Marlon Wayans Tells Channing Tatum How He’s Upending Hollywood’s Hierarchy

Marlon Wayans helped define a generation of pop culture with deliriously over-the-top comedies like White Chicks and the Scary Movie franchise. But at 53, he wants more. After showing flashes of dramatic fire, most memorably as a heroin addict in Requiem for a Dream, the youngest sibling of the Wayans dynasty is letting it all out in Him, a new Jordan Peele-produced horror trip. As a fading quarterback whose mentorship of a younger player curdles into something far more sinister, Wayans is making a claim for leading-man status, a desire his friend Channing Tatum is ready to unpack.

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FRIDAY 11 AM JULY 4, 2025 LA

CHANNING TATUM: Man, where you at?

MARLON WAYANS: I’m in L.A. Finally I’m home because I have shows this weekend. I wish you were here so you could see my show. I’m pretty funny.

TATUM: I don’t know about that.

WAYANS: You got to see it.

TATUM: The last time I went to your show you roasted me, so.

WAYANS: Where you at?

TATUM: I’m in London, man. I’m on Avengers [Doomsday]. We’ll have another side conversation about this movie.

WAYANS: Oh, that’s big, bro.

TATUM: Yeah, it’s big and crazy. What did you just take a shot of? You getting hammered right now?

WAYANS: I wish. I’m having some shilajit. I’m trying to live, Chan.

TATUM: You said shilajit?

WAYANS: It has like a hundred antioxidants and it’s like lava. You think Black people stay sexy because we’re Black? No, we earn this shit.

TATUM: That’s fair. But also, you got the magic dust.

WAYANS: I got old bones and a young face. Chris Brown’s face in Morgan Freeman’s body.

TATUM: There’s so many jokes but I’m going to stay away from all of them.

WAYANS: [Laughs]

TATUM: I’m going to take care of both of us in this situation.

WAYANS: And I’m going to let you. When you coming back?

TATUM: That’s what’s funny about this movie—no one knows.

WAYANS: Wow.

TATUM: It’s wild, man.

WAYANS: Your next film, by the way, Roofman, I heard is really good.

TATUM: I really want you to see it.

WAYANS: I’m proud of you. Next time you have a Black guy in your movie, he has to look like me. I’m putting it in your contracts.

TATUM: [Laughs] Shut up. Alright boy, we’re getting into it.

WAYANS: Go for it.

TATUM: You’re gigging right now?

WAYANS: I stay gigging every weekend. That’s the only way to get great. I’ve been on a mission for the past 15 years to not be good. I want to be great. I was a star for a long time. I want to be a supernova.

TATUM: Inside of that, what makes you calm?

WAYANS: Two things. My art calms me. I’ve been through so much tragedy in the last few years, losing my mom and losing my dad and losing 63 people that I loved. I got so broken that all I did was put everything into my art. That and this little gift called Axl. I have a daughter that’s two and a half years old. I get her one day a week and we just have a blast, and she calms me.

TATUM: I don’t even know how many years ago it was that we did our little movie. I remember people asking you in interviews, “Why aren’t you doing more Requiem for a Dreams?” And you said, “I haven’t found a director that really affected me like that.”

WAYANS: To be honest, they didn’t want me.

TATUM: I don’t know if that’s true.

WAYANS: Meaning, you have to be one of the top 30 guys to get the top 30 scripts to work with the top 30 directors. I’m 52 now and I feel like I’m in my 30s. I’m finally ready to do what I set out to do. But to be very honest and humble, I wasn’t getting those opportunities, and that’s why I’ve been working so feverishly.

TATUM: Yeah.

WAYANS: Then you can work with friends and do whatever the hell you want with great directors. I’ve been very fortunate to work with some great ones—the Coen Brothers, Darren Aronofsky, Sofia Coppola, Ben Affleck—but I kind of lucked up with Him because this director, Justin Tipping, is special. When you see the movie you’re going to be like, “Yo, bro, I got to be in one of his movies.” I finally get to be a star in a really great movie and hopefully it’ll take me into the top 30.

TATUM: I haven’t seen the movie yet, but let me tell you, I haven’t been that jacked up to see a fucking trailer in a long time. We’ll get to that. I remember meeting you and it felt like that was a version of you, but now you’ve sunk deeper into the pocket of who you are. You’ve been the big brother that you never wanted to be for me. You saved me from myself thousands of times.

WAYANS: But you were always disciplined.

TATUM: It doesn’t matter. I’m trying to paint a picture so people can actually see. I always saw you as this firehose, and anytime you got a chance to go off, you’d go off. And it really did take someone like Darren Aronofsky to focus and control it. I always felt like you were one of the smarter people in the room, and it didn’t matter that you might not be in control of the room because the director was over there or the big producer was over here. I always looked to you because I was just sitting there going, “What’s Marlon thinking right now?” You were just more seasoned and experienced, not just in life, but in the industry, which is a wild situation.

