Morris Chestnut on dark-skinned bias in Hollywood: ‘Wesley Snipes busted the mold open’
theGrio VIDEO - 'The Best Man Holiday' actor Morris Chestnut opens up about colorism in Hollywood and says he faced challenges early in his career as a dark skinned actor...
Hollywood heartthrob Morris Chestnut is back on the big screen in the much-anticipated Best Man sequel, The Best Man Holiday.
Chestnut teams up with his co-stars Nia Long, Taye Diggs, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Regina Hall, Harold Perrineau, and Melissa De Sousa after a nearly 15-year hiatus.
In an interview with theGrio’s Chris Witherspoon, the 44-year-old actor opened up about the challenges he’s faced being a Hollywood actor with a dark skin complexion.
“When I was coming up it was difficult because when I was first starting out many years ago, the gang genre was in. There was some type of skin issue where they would see the darker skinned actors for the gang members and then the lighter skin actors were always the good guys.”
In 1991 Morris Chestnut got his first film role starring in John Singleton’s drama Boyz n the Hood, and later appeared as a regular on TV series Out All Night, V, and American Horror Story.
“It wasn’t until Wesley Snipes came and kind of just busted the mold open. He did play the gang member in New Jack City, but when he was in Mo Better Blues and he was on the balcony doing his thing, women started saying, ‘hmm that’s kinda sexy.’ Wesley ushered it in for us.
Follow theGrio.com’s Entertainment Editor Chris Witherspoon on Twitter @WitherspoonC
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