Last year I got to do some engaging celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and a few of them really stand out to me as something special. I wasn’t that excited (initially) about seeing the new Marlon Wayans film A HAUNTED HOUSE, which sets its sights on the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY franchise and found footage films in general. Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised at how genuinely funny and effective the production is, and in many ways it feels smarter than a lot of slapstick comedies that have hit theaters lately. Marlon and his brothers get a bad wrap sometimes, since they created the SCARY MOVIE franchise, which after two films was taken over by the studio and degraded into half-assed cash grab sequels. Those films also (unexpectedly) helped spawn a series of bad parody emulators, like EPIC MOVIE and DATE MOVIE and SUPERHERO MOVIE and DISASTER MOVIE… none of which the Wayans had anything to do with, but they still get blamed for anyway. Then Marlon appeared in G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA, a film that met with great ridicule and mockery, though I still contend it’s a fun, mindless popcorn flick. The fact is Marlon is a good actor, and not only knows how to do good comedy work, he’s also very capable of solid dramatic performances – just see REQUIEM FOR A DREAM if you don’t believe me, no laughs there. One of the potential projects on the horizon for him now is a biopic in which he’d play legendary comedian Richard Pryor. Wayans recently came through Dallas to promote A HAUNTED HOUSE, and I was picked to host his Q&A, which turned out to be phenomenal. He was incredibly funny, and his answers (to both my questions and the audience questions) were insightful and sincere. I was also impressed that pretty much everyone in the packed screening stayed for the entire Q&A, which doesn’t always happen. The day after, Marlon did some press interviews, then a stand-up performance at the Improv comedy club Thursday night, then Friday mornning he did more interviews, and afterward flew to L.A. for 24 hours, only to fly back to Dallas to do two more stand-up performances with his brother Shawn Wayans at the Improv. Think being an actor or comedian is all fun and games? I got tired just hearing about it. But one thing is certain – the man is dedicated, and very honest with his answers. I was glad we got a chance to sit and chat on camera, and this is without a doubt one of my favorite interviews of 2012. Big thanks to Rachel Parker for shooting this. Check it out below, and check out A HAUNTED HOUSE in theaters this weekend.
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More info on A HAUNTED HOUSE here.