like “White Chicks” and “Little Man” without consequences.
“Look, I want to be able to make the stupidest movies ever, because they make people laugh and they make money,” Wayans recently said with a smirk. “But that’s not all I want to do. And I think I’ve proven to some people -- the ones paying attention -- that I can do more. Everybody else, well, they can wait and see and make up their mind.”
Wayans believes he is on the verge of winning over skeptics and just maybe establishing a name for himself that goes beyond his status as “the other Wayans” -- or maybe even “the other-other-Wayans.” The 37-year-old is the youngest of 10 children in the show-business brood that came to fame on “In Living Color,” the 1990s television show created and written by Keenen Ivory Wayans and Damon Wayans. His position in the family photo has given Marlon Wayans plenty of opportunity -- he and sibling Shawn got their own show, “The Wayans Brothers,” for four seasons on Fox beginning in 1995 -- but also an ongoing challenge in establishing anything resembling an individual identity.
He also veered away from expectations in 2004 with his role as the doomed heist man Gawain MacSam in “The Ladykillers,” the Southern crime farce by Joel and Ethan Cohen. Those two performances may have gotten him an audition for the Pryor film, but he locked up the role with a screen test that has already created a buzz about the movie in Hollywood circles. Bill Condon, the writer-director of the Pryor film, and Amy Pascal, the co-chairman of Sony Picture
s Entertainment, locked in on Wayans after watching the tape of him re-creating Pryor monologue material.
Condon directed and wrote the screenplays for “Dreamgirls” and “Kinsey"; picked up an Oscar for adapted screenplay with the 1998 film “Gods and Monsters,” the story of “Frankenstein” director James Whale; and was nominated again in the same category for the 2002 film version of “Chicago.” He declined to be interviewed for this article -- he said it’s premature to publicly discuss a project that won’t reach theaters until next year -- but producer Mark Gordon said the Wayans screen test was “absolutely marvelous” and made him the “clear choice” for the film.
“Obviously there are a number of requirements to playing Richard Pryor -- you have to be funny, of course, but this role also has so many colors to it that you need to be a strong actor who can handle the dramatic scenes,” Gordon said. “There were discussions with Eddie Murphy . . . Eddie Murphy is a great star, and I have no doubt he would be a great Richard Pryor. But Eddie Murphy is Eddie Murphy in the eyes of the audience. Marlon Wayans is a great actor and will be a great Richard Pryor, but he brings less baggage.”
‘He changed comedy’
Wayans grew up listening to Pryor on vinyl records but only through a closed door. In the New York projects where the Wayans family lived, Keenen and Damonwould secretly listen to their father’s comedy albums and their little brother Marlon would in turn secretly listen to them listen to the albums.
Despite his cultural stature, Pryor was someone who might admire the filmography of Wayans, with its mix of class and crass. Pryor had no problem with lewd material -- and Wayans likes to think the long-gone comedy giant would approve of the “Little Man” who will portray him. “I think he would smile. And most of all, I hope, wherever he is up there, he laughs when he sees the movie.”