Things You Didn't Know About Damon Wayans
Damon Wayans is office of a large family unit. Several members of the Wayans family unit have had successful careers in amusement. After being fired from Saturday Night Alive, Wayans co-created In Living Color with his blood brother, Keenen. The upstart sketch bear witness was a hit and Damon Wayans was the breakout star. He left the show to pursue a movie career. But his career on the big screen never gelled. Eventually, Wayans retreated to TV in the grade of a safe sitcom. These days, Wayans is in danger of being eclipsed by his son, Damon Wayans Jr.
What the hell happened?
Wayans began doing stand-up in 1982. Two years later, he landed a minor but memorable part in action-comedy classic, Beverly Hills Cop. Wayans played the attendant at the fancy cafe who gives Eddie Murphy the bananas which he puts in the tailpipe.
Wayans' role is small. It's miniscule. But his first movie is arguably the all-time film of his career.
In 1985, Wayans landed every comedic actor's dream job. He was a featured player on Saturday Dark Live. If you don't remember Wayans on SNL it'due south probably considering he got himself fired afterwards only vii episodes. During that fourth dimension, Wayans grew increasingly frustrated feeling that his sketches were not given consideration. Tired of being a groundwork player, he decided to deviate from the script in a sketch called Monopoly Man (pictured in a higher place). Instead of playing his part as written, Wayans improvised. He went showy and effeminate. Lorne Michaels fired Wayans after the show. According to Wayans:
What was I supposed to do? I was supposed to just be a cop. But I was frustrated, because I think Lorne Michaels idea he was protecting me by not putting me out there, letting me do my thing. So I started walking around wearing dark shades. When they asked me what was wrong, I said, "Information technology's also white in here, it hurts my eyes." I was really on the verge of a nervous breakdown, or just taking a gun and killing everybody.
Fortunately, Wayans survived his SNL experience. In 1987, he appeared in minor roles in picture show and Television. He played a bodyguard in Robert Townsend'south satire, Hollywood Shuffle. Wayans' blood brother Keenen had a larger supporting role. Damon Wayans also played a firefighter in the Steve Martin-Daryl Hannah comedy, Roxeanne.
Wayans also appeared on an episode of the Tv evidence, A Unlike World. Information technology was during the first season when the Cosby Show spin-off still starred Lisa Bonet. Marisa Tomei was also a regular that flavor. Keenen appeared in the episode in a larger role.
Wayans continued announced in pocket-size film and TV roles. In 1988, he played T-Bone in the LA gang drama, Colors.
Colors was directed by Dennis Hopper and starred Sean Penn and Robert Duvall.
Afterwards that year, Wayans played a stand up-upwards comedian in the drama, Punchline.
Tom Hanks starred as a stand-up comic struggling to break out. Sally Field played a housewife who decides she'd like to requite stand-up a try. Reviews were mixed and the pic was a disappointment at the box function.
Wayans concluded the year with a minor part in his blood brother's picture, I'k Gonna Git You Sucka.
Keenen Ivory Wayans wrote, directed and starred in the blaxploitation satire. Reviews were mixed simply the movie did well in relation to its pocket-size upkeep.
In 1989, Wayans played a furry alien in the musical sex comedy, Earth Girls Are Easy.
Earth Girls starred Geena Davis equally a valley girl with a cheating fiancé. Then a space send crashes in her swimming puddle containing three horny aliens with brightly colored fur. The aliens were played past Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey and Wayans.
Reviews for Eath Girls Are Like shooting fish in a barrel were mixed to positive. Only the movie failed at the box office. Information technology has gathered a cult following on video and is definitely worth checking out.
As well in 1989, Wayans' stand-up comedy was spotlighted on the HBO series I Night Stand.
