A Saturday basketball game at the gym put Morris Chestnut on to Reasonable Doubt in its first season.
“Normally when guys are around in a gym, they talk about a bunch of stupid stuff, irrelevant stuff, like a sports game or whatever. But out of the blue, one of the guys was like, ‘Man, have you seen this show Reasonable Doubt?’” Chestnut recalls to The Hollywood Reporter.
The enthusiasm of his friend — a noted fan of the Hulu legal drama’s lead actress Emayatzy Corinealdi who plays Jax Stewart, a sharp defense attorney with a messy personal life — made Chestnut give the show a try.
“It was just so odd, because that’s not what dudes normally talk about in the gym. So it was like, well, I have to check it out,” he adds. “Let me see what he’s talking about. And it was great.”
After taking an immediate liking to the series, creator Raamla Mohamed and executive producer Larry Wilmore presented the opportunity for Chestnut to join the cast as Corey Cash, an equally adept attorney with his own personal and professional demons, in season two.
The answer was an easy yes.
“I knew I wanted to do the show. I just wasn’t sure what the character was,” explains Chestnut. “And then Raamala sent me a character arc for the whole season, and I was like, ‘this is pretty dope.’ Once I read that, and then I met with Raamla and Larry and another producer, I was like, I’m in.”
Below, Chestnut, who’s also a main character on the BET+ dark comedy-drama Diarra from Detroit and the title character in the upcoming CBS drama Watson, talks about being introduced with a sex scene in Reasonable Doubt, playing good guys and having more opportunities than ever, now 30-plus years into his career.
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Your character has quite the entrance into the series in episode two. What did you think when you saw the script and read that first scene?
(Laughs) So, of course I saw the first season, so I knew what the show was about. But then when I read the first scene, I was like, “Oh, so this is what we’re doing. Okay, let’s go.” You know, it was fun. I was really excited. It’s a strong, smart, sexy type of show. And she gave me a great intro.
What’s it like for you coming into a series in its second season as the new guy, even though I’ve seen your co-stars refer to you as “Morris Thee Chestnut” in interviews?
It’s so interesting coming into an established show, because these people have been working together for so long and, really, it’s coming into a family. When you do a show, you’re on set and you’re working more than you’re at home. You’re working 12, 13, 14 hours a day. You’re not seeing your family. So it’s always interesting coming in. You never know how people are going to react to certain things. You never know the different dynamics. The way I go about it, I’m respectful to everybody. I’m not stepping on anybody’s toes. “Thank you for having me.” And that’s how I felt. And this show, thanks to Raamla and Emayatzy and Kerry [Washington], they’ve really built a truly strong family. They were all very welcoming. Everyone was nice and genuine. They made it a joy and a pleasure to come to work.
I don’t think Jax is a character we’ve seen onscreen before. As someone who’s had a lot of women co-stars over the years, what stands out to you about that character in particular?
Oh, wow. So much. What I love about Jax is she’s smart, she’s strong, she’s attractive. Of course, we know the fashion — she could have her own fashion line. But the way that the show is written, it truly is a collaborative effort between Raamla, Kerry and Emayatzy. There’s so much depth behind what’s happening with the show and, primarily, realism. Emayatzy’s character, she gets conflicted. It’s not this Pollyanna type of lifestyle where everything is just great. She makes mistakes, she deals with the mistakes, she has the challenges at work, she has the challenges at home. She can relax with her friends. Now the friend she’s relaxing with is on trial. This is real-life stuff that everybody can relate to.
Even, for instance, Corey. The one thing I love about Corey, it could have easily just been, “hey, my friend Jax wants me to come here to L.A. to help her get her friend off trial. Boom. But no, it’s my friend Jax is giving me an opportunity to come here to L.A. I can redeem myself from something that’s happened in the past. And while I’m helping get her friend off on this major case, I’m going to redeem myself. And then now she’s even helped me deal with my own family life that I haven’t dealt with for years. So there’s so many layers to Corey. And that’s what Raamla does.
Every episode I start out skeptical of Corey and think, “this is where we’re going to see another side of him.” But six episodes in, he really does seem to have genuine intentions, which made me think, do you have a clause in your contracts that you’ll only play good guys?
(Laughs) That’s what they come to me for. I actually had a movie, it’s in turnaround now, on Netflix where I wasn’t. But I am drawn to positive characters. When we read scripts and play the characters, everything a character does for an actor is justified. If a character kills someone, in their head, they justify doing it. So most of the time, they don’t see it as being wrong. But I do think that’s how Hollywood sees me, and they give me a lot of opportunities. And I am drawn to that. When people watch movies, and they watch it over and over again, or they’re watching hours of a TV show — this one is 10 hours — those images make an impact. Sometimes large, sometimes small. It can be on a million people. It can be an impact on one person, but it’s always going to make an impact. And I am conscious of the image and the message that people get from my characters.
That doesn’t mean to say that I’ll always be the “good guy,” but, honestly, it was how I was introduced to the world in Boyz n the Hood where I was the good son, the son that everyone was rooting for. And when we talk about impact, that’s a film that people are watching to this very day. There have been shows before and characters where I’ve said, “you know what? I don’t really want the character to do that. I want to be positive.” But that’s not to say that I won’t do something that’s not necessarily the good guy, that’s not necessarily positive, as long as there’s a strong message that comes out of it.
You’re currently a main character on three different TV shows. What does this season of your career feel like?
It’s a blessing. It feels great to be able to be out there like that and have this opportunity. Because when you think about it, there really haven’t been this many opportunities for most of my career. And I’m not taking it for granted. I’m trying to do the best I can with what I have. I’m just going to keep moving.
Reasonable Doubt releases new episodes weekly Thursdays on Hulu and Disney+.
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