Morris Chestnut reprises his role in the sequel to 1999’s “The Best Man.”
Credit: Getty Images
It’s been 14 years since Morris Chestnut starred in “The Best Man,” in which he played a man about to marry his sweetheart (Monica Calhoun). Now he’s reteaming with Taye Diggs, Terrence Howard, Harold Perrineau and writer-director Malcolm D. Lee for a long-awaited sequel, “The Best Man Holiday.” But first he needed to take a trip down memory lane.
Was your character’s football background your idea or director Malcolm D. Lee’s?
We’re both big football fans. I’ve been playing football and loving football all of my life. So a lot came from me. The funny thing about it is the two roles I’m most remembered for are “Boyz n the Hood,” where I played a football player and this one, where I play a football player.
So, 14 years later. How much does that mess with your head?
You know, it doesn’t really mess with my head. We know it’s been a long time, and we’ve seen each other throughout the years. Some of us have hung out, some of us haven’t. I’m just proud that the studio feels either the content of the movie or the title of the movie or the actors in the movie are still relevant to where they think that it can make some money.
When you reunite with the cast members you haven’t seen in a while, is it a sort of reality check about aging?
You know, the great thing that Malcolm did was a week before we started filming, we all watched the original together. That brought me back to some places emotionally, and even brought up some things about my character that I didn’t remember. Whenever I see a movie of mine on TV, I don’t watch it. I hurry to change the channel. Sitting there watching that movie from beginning to end, it just brought back a lot of different things. When we started filming I was like, “Do you want me to wear a wig? What do you want me to do? Because the characters had hair last time, and now Taye and I don’t have hair.”
The characters have all done quite well for themselves.
To be honest, I think that was what was so interesting and refreshing about the first one. It was the first movie of its kind where you really see black professionals. You had Jordan, Nia Long’s character, who was a big-time TV executive. You had Harper, Taye’s character, who was a writer, an intellectual job. You have those types of images that I think people wanted to see. You had your films like “Boyz n the Hood,” “New Jack City,” where you’re showing street life and drug life and all that. But seeing those positive images on screen, I think that’s what was refreshing about the first one.
Speaking of sequels, do you think there will be any more “Kick-Ass” movies?
Ah, man. I don’t think so, I don’t think so. I think after that one, they’re done with those for right now, unfortunately.