In 1990, Wayans and his brother Keenen created their ain sketch comedy show for the Fox network. The show'due south proper noun, In Living Color, reflected the fact that the cast was predominantly black. The show was a family matter for the Wayans. Damon and Keenan were joined past siblings Kim, Shawn, and Marlon. The cast also included Wayans' World Girls Are Easy co-star, Jim Carrey and David Allen Grier who had appeared in I'g Gonna Git You Sucka. Tommy Davidson was in the original bandage and Jamie Foxx joined during the third season. Even the show'due south trip the light fantastic troupe, the Fly Girls, contained future stars. Jennifer Lopez was a dance and Rosie Perez was the troupe'southward choreographer.
In Living Color would launch several of its cast members to distinction. But Damon Wayans was the bear witness'due south first breakout star. His characters like Homey D. Clown, Blaine Edwards and Handi-Man were featured regularly. And his grab-phrases similar "Homey don'y play dat" became part of the lexicon.
Despite the popularity of In Living Color, the Wayans were constantly at odds with the network. Fob was uncomfortable with some of the humour and frequently censored the testify. Things came to a head when In Living Color produced a half-time special during the Super Bowl. During a Men on Film sketch, Wayans suggested that track runner Carl Lewis was gay much to Lewis' chagrin.
Merely to clarify, Play a joke on was not running the Super Bowl that year. By airing In Living Color during the half time show, they managed to lure between 20 and 25 million viewers away from the CBS circulate.
After ii years of fighting with the network, Keenen stopped appearing in sketches on In Living Color in 1992. In the prove's fourth season, Keenen appeared only in the premiere episode although he remained on board every bit executive producer. Damon was the clear pause-out star in the early seasons. After the third season, he left the show to focus on a picture show career.
In 1990, just as In Living Color was taking off, Wayans did voice work on Wait Who's Talking Likewise. The starting time motion-picture show in the talking baby serial had been a surprise striking for John Travolta and Kirstie Aisle in 1989. It actually sparked a bit of a pre-Pulp Fiction come up-back for Travolta and made information technology look like Alley might take a future in picture show post Cheers. But the quickie sequel the side by side year killed their career momentum.
In the real world, if a child was as old as Mikey and yet wasn't talking, his parents would be worried. But this is a talking baby motion-picture show. Then fifty-fifty though the babe is now a toddler, Bruce Willis still provides his internal monologue. For skilful measure, Roseanne Barr voiced Mikey'due south half-sis. Wayans provided the voice for i of Mickey'south friends.
Richard Pryor was offered Wayans' function but had to turn it down due to failing health. His voice really did appear in an early on trailer.
As with most sequels, in that location were diminishing returns. Reviews were universally negative. And while Expect Who's Talking Too made money, information technology was a disappointment.
In 1991, Wayans starred contrary Bruce Willis in the big budget action film, The Last Boy Scout.
Willis starred every bit a disgraced former Secret Service agent investigating a scandal in the NFL. No, information technology has zippo to practise with domestic violence. Nope, not head injuries. Not even the way the NFL refuses to pay cheerleaders a living wage. Or the fashion they comprehend upward all of the above. In this case, the NFL is mixed upwards with the simply grouping of people more decadent than they are, politicians.
Wayans plays a quondam NFL quarterback who has been banned from the league due to gambling. Halle Berry appeared equally his stripper ex-girlfriend who brings Willis and Wayans together for much quipping and explosions.
The Last Boy Scout was written by Shane Black, the author of Lethal Weapon. Black's script set off a bidding state of war. He was offered a tape-breaking two.25 1000000 by Carolco for his spec script. But he decided to sell The Last Boyscout to Warner Brother instead for a mere $one.75 million dollars. This was still a record sum at the time. The record was broken 67 days afterwards when Carolco bought Joe Eszterhas' script for Basic Instinct.
Blackness took the lesser sum Warner Brothers offered for the chance to work with producer Joel Silvery again. Silver had produced Lethal Weapon and Willis' hit, Dice Difficult. Silver afterward claimed that making The Last Boy Sentinel was one of the three worst experiences of his life. Silverish and Willis took control of the production over from director Tony Scott. Scott claimed that Silvery and Willis re-wrote Blackness's script and forced him to shoot scenes he hated nether threat of being fired and losing his salary.
