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Behind the Scenes with Marlon Wayans & Co-Stars

Behind the Scenes with Marlon Wayans & Co-Stars

8:00·By Gemma G
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About this video

YH goes behind the scenes with the one and only Marlon Wayans to get a sneak peek at his NBC sitcom "Marlon"! The legendary funnyman shows us around set, and we also get to chat with his on-screen ex-wife Essence Atkins, kids Amir O'Neil and Notlim Taylor, and trusty besties Diallo Riddle and Bresha Webb! Plus, find out what it takes to be an Honorary Wayans!

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Young Hollywood

It is Marlon Wayans. I am on the set of White Chicks 3. Uh wrong set and you're not Marlon.

Marlon Wayans

I'm Marlon Wayans.

Young Hollywood

Young Hollywood. Uh this is not Marlon.

Marlon Wayans

Nah, I didn't match your style.

Young Hollywood

Okay, so we are here on the set of Marlon, Marlon's new show. It's his house. He's going to give us a tour.

Marlon Wayans

Yeah, I'm gonna give you a tour. It's not my real house. But if we threw a party, I would throw it here so that people don't mess up my real house cause that'd piss you off. House party, Marlon. Welcome to Mi Casa. Uh take your shoes off before you come in here and if you got to go to the bathroom, light a match. Right here, this is the living room of Ashley's house. Ashley is my ex-wife. Uh we got divorced, but apparently, I'm a really good husband because uh this is nice. These babies are living. Damn, I this ain't no baby mama situation. This is love.

Young Hollywood

Wait, so you said she's your ex on the show, huh?

Marlon Wayans

Yes. We are, we play a divorced couple. Well, you know, uh I don't know, I think maybe half of America can relate. We got married. Um, we believed in our happily ever after. We turned the page and it didn't work out the way we thought it would. So here we are. We have two kids together and we got to figure out how to be a family living under separate roofs.

Young Hollywood

You know, I heard a little secret. I hear you can also not only tell jokes, but I hear you can rap.

Marlon Wayans

Yeah. My name is Amir. I have no fear. When I'm playing basketball, the girls start to cheer. If I had a rap test, I would pass it. You want to know why? Cause my raps are classic. Co-parenting and still coexisting. Just cause you have a divorce. A lot of couples get divorced and it's like, no, you stay over there. You got your life. But the reality of it is when you have children, you always have a family. Even you divorced because you're in each other's lives and you should always have love and you're working through problems the way you should have been in marriage but you couldn't because you couldn't sit your ass still, Marlon. I'm sorry, I went too deep. This is the kitchen right here. First, this is a nice marble table and this is real marble. This is definitely IKEA of uh chairs. Because I'm very familiar with myself.

Young Hollywood

Really?

Marlon Wayans

Yeah, I'm an IKEA man. I move a lot so it's like you just leave it. Just leave it. Don't say that out loud. When a girl comes in, I'm like, "I'm an IKEA man." She's like, uh-uh, bye.

Young Hollywood

So today, I have my own little mission. Okay?

Marlon Wayans

Oh.

Young Hollywood

Okay, what is it? I was trying to be dubbed an honorary Wayans. I wanna be an honorary Wayans today. What does it take? What does it take?

Marlon Wayans

How tall are you right now? How tall are you?

Young Hollywood

Five eleven. Six foot ladies.

Marlon Wayans

Too big. My mom can't give birth to you right now. Sorry.

Young Hollywood

So I also heard that you are part ninja.

Marlon Wayans

Yeah, I am. I am a black belt. If you were to go like this with this hand right here. Oh yeah. So it's easier. You would block here and you can take the hand, control her. You can kick in the groin, whatever you wanna do.

Young Hollywood

I wanna be dubbed a Wayans for the day. What is gonna take?

Marlon Wayans

You're gonna have the fashion sense.

Young Hollywood

Yes.

Marlon Wayans

Like what's going on with him right now? All that. You know, the overalls that he's wearing. Is this the first time I've ever been good at an arcade game? It's kinda fake but at least I'm not losing. This is my house. So, you have Ashley's house which is put together. And then you have Marlon's house. Because the kids don't live here. And this is kinda like what I call the man cave. So instead of like having a man cave, I have the man cave house. The whole house is just

Young Hollywood

That's why nothing really goes with anything. So is this like your real life? I mean, is your real house very similar to this?

Marlon Wayans

My real house makes a lot less sense than this. This is actually kinda put together. My real house makes no sense at all. People come to my house to break stuff and my house is so messed up, I don't even care. Ah. I'm just chilling here, working on my DJ skills. With D-Lo Riddle in the house. Look a shot. It's a DJ thing. It's not like I don't I'm not advocating violence. Hello.

