In an interview with Shannon Sharpe for Club Shay Shay, actor and comedian Marlon Wayans shared how Jennifer Lopez helped him land his role in the 2023 movie Air.
At the 1:08:15 point of the interview, as seen above, Sharpe highlighted his recent interview with In Living Color star Tommy Davidson, who suggested that J Lo drifted away as she got more famous. "Maybe they had something personal going on... Maybe he had a J Lo joke somewhere, I don't know, and you never know what could start that type of thing," Wayans said. "But from my experience, you know, J Lo blew up, and when I saw her it's always love."
Jennifer Lopez was part of the Fly Girl dance troupe on In Living Color during its third and fourth seasons, while Wayans was a featured cast member alongside his brothers Damon, Shawn, and Keenan, who created the series, in Season 4.
"She's never like, 'Oh, I'm above you now,'" he continued. 'She's never been like that. In fact, my role in Air, you know, she told Ben Affleck. He was like, 'I need a good actor to do this role and I want somebody good-looking to play George Raveling.' She said, 'What about Marlon? He's a great dramatic actor.' And so, Ben called me and was like, 'Will you do this role in my movie?' it was a great role and I was like, 'Bet.' J Lo was the one that was like, 'Yo, you should hit up Marlon.'"
He said that it's all "love" between him and Lopez, with whom he sat at the same table during the Golden Globes earlier this year, where Air was nominated for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Matt Damon. The Ben Affleck-directed biographical sports drama was a critical success.
"It's hard for everybody to always give you attention, especially when you're her," he added. "You being pulled this way, you being pulled that way. ... So, I don't take it personal, I just go, 'Maybe she busy, I'll hit her another time.' ... I love J Lo. Going to the Living Color set... Everybody credits, like, Puffy with finding that J Lo was fine. He's Christopher Columbus. I knew that ass was round, boy."
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Earlier in the interview, at the 47-minute mark, he also opened up about his family's decision to leave In Living Color. "I remember when we left In Living Color because Fox was syndicating the show and it was hurting Keenen’s pockets,” he shared. "Keenen was like, ‘Nah, you ain’t gonna do this to me.’ My family said, ‘Fuck this money.’ And we all left In Living Color."
Watch the full interview up top.
