In the middle of a particularly turbulent and distressing race year in America, Lamorne Morris found himself playing a black LAPD officer with a cat named Ferguson, on the hit television show, New Girl. Tensions were high between the African-American and law enforcement communities.  Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Tanisha Anderson, Walter Scott, and countless other black citizens lay dead at the hands of the police. People were angry and scared. There were feelings of rage and sadness being ignited across social media and national headlines. The Black Lives Matter movement started to pick up traction and as politics were being tossed back and forth on an international platform, things began to get uncomfortable. The irony was not lost on Lamorne, he contacted the show’s creator and lead writer Liz Meriwether and told her he didnât want to play a cop anymore.
âIâm not happy with whatâs going on in the world,â he told her.
Liz, a seasoned producer, saw leverage in a storyline that could bring these issues to light, especially  from the perspective of the character Winston, since he was in such a unique position. It also gave New Girl an opportunity to delve into a more serious sphere than the sitcom was use to. She commissioned Lamorne to write an episode and paired him up with Robert Rosell, one of the shows writers. The show that aired, Par 5, episode 20 of the 4th season, attempted to tackle a subject that are still very much open wounds to our nation. In front of millions of loyal viewers, Morris acts out scenes addressing police, racism and brutality in a way that is slightly strained and unnerving to watch. On screen you can tell he is holding back.
âI had to show both sides of the coin and shed light on a little bit of what police officers go through. But also, what citizens go through when it involves police officers. I had to show that somehow. It was hard to walk that line. My first draft was very aggressive. [laughs] It was very one-sidedâthis is how I feel, this is whatâs going on. It was a lot of like, âHey, thatâs not gonna make the air, letâs come to a middle ground here and how do we make this work?â So, it happened, but it wasnât easy, just because of that line you have to walk,â Lamorne admits.
Raised in Chicago, one of the most racial divided cities in America, Lamorne grew up moving though neighborhoods and color lines with the social awareness one achieves when being part of the South Side and the suburbs.
âThereâs always corruption somewhere. So, you donât necessarily see it, but now that everyone has a phone, you see it and you see it happening more often. and more blatantly. More bold. All it does now is shed light that weâre not trippinâ. This is a real thing. You can see it. Just Google it and youâll see a thousand cases of it. And itâs been happening in our country since forever.â
Lamorne has come a long way from his South Side days, now living a lofty life in Los Angeles, and achieving the ultimate goal of any actor, i.e. steady work. He is currently on billboards and side of buses everywhere as one of the leads in the new blockbuster, Barbershop: The Next Cut.  I get to know Lamorne on breezy Los Angeles day, on the brink of him becoming a Hollywood heavyweight.
shirt, G-STAR RAW / sunglasses, CRAP EYEWEAR
What was it like growing up in Chicago?
Chicago was great. We lived in a few different locations when I was growing upâSouth Side of Chicago, which was exactly as publicized. When I was around fourteen, we moved to the West Suburbs, which has a completely different vibe from the South Side of Chicago. [laughs] Me and my brother, we were kinda like fish out of water. It was like, getting to know new people, a new way of life, getting acclimated to.
It was a different beast. We had to switch friends, type of friends. We went from a black neighborhood, the South Side of Chicago, to a predominantly white neighborhood with very little colorâDuPage County, Illinois. Which was great, because thatâs where I met my best friends in life. Until this day, weâre all very close. It also kind of formed my comedic sense. All my friends are funny, theyâre into theatre. My friends are still actors in Chicago or out here in LA. It was cool. It was having the best of both worlds under your belt, living in two different parts of the city. You get to gain some perspective better.