WAYANS: It’s a beast.

TATUM: The only thing I wrote down before this whole entire interview is “truth,” because you’re one of the most truthful people I’ve ever met. That’s what I feel about your acting as well.

WAYANS: You’ve always been a huge supporter. I remember you saw my [Richard] Pryor audition and you were like, “Yo, what do we have to do to get this movie done?” A lot of directors have helped hone my craft, but when it comes to a drama, they’re like, “Stay here, be tethered.” With Him, Justin let me bring everything. He took the leash off a lion at a zoo, opened the cage, and all I saw was carnage.

TATUM: You were Jet Li in that movie where he took the leash off and all of a sudden he’s whipping everybody’s ass.

WAYANS: That’s exactly what happened. If you see my performance, it’s unhinged, it’s unpredictable. One minute he’s vulnerable and the next he’s creepy, crazy, angry, and psychotic. And that takes somebody that understands me as an artist, because it wasn’t something I had to audition for. Justin and Jordan Peele were like, “Yo, we want you to do this.”

TATUM: Oh man, that makes me so happy to hear.

WAYANS: “Everybody else that could do this is dead or crazy.”

TATUM: You’re crazy, but you’re still a manageable crazy.

WAYANS: I am crazy. That’s part of me.

TATUM: Everybody’s got the crazy in them. It’s just like, are you going to strangle it to death and try to live within the parameters of the coloring book, or are you going to let the beast out and control it on some level? I’m so jacked up for this era of your life, you seem to be so unbelievably in control of the gas pedal. You’ve had mountains to climb. And that’s just experience, that’s wisdom. I hope that I can get to the place where you are right now. But you’ve been mad at me before. You’ve challenged me before.

WAYANS: I’ve challenged you. I’ve never been mad at you.

TATUM: You’ve been mad at me.

WAYANS: Channing, that’s because you left turds under my bed.

TATUM: I was stupid and it’s okay! We don’t have to get into it. We wouldn’t be friends if you weren’t mad at me at some point.

WAYANS: But you know what I’d say? Remember when you had your worst moment and you was like, “Bro, I’m fucked.” I said, “Use your art. This is a brilliant moment for you.” I was like, “I wish I had more moments like that for me. Just live the truth.” And you were so nervous, but you went on one of those talk shows and talked about your days of dancing and you owned it. And then right after that, Magic Mike killed the game. You took your worst moment and made it one of the best things that ever happened to you. That is life. Everything bad that happens to you is happening for a reason. I used to always have to manufacture pain. Then you lose your mother and your father and then you lose 63 people that you love.

TATUM: Did you say 63?

WAYANS: I got a big-ass family, bro.

TATUM: Fuck, man.

WAYANS: Now I don’t have to manufacture pain. All I gotta do is tap on my heart and tears are there.

TATUM: Look, we could fall down a rabbit hole of making this something really different, which I kind of want to do, but I’m going to bring it back. What you’re doing to this kid in the trailer is fucking intense. I played football and I’ve also had a father that was very dark in that way—there was no other version than success. He didn’t care if I died unless I was fucking winning. Where did you find that person?

WAYANS: I’ve had great mentors in my brothers, and they hazed me comedically.

TATUM: No, they would’ve never done that. They were so sweet and loving and nurturing, I’m sure. [Laughs]

WAYANS: Many days, I thought about poisoning them in their sleep, but they were always sweet and they loved me and always took care of me. I never had a terrible mentor, so I had to pull from fantasy.

TATUM: Really?

WAYANS: Yeah.

TATUM: Who’s the most abusive person that you can talk about in your life? Or did you really just summon that from what you’ve experienced other people go through.

WAYANS: I summoned it from what other people go through.

TATUM: Wow.

WAYANS: I can really place myself with the emotion of why somebody would do something like that. When I did Requiem, I didn’t do heroin, but I sat down with heroin addicts and I asked them a lot of questions and watched them shoot up. I cared about what led them to do that drug. So I sat down with a lot of coaches; I got in the headspace of what it is to be a great athlete. Then I got into the heart-space of why he’s insecure. What if he’s worried about that next guy coming along? It’s hard to leave that premier seat. Then I thought about how he would do anything to keep that. Now it’s not about nurturing him, it’s about destroying him.

TATUM: That resonates. Sometimes, the people that have made me the sharpest are the people that have tried to smash me against a rock.

WAYANS: But that’s why you’re so strong right now. You took a lot of shit. I’m a nigga from the projects. I’ve never been the guy to take shit.

TATUM: Definitely not.