The moving picture received more often than not negative reviews. Even in 1991, most critics were put off by the movie'southward over-the-top misogyny (which is probably fitting for an action motion-picture show involving the NFL). Despite the star power involved, The Terminal Male child Spotter grossed less than $60 million which makes it a box office thwarting.
In 1992, Wayans wrote and starred in the comedy, Mo Money.
Wayans played a con man trying to make clean up his act. He takes a job in the mailroom of a credit card company where he falls for a co-worker played by Stacey Dash. Feeling that he needs money to impress dash, he uses his position in the company to commit identity theft. Wayans' real-life brother, Marlon Wayans, played his on-screen brother and accomplice.
Originally, Kadeem Hardison was supposed to play Wayans' partner in criminal offense. But Wayans told Arsenio Hall that his female parent told him to cast his younger blood brother instead.
Despite negative reviews, Mo Money opened at #one at the box office. It ended up grossing $twoscore million dollars which was a decent take given the film's budget.
By 1994, Wayans had officially departed In Living Color and was committed to his movie career total-time. To that end, he wrote and starred in the super hero comedy, Blankman.
Wayans played a naive inventor who becomes a low-budget super hero afterwards inventing bullet-proof clothes. David Alan Grier played his brother and reluctant sidekick. Robin Givens played a news anchor who both brothers fall for.
If you watched that trailer, you but saw all the funny parts of the flick.
Blankman received negative reviews and flopped at the box role. Information technology didn't even open in the meridian 10. Instead it was pushed into 11th place by Andre,a family picture nigh a seal.Blankman wasn't but a bomb. With a gross of less than $eight million dollars information technology was a box part humiliation.
In 1995, Wayans co-wrote and starred in the military comedy, Major Payne.
Wayans played a career military human who is discharged from the marines. Unsure of how to live life every bit a civilian, he takes a job leading a local school's JROTC programme. His unorthodox approach includes the use of live grenades and real bullets.
Major Payne was a loose remake of the 1955 film The Private State of war of Major Bensonwhich starred Charlton Heston.
Reviews were negative, bit Major Payne opened at #ii behind Outbreak which was in the third week of its run. It grossed but nether $30 million in the US which isn't slap-up. Merely at to the lowest degree it wasn't Blankman.
To promote Major Payne, Wayans returned to Saturday Night Live as a host. He reprised many of his popular characters from In Living Color.
1996 was basically Wayans' final grasp at movie stardom. He appeared in iii movies that year. The beginning was the sports comedy, Celtic Pride.
Wayans played a basketball game star who is kidnapped by 2 crazed Celtics fans played by Dan Aykroyd and Daniel Stern.
Bank check out the billing on that trailer. Wayans got top billing over both Aykroyd and Stern. If you pay careful attending during the trailer, y'all can actually hear the terminal of Aykroyd's talent slipping abroad. Believe it or not, Celtic Pride was actually written by future hit-meister Judd Apatow.
But Celtic Pride was not a hit. Reviews were terrible with many critics claiming the film was offensive. It opened at #7 backside the Ricki Lake-Brendan Fraser dramedy, Mrs. Winterbourne. It's final gross was below $10 1000000 dollars.
Later that year, Wayans appeared in Reginald Hudlin's boxing one-act, The Great White Hype.
Wayans played an undefeated boxing champion who is bored with his own fights. Samuel L. Jackson played a Don Rex-type promoter who decides to find a white opponent for Wayans to fight. Peter Berg played the white guy Jackson picks for the fight. The star-studded cast also included Jamie Foxx, Jeff Goldblum, Cheech Marin and Jon Lovitz.
The original script was written by Ron Shelton who is known for sports comedies like White Men Can't Bound and Bull Durham. Merely Shelton distanced himself from the concluding film which was re-written by comedian, Tony Hendra.
The Nifty White Hypereceived negative reviews and opened in 5th identify at the box office behind Primal Fear which was in the fifth week of its run. Information technology ended upward grossing just over $8 million dollars.
Wayans concluded 1996 past starring opposite Adam Sandler in the action comedy, Bulletproof.