Yeah, I can kinda understand that. My parents are Nigerian. They came from basically villages in Nigeria, especially in the sixties and seventies.They moved to America,  started their careers and moved up to the suburbs. We grew up in the suburbs as these African kids and people were like, âWhat is this?â It was so bizarre, the juxtaposition between being Nigerian, going to Nigeria, and living in the suburbs. Especially being dark skinned and stuff, it was just so bizarre to me just trying to acclimate into being first-generation in America. Itâs so segregated and divided. Everyoneâs like, âYouâre black so you need to act like this and do this, this, and this.â I was like just, âHuh? But how do I do this?â Iâm glad Iâm older now. Because now I can be like, âFuck you, fuck off. Get your head out of your ass, everyoneâs different.â When I was in high school, I was like, âIâm so confused!
Right. Trust me, people look at the playlist on my phone and theyâre surprised. Theyâre so confusedââWait, what?â
Thatâs so annoying though. I love indie-rock, I love country music, but I also like seventies soul and the Rolling Stones, rap music, Stevie Wonder⊠I like everything. I like what speaks to me. It was always so weird⊠being the only black girl at rock concerts or indie-rock stuff. Having people be like, âHow can you like this?â Itâs just unfair, I think.
Itâs very much so unfair. People try to put you in a box, tell you how youâre supposed to soundâŠ
People used to always tell me, âYou sound like a white girl! Youâre white. You wanna be white.â And I was like, âUm, no. Actually, I love myself.â Iâm actually very self-involved. Iâm really into myself. Iâm into everything I do. I donât wanna be anyone else. But people were always so confused about my preferences. But I think thatâs kind of starting to change. I feel like this is the generation of people being woke and inspired by everything. This new millennial generation, people are all mixed up and doing their own thing. I think itâs cool.
Right, exactly. But, recently I did have someone tell me, âYou talk white. You sound mad white when you talk.â And I just kinda had this idea of like, âOh, so you think that because I donât sound like, Young Thug, that Iâm not black like Future or LilâWayne or somebody like that.â Thatâs their definition of black.
Which is so ignorant. Thatâs the thing that always made me upset. Thereâs so many different versions of so many different people. This rapper, thug culture, thatâs not even like one percent. Thereâre black people who sound like everything. Black people can be everything. I think the biggest thing with entertainment and the media, which is what always fascinated me, is how much people try to limit black peopleâs stories. Which why itâs really cool to see you doing your thing and seeing the media change a little bit in general and offer more roles for people of color who can be multidimensional characters.
Right. Exactly.
Do you feel like you have the opportunities to be a multidimensional character in Hollywood or is that something youâre still fighting for?
Iâm still fighting for it. Thatâs a continuous battle, even with different roles. People still say, âWell, you canât play that role, youâre black.â
Ugh.
Idris Elba is apparently too street to be James Bond. You know what I mean?
That was so⊠Itâs just so crazy, because that guy is so perfect for James Bond. So perfect! He is James Bond!
Yep.
I hear a lot of things in this industry, soâŠLike, weâre still 100,000 years behind what we should be.
Right, exactly.
Your character on New Girl, thatâs a multidimensional character. I like Winston. I think heâs very cool and I like his whole setup. It feels very realistic to a regular personâs life. But, do you ever feel like, do people ever think youâre the token black guy? Do you ever feel that?
Well, people are always gonna say that no matter what it is if youâre the only black dude. Theyâre always gonna say youâre the token. As a matter of fact, even when Damon [Wayans, Jr.] came on the show, back on the show, when we were both on the show together, people were saying, âYouâre both are the token black dudes.â You know? It just doesnât make any sense. It was just like, âOh, if you have black charactersâŠâ There are two white guys and two black guys on the show. Thereâs a white girl on the show. And thereâs an Indian girl on the show. So, thatâs a pretty diverse cast. People still go, âYouâre the tokens now.â And Iâm like, âNow? Now youâre just being racist.â It doesnât make any sense.