Young Hollywood

D-Lo plays Marlon's best friend Stevie on the show, huh?

D-Lo Riddle

I do. Uh Stevie's this interesting character who went to college with Marlon and you know, he made a lot of interesting choices and somehow he's at a very sort of mid-life crisis point in his life. So yeah, they've been friends forever and he does call himself Marlon's business partner but really he's just his best friend who sleeps on his couch.

Young Hollywood

Oh, you got your own pizza shop? This is the swing set. So this is going to go away after this week. Next week, this will probably be like a hospital or something weird or

Marlon Wayans

No more pizza? No. And guess what? They don't even serve real pizza here.

Young Hollywood

So, what is really inside Marlon's fridge?

Marlon Wayans

Really nothing. Some fake props of nothing.

Young Hollywood

I wanna be dubbed an honorary Wayans. I wanna know what is it gonna take to do that?

Marlon Wayans

You know what I think, I think what you do is you have to walk in with a woman who's much older and say, hey, by the way, um, I'm the one from the Jamaican vacation that nobody wants to acknowledge. And that might that might work.

Young Hollywood

I am a legitimate Wayans. Where is Damon at? Damon, you know me. I am sitting here with one of the stars. Brecia Webb. Hi. Okay, so you play as as uh, who plays Marlon's wife? Ashley. Yeah. Ashley. On the show. You play her best friend?

Brecia Webb

Yes. Evette.

Young Hollywood

Evette.

Brecia Webb

And Evette is messy. She's her best friend. She always wants the best for Ashley and that's always not on Marlon's side. So she's always siding with Ashley and she's quite the funny lady, so.

Young Hollywood

Okay, so I think the best thing about having a gig on Network TV would be craft services and endless food. We love Cool Ranch Doritos. Oh, I got some Cool Ranch chips. You know like oh, we're doing bad things today. Somebody tells me that this set has the best stock pile of Cool Ranch Doritos.

Brecia Webb

Oh, yeah, look at this.

Young Hollywood

All right. I'll catch you guys later. Any of the experiences parenting your own child, are they portrayed out here? Anything you've learned?

Marlon Wayans

Everything that I went through, I try to inject in the show. None of my life experiences are wasted. I always go take your pain and turn it into comedy. We tell stories that people can relate to about the complications of love and how to define family and and it's not always the way that you imagine it would be but that doesn't mean it's not great.

Brecia Webb

In this show, he's really just pulling from his real life and using some of the real life circumstances that he had to deal with and and he's putting it all out there.

Marlon Wayans

So I take my real life experience and I give it to other people. And um, it it make fun and make light of my life and it's kinda like I'm my own therapist.

Young Hollywood

I can't wait for this series, but I can't let this interview end like this. I think we have to create an official Marlon dance. I'm gonna bring in Amir's twin brother. Here he is. Marlon, please. All I wanna be is an honorary Wayans for one day. Please. I got the style. I got some moves. It's something like that. You know, I don't know. You said all those crazy. I know. Look at this one, look at this one.

Marlon Wayans

No, you can't be a Wayans. Until you get some rhythm. No.

Young Hollywood

All right. Well, guys, you heard it. Thank you to Marlon. Check it out. Marlon coming up. Catch you later.

Timestamps are approximate — click one to jump the player.

PEOPLE MENTIONED

  • Marlon Wayans

    Main subject, star of the show

  • Essence Atkins

    Plays Marlon's on-screen ex-wife Ashley

  • Amir O'Neil

    Plays one of Marlon's children

  • Notlim Taylor

    Plays one of Marlon's children

  • Diallo Riddle

    Plays Marlon's best friend Stevie

  • Bresha Webb

    Plays Ashley's best friend Evette

  • Damon Wayans

    Mentioned by the interviewer

FAQ

What is the name of Marlon Wayans' NBC sitcom?+
Marlon Wayans' NBC sitcom is titled "Marlon."
Who plays Marlon Wayans' on-screen ex-wife in "Marlon"?+
Essence Atkins plays Marlon Wayans' on-screen ex-wife, Ashley, in "Marlon."
Who plays Marlon's best friend Stevie in the show "Marlon"?+
Diallo Riddle plays Marlon's best friend Stevie in the show "Marlon."
How does Marlon Wayans incorporate his real-life experiences into the show?+
Marlon Wayans uses his real-life experiences, particularly those related to co-parenting and defining family, as inspiration and injects them into the show's storylines.

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