WAYANS: If you think I’m going to allow you to speak to me that way, I’m leaving this class, I’m walking off this set. I don’t need you to scream at me, just tell me what you need and I got you. I’m a protector, so I don’t like when somebody’s on a set talking crazy to somebody else. I don’t like to see people hurting.

TATUM: What is your biggest sacrifice?

WAYANS: Time is the most valuable thing I have. This is dope just because we get to hang out, but I’d love to hang out with you more. But we’re busy; we’re trying to do something. I miss having two weeks a month where I don’t do nothing. I don’t know what that’s like anymore. I work every weekend and then I’m writing Scary Movie 6 while I’m promoting Him and working toward doing my special. But I know one day the time that I’m putting in is going to allow me to be at the space where I don’t have to work so feverishly, because I’ll be one of those top 20 dudes.

TATUM: What’s so funny is you want to be in the top, whatever you’re calling it, top 20 or 30. But I look at you going, “Oh, he’s outside of all of that.”

WAYANS: I am. Real talk. Because if I waited on Hollywood, I’d be waiting a long time.

TATUM: But nobody could touch you. You literally taught me to go make Magic Mike.

WAYANS: Facts.

TATUM: You lived outside all of that because you took your own life, your own agency in this career, and have made it in your fucking own way.

WAYANS: You’re fucking right. And what’s crazy is, because I haven’t been a part of a machine, I’ve created my own machine. But I still go, imagine if I have this machine here, but I get that machine too. That’s when I get time, because then I got options.

TATUM: Logic tells that two machines working at the same time might yield more. [Laughs]

WAYANS: It might get me a vacation.

TATUM: More shit.

WAYANS: Yeah, man. But I’m in a good space. My best years are ahead of me. Denzel didn’t start cooking until he was in his late forties. Morgan Freeman, Sam Jackson—great Black actors usually get those opportunities when they’re in their fifties. It’s not like I’m an overnight sensation. Everybody’s been watching me grow as a comedian and writer and producer for 35 years. It’s hard to see your own growth when people are just watching you. But I’m hoping Him is that moment that everything comes together.

TATUM: You once said to me, “Whatever’s happening in your brain right now after G.I. Joe, just forget about it and go for the ride.” I’m so fascinated to know, what is the future like for you? What’s the dream?

WAYANS: I learned success is not a destination, it’s just a road we travel. We’re doing the thing, right?

TATUM: Yeah.

WAYANS: When you see the new Scary Movie, you’re going to be like, “They’re coming back hard.” But I used to always sacrifice Marlon for the Wayans brand. My brothers are very strong-willed. They have a vision. But these are my man years. I love y’all, but I need to go do this. Me and my brother Shawn had a fight one time and he was like, “Why are you trying to do the Richard Pryor movie?” I was like, “Because it’s dope and I think I could win an Oscar.” He’s like, “Why do you want to win an Oscar?” I said, “Hey, nigga these are my dreams.” I went to performing arts high school. I love acting. I love being vulnerable. I came up as a dramatic actor and I just so happened to be funny. But if you think I don’t want to do Pryor or you don’t think I want to do these great dramatic roles, you’re wrong. I love you, but your dream is not my dream. But we do share a dream. My brother Keenen finally understands me. He said, “I used to think you was crazy.”

TATUM: Stop. Don’t do the voice, dog. Just talk normal because I won’t be able to listen without laughing. Fuck it, do the voice.

WAYANS: [Laughs] He was like, “I’ve been watching you work and I will say this, you’re not crazy. You’re brilliant.” And I cried, because my mentor, my brother who I’ve always tried to make proud, finally saw me. Understand how many great people came under Keenen. Jim Carrey, J.Lo, Jamie Foxx. All these great talents.

TATUM: Dozens more.

WAYANS: He’s like, “You do stand-up on the weekends. You write these goddamn movies. You’re working out five days a week. You are an undeniable force of nature. That’s all I ask my talents to be, and you’re that.” I just broke down crying.

TATUM: When was that conversation?

WAYANS: This year.

TATUM: He never said that before?

WAYANS: It started when I did this special, God Loves Me. It was about when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock and I did a whole hour on it.

TATUM: I love it, man.

WAYANS: I love you, Bigfoot. [Laughs]

TATUM: I see you.

WAYANS: And I see you.

TATUM: I’m going to kiss your face next time I’m within arm’s distance of you, my G.

WAYANS: Love you.

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Grooming: Nena Melendez using Fenty Hair and Fenty Beauty at Opus Beauty.

Lighting Technician: Matteo Dalla Chiesa.

Fashion Assistant: Monica Rojas.

Production Management: Ella Marciano.

Production Assistant: Cary Slatkin.

Location: Nova Studios.