When a black person is doing a show like that with a white person, for some reason, that term is thrown around maybe too loosely, too casually. The cool thing about the writers on the show is that theyâve created a character that is very much so off the wallânot stereotypically black, not like I gotta talk like this, gotta sound like this or do this. I have the weirdest storylines; I have a pet cat, you know, you donât see that often. [laughs] Iâm the black confidant at times, which is the opposite of what you see a black character on TV.
Well, especially a black man.
Yeah! Always so aggressive, leading-man suave. Itâs always you know, being really cool type of character and I donât necessarily wanna play that right now. I donât mind it, I like it, I just like playing this type of⊠I like playing left of center. I like playing what people donât expect to see what I look like.
Yeah, itâs kind of bizarre, because I canât even imagine you playing a character like that. I mean, I guess I could, I mean I think youâre a good actor because Iâve seen you in New Girl and I really love your character there. But itâs like⊠so you could play any role. But I think when I hear stereotypical too, that always kind of offends me. Iâm like, âCanât I be the stereotypical black girl? Canât someone else be the stereotypical something else? Like, being yourself?â What makes stereotypes, especially when theyâre negative stereotypes? I find that to be so annoying.
Right.
What made you wanna be an actor?
I didnât have a jump shot. So⊠basketball wasnât gonna work out.
But how come you werenât like, âOkay, I guess Iâll be a rocket scientistâ?
That just sounded boring. Also, when I was a kid, I used to goof off a lot. I was always being entertaining at some point. When I was a kid, I loved sports so much, so I originally wanted to be a sports journalist. I wanted to work for ESPN, talk about sports all day, go to basketball games.
I can totally see you as a sports journalist.
Man, thatâs what I wanted to do. I still do, to a certain extent. But, you know, it just took a turn in high school when I started doing theatre. Playing different characters was just cool to me. It was a different thing. I would challenge myself to be different from everybody else to see how I would play that character, do a certain thing or say a certain word. How do I make this person laugh? So that was, for me, why I kept going. And it seemed to be working, to the point where in high school, I was like, âI know what it is I wanna do with the rest of my life, because I can do it until Iâm dead.â
shirt, GANT / jeans, G-STAR RAW / watch, ROLEX / chains by RENVI / sunglasses, OLIVER PEOPLES
Thatâs amazing perspective. It is such a skill to be an actor and actually look natural. Have you ever felt unnatural or awkward when youâre acting? Whatâs your approach to acting? Do you put the real you into it?
Yeah. I do. Itâs hard to take risks sometimes, because you can become insecure that it wonât work. Itâs like a standup comic. They have to go on stage a ton of times to test out their jokes and make sure they work before they bring it to the big audience. Same with acting. You rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, and you try stuff out.
Cool thing about our show, is that we know each other so well, and we know our characters so well, weâve done 120 episodes or something like that? We know exactly what we need to do and when we wanna take risks, we take risks. If they look crazy, weâll laugh at each other. Thatâs just how it is, thereâs no insecurity there. I filmed this past episode completely naked.
Oh my god.
Yeah. I just covered my junk up. But, other than that, completely naked. And it was freezing outside, they were just laughing at me. But it wasnât like I was embarrassed. This is what I do now. I get paid to goof off, act weird, do silly stuff, so when I have to do it, Iâm not scared about it. I know what the payoff is gonna be.
Exactly. Do you anything else other than acting? Iâm so obsessed with musical theater, pop music, and belting out songs. Do you sing? Do you have any musical abilities?
I do. Like I said, I did some musicals. I was the president of the menâs choir in high school. But I donât necessarily do it that often. I am writing, producing, and starring in something that me and a guy on our show, Jake Johnson, are producing. Itâs a musical-mockumentary.
Oh my god, that sounds amazing.
Yeah, so, we got Common on it. We got a lot of people that are involved. I recorded an entire comedy album already, where itâs R&B, hip-hop⊠but the subject matter is playing opposite of what you would think a rapper would talk about. I impersonate John Legend. When I play the song, people think that John Legendâs on the album. But itâs me impersonating him. So, I do some musical stuff and I have some musical [background]⊠I want to be a musician. But thatâs just a want. Like, I also wanna play in the MBA. But itâs like, it ainât happeninâ.
