Sitting in his small office in the Martin bungalow on theUniversal lot, with fake African
masks adorning the end tables-"I don't know where they're from," he says casually-Martin
Lawrence, dressed in a black turtleneck and gray plaid slacks, comes off less like a creative dynamo
than as the Hollywood hyphenate he is: sitcom star, executive producer, sometime writer, and
soon-to-be feature film director. He's very wary, even difficult, toward the press these days. Like
other stand-up-to-sitcom stars, Martin fought through the usual creative control issues, in part by
firing longtime manager and show cocreator Topper Carew, reportedly before a live studio
audience. When asked about that incident, his reply is, "I have the utmost respect for him, but I don't
wanna go there."

Ask Lawrence if he likes having more power on the set, and he looks at you with a blank stare and
asks, "What do you mean by power?" Then he adds, "I have more say, so if I don't like something,
we won't do it. If I do like something, we do." Does it make work more difficult with more
responsibilities behind the camera? "You have to be the judge of that," he replies tersely. "If people
are saying the show's suffering because of it, maybe I'm too much involved in the business."

While making Bad Boys, it wasn't hard for Will Smith and Martin Lawrence to find a working
rhythm, even though both guys are more accustomed to having straight men than being them. "You
never see two brothers from different networks getting together to do something like this," Lawrence
gushes. "But we had a lot of fun. We worked hard together. Since both of us have comic timing on
the sitcoms, we knew it was just a matter of getting together and finding out how we complemented
each other."

"That's the beauty of working with another comic," agrees Smith. "You go in in the morning and you
have no clue what's about to happen. I'm used to changing lines on my show, and he does the same
thing. It was like a tennis match. He would say something, then I'd toss a line right back."

Smith was also taken with Lawrence's devotion to the social and cultural impact of their
collaboration. "He has a lot of interesting insights," Smith says. "I called him Martin Lawrence King.
It's really important to him to be real, and present himself and his work to his audience with integrity.
We'd talk for hours about whether our coming together would mean anything to young black kids.
Would it mean anything that we were being strong enough for it to work with no problems?"
 

       Which begs the ego question. Compared with Will's accessible playfulness, Martin is
       guarded and defensive in person. Yet on-camera, he invariably thrusts himself center stage,
as if demanding his costars catch up to his manic energy. His mercurial reputation precedes him.
When I mention that he's regarded as a taskmaster, Lawrence replies, "I feel everyone should come
to the project as I do. If you don't care as much for it as I do, why are you there?"

When I ask Will Smith, "Do you have a big ego?" he replies, "Yeah, I have a huge ego, but I don't
impose it on people. You have to have a big ego to be an actor. But I have control over that,
because I don't like how it feels when other people throw their weight around. That experience
makes me struggle really hard not to impose myself on people for selfish reasons. Ego drives you. I
think it's really important. But you have to control your ego; you can't let your ego control you."

When I ask Lawrence the same question, he looks at me for about 20 seconds before responding.
After a bit of verbal jousting and nonanswers ("Do you think I have one? What defines a big ego?"),
I ask him how he's changed as a result of having a hit TV show, a wedding that was covered by the
tabloids, and a big summer movie about to drop.

"I've grown up a little more," he says, "though I don't know if I'll ever be fully grown-up, 'cause I ain't
trying to lose the kiddish things in me, 'cause that's what I love. I love to bug out and be spontaneous
and talk some shit?hellip;.I changed for the better, and I'm steady trying to get better at what I do.
But by the same token, I talk shit. We all do." Spoken like a true bad boy.   -  The End
|
|