Just a stone’s throw from the concert halls of New York’s Lincoln Center is another place where creative dreams come true: LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, a launching pad for the most talented teens in New York. Liza Minnelli studied here; so did Billy Dee Williams, Jennifer Aniston, Timothée Chalamet, and Adrien Brody. “A two-time Oscar-winner, look at that!” said Brody’s former classmate, Marlon Wayans, Class of 1990. “Makes me so proud. We used to give him wedgies!”

As an actor, writer and producer, Wayans is behind some of the best-loved projects in recent memory, like the “Scary Movie” franchise, a comic satire of horror films. There have been five “Scary” movies (some without the Wayans brothers), but they’re back at the helm for the upcoming #6 next year.

And when he’s not making movies, Marlon Wayans tours on the live stand-up comedy circuit. He also turns out streaming comedy specials like clockwork. “Probably a year that I had a day off,” he said. “Probably three years since I had a vacation.”

I asked, “What are you chasing?”

“I don’t know if I’m chasing, or if I’m running from something!” he laughed. And for his latest role, he had to do both.

In the new psychological horror film “Him,” a rookie quarterback (played by Tyriq Withers) wants to be the greatest. Marlon Wayans is an aging football superstar who’s going to help him. At first he’s a likeable coach, but he morphs into a something evil.

Is he the Devil in this film? “No, I think I’m just one of the people that the Devil uses to entice the people who sell their soul,” Wayans said.

To watch a trailer for the film “Him,” click on the video player below:

The notion of trading your soul for athletic immortality is one of the all-time great storylines. You might recall “Damn Yankees,” with a hopeful fan striking a deal with the Devil. And as the Devil’s advocate in “Him,” Wayans’ character puts the rookie quarterback through hell. “The movie seems like, ‘Oh, you’re selling your soul to the Devil.’ The Devil exists every day, everywhere,” Wayans said. “At least 20 times a day you are gonna be faced with God or the Devil. So, it’s a choice. Everything you do is a choice.”

It’s a big change for someone raised on comedy. Marlon Wayans is the youngest of 10 siblings, in the comedy dynasty known as the Wayans family. He often worked with his brothers, like when he teamed up with Shawn as an undercover FBI agent in the 2004 cult favorite “White Chicks.”

Family is still the bedrock of Wayans’ life, and the passing of some close relatives and friends over the past few years hit especially hard, as he described in his 2024 special “Good Grief”:  

“I’ve been dodging depression for the last three years. I lost my momma three years ago. And let me tell you y’all something, ain’t no pain, ain’t no nothing like losing your momma.”

I asked, “Do you think losing all these people in such a short span of time, that pain, informs your acting?”

“Yes, because I used to have to manufacture tears,” Marlon said. “My mother died … it’s all I gotta think about. It’s right there. It’s right behind my eyes. I don’t need 20 minutes to go think about stuff no more.”

Wayans has learned how to turn personal loss into dramatic power. He was told he was the only one considered for his role in “Him,” a sign that his time may have finally come.

He said, “It took me doing the work for 53 years to feel special.”

“You didn’t feel special?” I asked.

“I felt like I was working towards something.”

“And now you feel like that something is here?”

“I feel like it’s never there, but it’s getting closer,” he replied.

To date, Marlon Wayans’ movies alone are said to have grossed nearly $2 billion, and there are more on the way. But he says he’ll never forget LaGuardia, the unique school where it all started. “I’ll always love this city, and I’ll always love this school. This is my baby for life. I hope these kids know how good they got it.”

He almost didn’t get to go. His father didn’t want him to attend. “Nah, my dad, he was super-religious, and he was kind of a homophobe; he didn’t want me wearing tights! ‘Cause you have to wear tights when you come to this school.”

The late LaGuardia drama teacher Peter Treitler gave him permission to wear sweatpants instead, a little thing that changed Marlon’s life forever. 

Mr. Treitler’s words are still alive in Marlon’s heart: “He said, ‘I’ll make a deal with you: If you go to this school, you work harder than anybody else here, and you be special.’ Young people need people that believe in them and see they’re great. But young people gotta do the work so they can see they’re great.”

“Well, that’s the thing, is you took that and ran with it,” I said.

Wayans replied, “I’m still running with it.”

      
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Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Steven Tyler.

       
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