I should probably ask about Barbershop. Can you talk about that?
Well, me being from the South Side of Chicago made it double as important to do, more than, âOh, itâs a funny movie with a great cast.â Me being from the South Side of Chicago makes it that much more satisfying for me. I auditioned for the first Barbershop, didnât get it in, when I was about seventeen? Eighteen, maybe?
Oh, wow.
Yeah, didnât get in it. But, here itâs part three, and now Iâm in it. Thatâs just⊠the best.
Amazing.
Butâthe subject matter of the movie is whatâs important here. Itâs tackling an issue that has been plaguing Chicago and most places in this country since foreverâgang violence. Like we were talking about earlier, the police not necessarily being there to protect. But, also, weâre not protecting ourselves either by killing each other. The movie hits on that subject matter a lot and impossible solutions are being tossed out and around in the movie, which is great. I think that itâs a very important movie for people to watchânot just because itâs hilarious and our cast is amazingâbut because the subject matter is something that we should all be focused on and pay a lot more attention to. Our kids are genuinely killing each other. Itâs sad. Itâs very, very tragic.
Itâs crazy, youâll see some areas where kids are excelling. We talk about that line as being more blurred. Then itâs like, âHey, I can listen to whatever I want, I know Iâm black and I sound a certain way. It doesnât make me less black because I speak proper English.â While thatâs happening, and itâs becoming more and more accepted that we sound like how we sound likeâhow we are. But at the same time, I feel like while weâre getting smarter on one end, weâre getting much more violent on the other. Itâs almost like things are happening in an extreme level.
Yeah, definitely.
Itâs scary. So the movie follows Ice Cube and his son, and how heâs trying to keep his son out of that element because heâs older now. He runs with a certain crew and Ice Cube has this dilemma. How does he raise his son and be true to his neighborhood as well?
Have you had any âIâve Made Itâ moments? Do people recognize you on the street a lot? Can you talk about how the success has changed you?
I have had a few of those moments, where Iâm like, âWow. This is what I do and this is the life that Iâm living now.â And if I wanna keep it, I gotta be a certain way.
What do you mean, a certain way?
I gotta be more responsible. Itâs easy to just go out and party every dayâbecause you get invited out to parties every single day. Itâs easy to do that and say, âIf I wasnât famous, I wouldnât get invited to these parties. I wouldnât be getting this cool stuff or doing all this cool shit.â But because I am, but because if I went and accepted every single thing like, âYeah Iâll go out to this party, and this partyâŠâ Before you know it, youâre getting no work done. Stuff that got you where you are, youâve kinda forgotten about it. Youâre on cruise control and all you wanna do is party and fuck a bunch of people. [laughs] And if thatâs all you wanna do, thatâs gonna end quickly. You have to adapt to it. I get recognized all the time on the street, which is great, I love fans and stuff when they come up to say hi, they appreciate you, want a photoâthat stuff is cool. Because it wasnât always like that. I used to get that every once in a while when I worked for BET. I used to host back in the day. I was an entertainment reporter kind of comedic host for BET. So people would come up to me all the time and be like, âHey yo! You that funny nigga!â [laughs] And Iâd be like, âThank you, thank you, I appreciate that.â And then when I moved to LA, I went broke. I started living that actorâs lifestyle where youâre couch surfing here and there every once in a while, car gets repo-ed, you donât have food certain daysâliving like that, taking the bus to auditions. One moment hit me when a girl, she says, âOh my god, can I get a picture witâchu?â when I was waiting at the bus stop.
That is amazing!
Yeah! But then the guy she was with goes, âThat ainât him, stupid! Why would he be on the bus?â
Oh my god.
Then she goes, âIâm sorry.â Then she walked away. I was just like, man, that went left so fast.
