Honey Mag

As a promising young actor dripping with sexiness, we’d say get forward to seeing a lot more of Lance Gross, especially on the big screen. Better known as Calvin on Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, Lance has already won the hearts of many with his humble demeanor and his seemingly wholesome image. He just received his third NAACP award for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series, and now Gross is reaching even more hearts in Our Family Wedding.

Starring opposite to America Ferrera, Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia, Lance plays  Marcus Boyd, a striking piece of man-goodness engaged to Lucia (Ferrrera). The hilariously comical culture clash between their families makes it harder for them to get married than they anticipated.

Honey asks Gross about his budding career, his penchant for tweeting his horoscope and why real-life Our Family Wedding moments aren’t an issue in his engagement to Eva Marcille.

Honey Magazine: So, you studied acting at Howard University. Is that when acting began for you?
Lance Gross: I always knew I wanted to do it. Ever since I was a kid I was always fascinated with how actors could bring characters to life and how actors play different characters. I was always intrigued by Jack Nicholson and Sean Penn and Denzel Washington, people like that, but I grew up as a very shy kid, so I had to break out of that shyness. It really didn’t happen for me until college. So that was definitely when I made the decision that this is something I do want to pursue.

How did college help you break out?
It was just more about me being on my own and me being independent. I was kind of forced to interact with people, so that was an easy way to break me out of it. I went to school on a full track and field scholarship. Going into college, I wanted to major in theater, but my coach told me I would have to pick one of the two, either major in theater or run track [because of conflicting schedules]. Of course I chose to have school paid for and run track, but all through college I felt like I made the wrong choice. That’s when I decided to minor in acting, and then when I graduated I was going to give up track and pursue my dream of acting.

Tyler Perry discovered you in an acting class, right?
Yeah, yeah. I was making a career out of commercials and music videos and I was taking as many classes as I could. And one night I was at the Ivana Chubbuck Studio and Tyler Perry happened to come in to watch the class. He saw me perform and he thought I was talented, and he offered me a job on House of Payne.

What was it like working on the movie, Our Family Wedding?
It was great. It was real exciting and new for me working with an Oscar winner [Forest Whitaker] and America Ferrera and Carlos Mencia. It was just a good opportunity for me, and I actually miss working on the project. That’s how much fun we had together.

Every day was something new. We have tons of memories from that set. I mean, working with people like Charlie Murphy, who kept everybody laughing constantly. I’m sure the blooper reel is going to be amazing because we have so much stuff that didn’t make the movie that was priceless, but it was great working with everybody. I definitely left that production with a lot of friendships.

Is there anything that you’ll take away acting-wise?
Yeah, from Forest Whitaker. I would just sit and watch Forest, even when I wasn’t in the scene. I just soaked up a lot from him; just how he develops his characters. He has a big thing with asking a lot of questions, so when we weren’t shooting, we would meet up with the directors— before production even began—and just talk about the characters, and Forest would ask a ton of questions about any and everything that he could think of about his character. That’s what I took away. Just to ask many questions to get a good idea about what the director expects out of you from this character and then you can put your own input into developing the character.

What was your favorite scene from the movie to shoot?
I have two, one of them being the table conversation when it was just the fellas and we were out having brunch on Sunset. It was me, Taye Diggs, Forest Whitaker and Charlie Murphy. We just had so much fun with that scene because the director just allowed us to play. A lot of the good stuff didn’t even make the film, but that was a fun day, just me and the fellas shooting the breeze.

The second was the dinner scene between both of the families when we announced that we were getting married. We had a lot of fun with that also.

Are you having any Our Family Wedding moments in real life, with Eva Marcille?
[Laughs.] No. It’s pretty easy. Our families get along great. Nobody is arguing and I’m paying for the wedding so that allows us to do what we want to do. We don’t have our family members butting in and telling us how it should be done. So it’s a little easier on us. We’re not having any of that drama.

We notice a lot of young guys in Hollywood want to maintain their bachelor status and image, how is it for you being openly engaged? Did anyone ever deter you?
With guys, you’ll always have guys coming up to you and saying, ‘You sure you want to do this?’ But with me, it’s cool.

I’ve found that person I want to spend forever with and I don’t really have any problems with [wanting to stay] a bachelor. I’m in love and I want to spend the rest of my life with her.

Awwwww! Any details on what you’ll be wearing in the wedding, you being a very fashionable guy and all?
Definitely a Tom Ford tux.

You seem to be an avid Tweeter and you always tweet your horoscope. Why is that?
Well, I don’t know. I think they’re fun. Sometimes they’re on, sometimes they’re off. It’s actually a program that I signed up for so they’ll update it everyday. And I usually read ‘em when the day is over to see if anything was head on. It’s just a fun thing to do.

Any of them ever been freakishly on point?
Oh yea, I’ve had a couple.

Recently you released some twitpics of a documentary-style photo shoot, “My Life Shoot,” with photographer Hannibal Matthews that shows you doing you throughout your day, including some that are rather risqué. How did that come about?
It was actually my idea. Well, my idea and the photographer Hannibal Matthews’. I had shot with him a couple other times, so we were just brainstorming on photo ideas and that’s what we came up with.

And so how often do you get to those Atlanta strip clubs?
[Laughs.] When I first moved to Atlanta, I would go a lot, but that’s when I was single. But now, it’s only when, like, one of my boys is having a birthday party. It’s not a lot.

Will the photo shoot images be available anywhere?
It was more of a personal shoot, but Hannibal liked the pictures so much, and my friends liked the pictures so much, I went ahead and released some of them. But I might release the whole thing. It’s a lot of pictures.

If given the chance, what would be your ideal role to play?
I would love to play Midnight from The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah. If that is ever made into a film, that is the character I would love to play.

Our Family Wedding

-Jan F. Lee