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Interview with Darrin Henson, Choreographer/ Actor/ Dancer
I ran into
Darrin Henson
while covering the Cayman Jazz
Festival in November 2006 in his role as the host of the
festival. Darrin is now starring and dancing in the Sony/Screen
Gems film, Stomp The Yard
which released on Friday, January 12, 2007. As mentioned in
my
review of Stomp The Yard last week,
Darrin Henson
is well-known to Canadians, as he shot the television series
Soul Food
(as the character, Lem) in Toronto and therefore lived here for
five years. Though Soul Food never aired in Canada, Darrin was
a vibrant part of our community during that time.
There are a couple of notable things about Stomp that I
thought it was necessary to bring to light. One is that
in celebration of the film's release, Sony Pictures announced
that 2.5% of the proceeds from its opening weekend numbers would
be donated to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington,
DC. For
me, it was also a positive move to see the Black youth
experience played out in the world of fraternities and a
university rather than in the Hollywood stereotypical world of
gangs and drugs.
Darrin talks to us about Stomp, the role of dance in Hollywood,
his accomplishments and upcoming projects.
First of all, I loved the movie Stomp The
Yard – very entertaining i.e. lots of dance scenes and decent
acting. Did you have anything to do with the choreography?
None of it except that the battle scene. The last one was my
choreography. All the stuff that you see me do by myself is my
stuff.
Did you grow up with stepping around you?
I’ve never stepped before – that was my first time. It’s one of
the hardest things I’ve ever done. It’s like drumming, keeping
two different patterns at the same time. That s**t is hard!
What was your favourite part of the film for you ?
Kissing
Meagan Good!
Your character’s intensity really came across – no one liked
you!
My character was based off her (Meagan Good)’s dad. He was the
mano y mano male. He’s one of those guys who expects
excellence out of himself and everyone else around him. There
are a lot of people out there like that.
How important do you see dance in relation to the world of
entertainment?
I think dance has always been acknowledged and it’s always been
needed and necessary. It’s more, is it respected?
I think the importance of it is coming back again. Stomp brings
the art of street dance and the traditional art of dancing back.
I agree and because it’s making a lot more money for mainstream
now – it is the actual money-maker. I think literally
that dance has found its own rhythm now.
And do you feel a trend of movies putting more choreography into
their movies and/or music videos? Will your phone start
ringing?
I think that it’s going to be a huge trend. Once you’ve got a
hit in Hollywood, they normally follow up with five more of the
same kind of film. That’s the way it is and has been. I think
that I’ll have a rush of people calling and wanting my
involvement in projects, absolutely.
Your career skyrocketed after Soul
Food - what’s the biggest adjustment you’ve had to make?
Soul Food was the very first thing that I’ve done that’s
introduced me to the world outside of my choreography. I think
one of the biggest things is that you have to be able not to take
it home with you. Sometimes the fans don’t allow you to do that
because they love your character so much that they call you by
your character’s name. Sometimes if you’re weak-minded, you
feel inadequate if you’re not getting or booking another job
immediately. You really have to know who you are, what you’re
doing and what you want out of this business in order to do well
in this business … and survive this business.
I use the term ‘survive’ very loosely because I don’t believe in
just surviving, I believe in living. When you’re able to live
your making, you don’t have to worry about making a living.
Do people still approach you about being Lem?
Yeah, they call me Lem all the time. I don’t mind so much
because I really love my character so it’s fine but sometimes,
depending on what day it is,
you want people to call you by
your name.
Do you have a favourite experience of when you were working here
in Toronto?
Working on a television series and then acclimating myself into
the Canadian community and being accepted by them. Doing the
show for five years there and it being accepted all around the
world is still an ongoing great experience for me.
People that know you as an actor, may not necessarily know that
you have dance / hip hop workout videos out?
Originally, by the third season of Soul Food, people were
tripping because they’d always see me with
NSync but they didn’t understand why one of their
favourite actors was always with these guys. I think they were
completely confused and didn’t know I was the same person. I
guess they started to read the same name and that’s when they
found out.
What first made you fall in love with dance?
From five years old, I was in love. It was just something that
I knew, something I was born with. When I heard music, I just
danced. It wasn’t something that I had to think about wanting
to do. I knew I would be on stage one day, absolutely. At five
years old I knew!
You’ve worked with some major names in music
Michael Jackson, Prince, Britney Spears, J-Lo, Christina
Aguilera, NSYNC – any highlights?
Working with Michael Jackson was a highlight. Winning the MTV
Music Award was a highlight (for N*SYNC) and now dancing in a
feature film that I’m starring in – it’s great! I feel like
John Travolta except I won an award for dancing! (laughs)
What do your awards mean to you as you’ve won an MTV Music Award
for Best Choreography and a Billboard Award for biggest selling
Health and Fitness Video?
They mean a lot to me – it’s from your peers and your fans. I
mean, I don’t go around shining my MTV Music Award everyday;
actually it’s in the garage. Because I feel if you sit down
looking at it, praising yourself, you may not work hard to get
another one. I want to work on getting an Image Award, a Golden
Globe and then an Oscar. I plan on it!
Congrats on breaking records with the sales of the Darrin’s
Dance Grooves! Where can people buy it?
Yeah, and I just did a deal for the second one (Darrin’s
Dance Grooves 2) which is available now on my website –
www.darrinhenson.com but it will be in stores in March. And
people can buy it on my site.
Why do you think that it’s generated so much interest?
I think people trust me and the choreography is great!
If you could work with any artist, living or past, who would
they be?
I’d want to work with Michael Jackson again. I would have
loved, God rest his soul, to work with
Gregory Hines. He was
definitely a mentor for me. I want to work with Shaba-Doo from
the movie “Breakin’”. I’d want to work with Eddie Murphy,
Denzel Washington, Laurence Fishburne and John Travolta.
What was your greatest experience in your career?
Definitely working with Michael Jackson. And finally dancing in
a feature film that I’m also acting in. And then winning the
MTV Music Award.
What’s in your MP3 right now?
50 Cent, india.arie, Floetry, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Black-Eyed Peas …
How would you like to be remembered?
Darrin Henson is a person that cares about the world, cares
about people and who wants everybody to understand that they have
power to make their life beautiful.
Good answer – no doubt.
Darrin is one busy and hard working entertainer. He is
currently on the panel for the television reality show
Bump & Grind in the UK
on Sky’s Trouble channel (airs in
Canada as well). Later this month he'll be at Sundance Film
Festival with
Queen Latifah
to support his HBO film,
Life Support
which is the
true-life story of a mother who overcame an addiction to crack
and became a positive role model and an AIDS activist in the
Black community (to be
released in March 2007). Then, also being released this year in
May, is the movie, The Salon,
which premiered here at the ReelWorld Film Festival starring
Vivica A. Fox.
And now with the release of Stomp The Yard, you can be sure to
be seeing a lot more of Darrin Henson.
He is a symbol of what hard work, good hustle and raw talent
combined can do!
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::ENTERTAINMENT NEWS WITH A CANADIAN TWIST::