Thatâs so demoralizing. The guy who said it was an idiot. No one knows anyoneâs true story. There is nothing wrong with public transportation.
Mm hmm. They donât. I could literally go on the bus just because my car broke down.
Or maybe you just like taking the bus! Or maybe youâre practicing for a role. There are so many reasons. I canât stand the idea that money… like thatâs the number one thing. Like you have to have a flashy car and clothes and do this, and this, and this.
You know, thatâs the thing about it though. It is an ignorance. Itâs an ignorance that is scary, but itâs a thing because you donât see it too often outside of the black community.
Yeah.
Will Ferrell can drive a Camry. Everyoneâs like, thatâs fine. But if Baron Davis drives a Prius and thatâs news. Everyoneâs like, âWoah! Baron Davis drives a Prius! But youâre a millionaire!â Well, so is Will Ferrell.
Yeah. I think that is a thing with an inherit value system. That is something Iâve noticed in some parts of the black community too. Youâve gotta be flashy and have diamonds. I donât know if itâs the mediaâlike they just want black people to go brokeâor what. But it feels different for some reason when black people start getting money, they are expected to show it in some way.
I think a lot of it is, when youâre growing up in a black neighborhood, you donât have a lot. Certain black neighborhoods are way below the poverty line. So when you grow up as a kid all you have are aspirations of getting out of there. You know, buying your mom a house, a nice car, so she can feel comfortable. Providing for your family the way you didnât have growing up. So you think about these things. And sometimes with being black, you canât just be good. You have to be great. Thatâs even in the acting business. If youâre not Kevin Hart, nobody gives a shit.
But you know, with that dynamic, you have to be great. Youâre never taught to just be good. It goes back to why I didnât wanna be a doctor or a rocket scientist. Because it wasnât glamorous. When youâre growing up, it wasnât extreme enough. Itâs like you have to be the best. You have to be the funniest, or you have to be this person. Certain households in other communities, they donât necessarily teach that. They teach a different thing. And when you grow up with the money, even in a middle-class home, you grow up well-taken care of. Your aspirations arenât to burst out of that environmentâbecause itâs not a bad environment to be in. And when youâre in a poor environment, you wanna transcend that. So, I think thatâs why thatâs placed on blackheads a lot. You have to have this on, you have to look a certain way. And thereâs a certain pressure when you are that person because you wanna drive a nice car. Yeah, a Hummer definitely feels better than a Honda Civic. But at the same time, both get you from point A to point B at the exact same rate. But. You know you got the money for it, so go and buy the comfortable car, the one that looks good.
I kind of can understand that. Itâs also a generational thing. Americans just have a hard time wrapping their heads around the disproportionate wealth thatâs in the black and white communities. Theyâre just like, âOh! Slavery was like, a thousand years ago. Get over it!â Actuallyâno. It was less than two hundred years ago not even counting the reconstructive years that are still happening today! Thereâs still⊠think about all of the fucking moneyâbillions and trillions and gazillions of dollarsâthat have been and are still kept from black people. And wealth accumulates over time, too. Thereâs a lot of different communities who have been sitting on this wealth and itâs a race that youâre held back from. Maybe that has something to do with it too, youâre breaking out. Itâs your first taste of money. You wanna treat yourself.
Right, right.
Anything else we should talk about?
Yeah! Follow me on Instagram, readers. Stay tuned for my comedy album called, The Lamorning After Pill. I donât know yet, Iâm still planning that release. Itâs pretty much done. I announced it on Conan that I was gonna do itâfor the first timeâand since then, a lot of artists have hit me up to say, âHey, letâs do a song.â So now, I might go back into the studio and add features to it.
Awesome sounds great! Thanks for talking to me!
Take it easy.
*Hangs up the phone, screams, fangirls, watches New Girl on repeat, while googling local listings for The Barbershop 3*
shirt, VALENCIA