Sandler played a small fourth dimension cheat with mob connections. Wayans played an undercover cop who needs to escort Sandler across the land so he can prove against a gangster played past James Caan.
This was pre-Adam Sandler the Moving picture Star. And then Wayans got top billing.Happy Gilmore actually came out that same year.
Director Ernest Dickerson was forced to recut the moving-picture show to receive a studio-demanded PG-13 rating. Co-ordinate to Dickerson:
I'd like to but erase that whole experience. You know, I'chiliad proud of a lot of the films I've done, simply in that location'south some situations that happened that in retrospect perchance I could take handled them a little differently if I had been a trivial smarter about information technology. Only that'south all 2d-guessing. Bulletproof was a instance where we shot an R-rated film and the studio made us cut it to PG-xiii. So Impenetrable is a big sore point with me because it's the only time I've e'er kicked a hole in an editing room wall. Because of the frustration of dealing with the studios and dealing with a producer who when the studio said "Bound!" he said "How high?" Y'all make a movie with an R-rating, and then they tell you lot to cut it to PG-13. So it meant butchering performances, storylines, and really simplifying the film. The story is scripted by Lewis Colick, who is much deeper. It was near the responsibilities of friendship. The relationship that Damon Wayans had with Kristen Wilson was much stronger and all that was taken out. The movie was castrated.
Bulletproof received negative reviews. Although it opened at #1 at the box office, information technology ended up grossing less than its $25 million dollar budget. Sandler was nominated for a Razzie Laurels which he lost to Pauly Shore. Fortunately, he would win plenty more over the course of his strangely long and successful career.
In 1998, Wayans returned to TV with the Fob sitcom, Damon. You can hardly blame him, His film career was a cord of apple-polishing failures. David Alan Grier and Andrea Martin co-starred. The show ran from March-July airing thirteen episodes.
In 1999, Wayans started appearing in supporting roles in little movies you take probably never heard of. In Halem Aria, he played a street hustler who cons a talented but naive vocalizer out of his life savings.
Later that year, Wayans appeared in the Jennifer Tilly one-act, Goosed. Tilly played a woman who believes it is her destiny to marry a dr. named Steve. Then she throws herself at every doc she meets named Steve. Wayans played one such doctor.
Joan Rivers and Robert Klein played Tilly's parents. Antonio Sabato Jr., Vincent Spano, Thomas Haden Church building and D.B. Sweeney played some of the other Steves.
In 2000, Wayans appeared in Spike Lee'south media satire, Bamboozled.
Wayans played an educated black man who works for a boorish white network executive. He is tasked with developing a TV prove for black audiences. But all of his attempts to portray blackness characters in a positive light get shot down by Michael Rapaport'due south character equally Cosby clones. Unable to cope with the situation any longer, Wayans' character decides to have drastic steps to go himself fired. Along with an assistant played by Jada Pinkett Smith, Wayans develops an offensive modernistic day minstrel show. Instead of getting Wayans fired, the show becomes a surprise hit.
Fasten Lee is a smart guy with a lot on his mind. As a author/manager, he has a lot to say. But sometimes, he can be a frustrating filmmaker considering he says too much. Bamboozled could have been a well-baked satire like Network or even The Producers. But it turns into a Shakespearean drama in the tertiary human activity with multiple characters dying violent deaths. Lee'south message is all the same there. But it gets muddled.
Equally a result, reviews were mixed. Not surprisingly, the film was non a hitting with audiences either. Information technology grosses merely over $2 one thousand thousand dollars. It opened in limited release and slowly expanded. At its widest, it was playing in 243 theaters.
In 2001, Wayans returned to TV with the ABC sitcom, My Wife and Kids.
Wayans played the father who may or may not know best. In the mold of the mod family sitcom, he usually didn't. Tisha Campbell-Martin played his wife who is unremarkably much smarter than her married man. Information technology was basically the Wayans equivalent of Co-ordinate to Jim. Safe. Non-threatening. Everything In Living Color was not. However, unlike Damon, the show was a hit which ran for five seasons.
