In the new Saturday Night Live biopic Saturday Night, Lamorne Morris plays Garrett Morris, SNL's first Black cast member who has trouble finding his place on a predominantly white show. As the only Black lead on New Girl for the majority of its run, the actor strongly related to his character's struggles.
"Garrett being a fish out of water, I definitely felt that in my early years," Lamorne Morris tells Entertainment Weekly. "Being in New Girl, I was a new character after the first episode, so a lot of time was spent trying to develop my character and figure out who I was on the fly. And even though it's not personal, sometimes you take it personal, and you're like, 'What the hell, man? I'm the one Black character on this show, and they don't know how to figure out my character. He ain't got no job. Is that the storyline now?'"
by cmaia1503
8 Comments
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Two things:
1. When you’re the “only” person of any type you naturally wonder if someone is laughing WITH you or AT you **AND** are unsure if everyone is seeing what you’re seeing and how you see it. The article gives some good examples of that.
2. This paragraph kinda hurt my head
> Morris’ character Winston Bishop was added to New Girl once it was picked up for a full season, as Damon Wayans Jr., who played Coach in the show’s pilot, had to return to Happy Endings and couldn’t commit to another sitcom.
I don’t remember Damon on that and am trying my hardest not to gaslight myself as if I do….but I wonder if he would have outshined the entire show in the same vein as almost everyone except fucking Jarrod Carmichael did on *The Carmichael Show*
Note: for those unaware, that show had:
Jerrod Carmichael & Amber Stevens West (who were supposed to be the main interest…)
**AND**
Lil Rel Howery, Tiffany Haddish, Loretta Devine, and David Alan Grier…..who was just running wild with their personalities and making the supposed main two characters look insignificant. Better example: the difference between a fast person and an Olympic sprinter.
I’d say he has a fair point.
Winston ended up being the best character on the show, but after replacing Wayans Jr from the pilot, they had absolutely no idea who his character was or how to write him. They just threw so much random stuff out there and got lucky that the whole “this guy is insane” thing actually worked
>With hindsight, Morris recognizes that the show’s initial inability to find Winston’s footing had nothing to do with him. “I had a lot of those thoughts, even though now looking back, it wasn’t personal,” he says. “It’s not easy to develop characters for a television series. And so kudos to the writers for figuring it out and really sticking with me because there were days where I felt like I’m going to get fired.”
Maybe include the full context?
Watching the show you could tell they tried to use stuff they had written for Damon Wayans Jr before Lamorne was cast to replace him as a roommate after the first episode.
Damon Wayans is a model-level hot and athletic looking dude while Lamorne Morris is good looking but regular type guy, the same jokes aren’t interchangeable between the characters at all not to mention their vastly different comedic style.
Lamorne was the best part of the show by the end of the series, he was the only character who stayed funny for the entire thing, but his plotlines were all over the place.
Damon Wayans Jr was supposed to be one of the main 4, but decided to leave the show to pursue another project. So they replaced him with Lamorne Morris. The other project didn’t end up working out tho and Wayans was invited back.
It’s funny…
I work in entertainment and have not only been the only black person on a set, but have been the only black person in an arena. No one gives it a second thought. It’s just work.
Now, when you do a show and the cast, most of the crew and audience is all black, I can’t tell you how many “I think I may have been the only white guy in the building” comments.
It’s just how things are. Criticizing someone’s lived experience is ridiculous. A person can’t help how they feel in any given situation. Sharing an experience is not the same as complaining about it.
I loved loved loved when both him and Coach were main characters for those 2 seasons. Up until that point there hadn’t been many shows that had 2 black guy main characters of the same age. It blew mind, I wouldn’t shut up about it to my friends, we finally had 2 and they were both their own thing. It was awesome
I can’t think of many shows that had 2 minorities who were the same age and gender, and who weren’t related. Brooklyn nine nine did it, and they were great too