All About Laughs
Malcolm Jamal Warner, best known for his role as “Theo Huxtable” in The Cosby Show, is still high in demand as an actor. The 50-year old’s life kept moving post-playing the iconic role, going on to star in various films and television shows. Warner also received another famous role as “Malcolm McGee” on UPN’s Malcolm & Eddie alongside comedian Eddie Griffin. While their on-screen chemistry proved to work extremely well, behind the scenes things weren’t the same.
Malcolm & Eddie was a popular series that ran from 1996 until its end in 2000. While interviewing with host David Greene on NPR’s Morning Edition, the actor shared that the show was the “antithesis” of Cosby, while his experience on the show was “probably the foremost miserable years of my life.”
When it came to the sitcom, he felt as though the show encouraged the stereotypes that typically plague the Black community. “There was so much fighting that I did on this show, with writers, producers, the studio,” he said on an edition of PeopleTV’s “Couch Surfing”. “There was a particular vision they had for the show that was different from the vision I had for the show.”
The actor’s pairing with Griffin didn’t come without its share of hardships. Malcolm Jamal Warner and Eddie Griffin’s comedy and acting styles differ, which brought many challenges for the two. However, no matter the case they were able to bring it together to produce a successful show.
“We came from different schools of comedy. You’re putting the school of Bill Cosby and the School of Richard Pryor together as a team,” he said. “There were often creative conflicts that we had, so it wasn’t always harmonious between he and I. But wherever we were eye-to-eye wise, every single show for four years, we would get together, put our hands together, put our heads together and we’d pray.”
With all that he’s gone through from the series, it along with his other comedic roles helped him to get to where he is today. The current star of Fox’s The Resident shared with Entertainment Weekly that “I’ve always thought that comedy is just, you know, it’s a harder track.”
But his hard work and persistence in comedic work throughout the years have shown him that he couldn’t just lean on one thing. “Being able to flourish in dramatic work doesn’t depend on being funny,” Warner said. Prior to his role as Andre aka “The Raptor” on The Resident, he also appeared in roles on Sons of Anarchy, Dexter, and American Crime Story. “My muscles were aching because they wanted to do more dramatic work because, for a string of time, I was really only doing comedy,” Warner said.