Personally, I find it somewhat deplorable to run across a comedian similar Wayans reduced to something with then piffling artistic value. Nevertheless, his movie career had long since tanked. And comercially, My Wife and Kids is the virtually successful thing he has been associated with since In Living Color. People watched it. It'south still showing in syndication. Then that's got to count for something, right?
In 2003, while Wayans was still on My Wife and Kids, he returned to the big screen contrary Lisa Kudrow in the simply wretched romantic comedy, Marci X.
Kudrow played a spoiled princess who ends upwards in charge of a hip-hop record label. Wayans played her characterization's well-nigh outrageous and controversial star. Hijinks ensue equally worlds collide. At least in theory.
Did I mention that Marci X is wretched? Considering it is. Chris Rock was offered Wayans' role but turned it down. Co-ordinate to Stone, "It's the worst script I've ever gotten… I'd have been happier getting an envelope total of anthrax."
Critics and audiences felt the same style. The reviews trashed the film and it opened at an abysmal 17th identify. It got beat by Charlies Angels 2 which had been open for 9 weeks and was playing in less than one-half as many theaters. So doing the math, in its 9th week of release, theaters showing the disappointing Charlie's Angels sequel were more than twice every bit full equally those showing Marci X the weekend it opened. Heck, it grossed less than Bamboozled and played in more than v times every bit many theaters. With a reported budget of $xx million, Marci Ten grossed a paltry 1.6 million.
In 2006, following the counterfoil of My Wife and Kids, Wayans returned to raunchy sketch comedy with the Showtime serial, The Underground. Wayans described the bear witness as "In Living Color on steroids". Since The Undercover was on a pay-cablevision aqueduct, censorship was not an consequence. No subject was considered taboo. The show only lasted on flavor consisting of 11 episodes.
In 2008, Wayans returned to ABC with a sitcom pilot chosen Never Better. Wayans played a recovering alcoholic trying to be a better husband and male parent. It was based on a British show of the same name. Unfortunately, Never Better didn't duplicate the success of My Wife and Kids. The airplane pilot aired, simply it was not picked upwardly to series.
In 2011, Wayans did a guest spot on the ABC sitcom, Happy Endings. That testify starred Eliza Coupe, Elisha Cuthbert and Damon Wayans' son, Damon Wayans Jr. The father and son duo had worked together previously on My Wife and Kids and The Cloak-and-dagger. As a child, Jr fifty-fifty appeared in Blankman. Today, the junior Damon Wayans is best known for the surprise hit, Permit'south Be Cops. He'southward as well doing vocalisation piece of work in Disney's Big Hero Six.
Wayans attempted another pilot in 2011. This time, it was a sports-themed one-act on CBS called Herd Mentality. The show didn't get picked upwardly. Simply Wayans did write a best-selling novel called Red Hats.
The book is well-nigh a suicidal senior citizen who finds friends in the Red Hat Society.
In 2013, Wayans was diagnosed with Type ii diabetes. He returned to stand-upwardly comedy and dabbles in other ventures including app development. Wayans developed an app called Film Dat:
Yeah, Homey the Clown developed an app for sharing business cards. Plain, Homey Do play dat.
So what the hell happened?
Information technology'south pretty easy to look at Wayans' moving picture career and call it a train wreck. He never starred in a flick that was popular with critics or audiences. Even at the peak of his popularity on In Living Color, Mo Money was just a base of operations hit. Almost of Wayans' movies were reviled past critics and flopped at the box office. At this point in the What the Hell Happened series, I don't remember I have written about anyone with a less successful movie career.
Where Wayans has been successful has been on TV. Both on In Living Color and My Wife and Kids. Two successful TV shows is no small accomplishment even if his movie career was a disaster. Some actors just piece of work ameliorate on the minor screen. It would appear Wayans is 1 of them.
Also, it probably didn't assist that Wayans picked scripts that Chris Rock compared to anthrax.
Source: https://lebeauleblog.com/2014/10/18/what-the-hell-happened-to-damon-wayans/
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