Morris Chestnut may be one of Hollywood’s most distinguished leading men — but he’s modest about it.
The Best Man Holiday star chooses to use his fame as a conduit to affect positive change.
“I’m not a big ‘look at me’ type of celebrity,” Chestnut told theGrio. “I understand that people do have a certain level of fascination with celebrities so instead of me staying in the house all of the time, which is what I do most, I would like to use what little celebrity I have to bring awareness to certain causes and programs.”
And the actor has done just that after he teamed up with Verizon for their Black History Month initiative titled “Potential of Us.”
Chestnut considers health and wellness to be a vital part of everyone’s lives — because of this, he’s teamed up with Black Girls Run and participated in a 5K run/walk on Saturday encouraging people to stay fit.
“I love this initiative – I love what Verizon stands for, I love how they reach out to the community,” Chestnut said. “And this is reaching out to the community and saying listen, you can reach your full potential, you can start with getting healthy.”
However, the actor — who has starred in a number of romantic comedies like Two Can Play That Game and Think Like a Man and acclaimed dramas like Boyz N the Hood — admits that there is still plenty left for him to accomplish.
“I definitely have not reached my full potential, I work at it every day,” he said.”My greatest aspiration is to do more with my life, to do more to impact other people’s lives as well.”
Chestnut says he hopes that the roles he portrays and the way he lives his life help inspire his family and fans. But he admits that his journey to stardom was a long one that eventually came about after undergoing adversity.
“Ninety-nine percent of actors in Hollywood go through adversity throughout their entire career…their lives and it never really stops,” he said.
“Just being in this industry over 20 years I’ve been through a tremendous amount of adversity and I’m still standing here – by the fortune of God and my fans.”
Follow Lilly Workneh on Twitter @Lilly_Works