There are better ways to die than being crushed by a chandelier in a haunted mansion, or stabbed to death while high and watching TV. But such was the fate of Marlon Wayans in the 2000 film Scary Movie and Scary Movie 2, released the following year (yes, he died twice), both of which he also produced and co-wrote with brother Shawn (who gets impaled by a ghost in the latter). Don’t worry – the pair have been regenerated to co-write, produce and appear in Scary Movie 6, out next year.
Elsewhere, the Wayans brothers co-wrote and starred in 2004’s buddy cop movie White Chicks, donning prosthetics to, indeed, look like a couple of shallow socialite sisters whom the police suspect will get kidnapped. A sequel is on its way. They also starred in 2006’s Little Man, where Marlon Wayans plays a (CGIed) dwarf criminal who poses as a baby and is mistaken by Shawn Wayans for his adopted child. You have to see it to believe it.
Away from his family (there are 10 Wayans siblings in all), Wayans co-wrote and starred in 2016 slapstick parody Fifty Shades of Black, and played all six siblings (Eddie Murphy style) in the 2019 Netflix film Sextuplets. He appeared in Paul Feig’s The Heat with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, and Sofia Coppola’s On the Rocks with Bill Murray and Rashida Jones in 2020. He has also had his own sitcom, Marlon, about a divorced dad, which is loosely based on his own life. He doesn’t just do comedy though; he was doomed junkie Tyrone C Love in Darren Aronofsky’s drug nightmare Requiem for a Dream, and now stars in psychological sports horror Him as a legendary quarterback who mentors a young, up-and-coming hopeful, which all goes well until things start to turn horrific.
So, lots to ask. Please get your questions in by 6pm on Wednesday 24 September and we’ll print his answers in Film & Music.