WASHINGTON — He made us laugh in “Scary Movie” and squirm in “Requiem for a Dream.”
Now, Marlon Wayans debuts his Netflix original movie “Naked,” which began streaming over the weekend, and his new NBC sitcom “Marlon,” which premieres on Wednesday at 9 p.m.
“You can watch ‘Naked’ naked,” Wayans joked with WTOP. “It depends who you’re with. If you’ve got a little date, you’ve got your girlfriend over, come on! Can’t do that at the movies!”
Wayans stars as Rob Anderson, an anxious groom who’s ill-prepared for his wedding. The night before the big day, Rob hits the town to grab some drinks, beginning a fantasy timeloop.
“He wakes up the next day butt naked in an elevator and he has no idea how he got there,” Wayans explained. “He’s late for his wedding, and when he gets to his wedding, if he doesn’t have the right suit, the right vows and the right ring, he starts back over in the elevator and repeats the same hour over and over again until he gives his woman the proper wedding.”
The comedy premise is a unique mix of “Groundhog Day” (1993) and” The Hangover” (2009).
“It’s kind of a combination, but it’s its own movie and it stands alone,” Wayans said. “A lot of times, when people try to redo a movie or redo a premise, it’s too close to the premise. With this one, what I love about it is it takes you to a way different place, the discovery and exploration is different, the story is different. It’s a really sweet movie but really funny.”
The film reunites Wayans with Regina Hall, who co-starred in “Scary Movie,” and Michael Tiddes, who directed him in the spoofs “A Haunted House” and “Fifty Shades of Black.”
“I love working with old friends because we get a good chemistry,” Wayans said. “We all have a trust. Mike knows that as a performer I go to crazy places, so he knows to get me on a wide angle. … Regina is always awesome. She’s really sweet in the movie and did a great job as the leading actress. She really held down the romance and emotion and she’s funny as well.”
However, he maintains a playful beef with Hall over her prior interaction with his brother.
“She kissed Shawn in ‘Scary Movie,’ and I think I still tasted him when I kissed her,” he joked.
No matter, “Scary Movie” was a box office smash, made for just $19 million but grossing $278 million to become a Top 10 grosser of 2000. The comedy connected with audiences not only because it was hilarious, but also because it was a postmodern roast of 1990s slasher flicks.
“We saw ‘Scream,’ ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer,’ there was a bunch of slasher movies that came out,” Wayans said. “They all started to feel like the same movie with the same characters. We just thought that, ‘Yo, this could be fun.’ I’m glad we did. It was a classic.”
Now, he attempts to makes us laugh again with his new NBC sitcom “Marlon,” in which he plays a loving but immature father co-parenting with his responsible ex-wife (Essence Atkins).
“It’s basically my life, an inappropriate divorced father trying to keep his family together amid divorce,” Wayans said. “Just because your family is broken up, doesn’t mean it’s over. It’s an aspirational show with a different type of TV dad and with different type of TV family.”
While the divorce offers family elements, the comedy comes from Wayans playing a “big kid.”
“That’s me in real life,” Wayans said. “As a father, I am very embarrassing. I go to graduations and start screaming, ‘I told you she wasn’t stupid! I told you she was gonna be somebody!'”
It marks Wayans’ return to television after the WB sitcom “The Wayans Brothers” (1995-99).
“I feel like I never left, but in that little [period] that I was gone, I learned so much,” Wayans said. “When I was doing ‘Wayans Brothers,’ it was all about the jokes. Now, it’s ‘what’s the story,’ then I’m confident the jokes will come once we have a good story. I think ‘Wayans Brothers’ was a fun show and I loved it … but I think this one’s a more mature take — that was a very politically-correct answer so I don’t get punched in the chest by my older brother.”
Indeed, the brothers have become a reliable stable of comedy, from Keenen Ivory to Damon to Shawn to Marlon, inheriting the Mel Brooks mantle with the urban spoof “Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood” (1996). Still, their lasting legacy is “In Living Color” (1990-2001), launching Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey and Jennifer Lopez.
“Ahh, Damon, pick one, man — Homey the Clown, Anton, Blaine, Handi-Man, the Head Detective, Damon was just a monster on that show,” Wayans said. “Keenen, I loved Frenchie and Arsenio, those two hurt me! … The one that I played that I liked the most was Luther, the ugly man. He was Wanda’s date and he was actually uglier than him. I loved that scene.”
Ironically, Marlon’s best role might not be a comedy at all, but rather Darren Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream” (2000), a harrowing tale of drug addiction co-starring Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly — all backed by an epic, chilling score by Clint Mansell.
“They need to make that a drug PSA,” Wayans said. “That movie is so horrific, it’ll make you put weed down like, ‘I need to get off this.’ I just think [Aronofsky] is a brilliant director, and I was really lucky to be a part of it. I’m glad that my one dramatic departure I did with him.”
Can we expect similar departures in the future?
“I’m glad we did parody, but I quit now,” Wayans announced, signaling a shift from spoof comedies to more original content. “I’m done with parody and I’m just doing regular movies.”
With outlets like Netflix and NBC, bring on the original content, Marlon. We can’t wait.
Netflix’s “Naked” is now streaming. NBC’s “Marlon” airs Wednesday. Listen to our full chat below:
