By Ken Gibbs

Halle Berry winning the Oscar may have meant that she was supposed to be the number one recipient of all the “black” roles to some, but to their — and her — surprise Gabrielle Union is getting all the work in Hollywood so far this year. The thirty-year-old Nebraska native has taken what originally began as a college modeling internship and transformed it into one of the most promising careers in Hollywood.

In 2003 Union has starred in three films, including Cradle 2 the Grave, Deliver Us From Eva and now Bad Boys II, with Martin Lawrence and Will Smith. In one of this summer’s biggest sequels Union stars as Martin’s onscreen sister Sydney Burnett, an undercover agent aiding the boys in their pursuit of a Cuban drug lord who’s trying to pump the city full of high-potency ecstasy. And although Boys is Union’s second action movie, don’t think she’s straying too far from the buppie black romantic comedies she’s known for (The Brothers, Deliver Us From Eva), because next year you’ll be able to find her and Morris Chestnut on the big screen together again.

Just minutes before Gabrielle made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Africana spoke with her about her struggles, or lack there of as a black actress and how it was to work with Martin Lawrence and Will Smith.

How were you chosen to play Sydney Burnett, the first Bad Girl?
I’d done Deliver Us From Eva with Duane Martin, who is best friends with Will Smith, and Will, I guess, had been asking Dwayne, “Who can I put on?” And Duane was like, “I just worked with this girl Gabrielle, you’ve got to meet her.” Dwayne and I were shooting a poster for Deliver us from Eva and Will was around the corner at the studio and he’s like, “We’re gonna go meet will right now.” So Will and I met and 6 months later, after I met Michael Day, Jerry Bruckheimer and Martin and they all agreed and it was a go.

Could you ever have imagined that you’d be in the sequel when you watched the first Bad Boys film in 1995?
When I saw the first one I was in the dorms in college. A bunch of us went and saw the movie. We were all watching Will in the slow-mo shot where the shirt comes open and it’s like that’s not the Fresh Prince, that guy’s hot! So we were all kind of commenting on his body and stuff, but no way did those girls sitting in the theater think that one of them would ever be working with him. It’s sort of surreal.

So how was the overall experience?
I’ve never had more fun in my life. I mean it was five months of just debauchery on the streets of South Beach, just one good time after another for five months. It was just amazing.

It's been said that it can be exciting, to say the least, to work with Martin Lawrence. How was it for you?
It’s funny, because he really took the big brother thing serious, so he was really very protective of me. He’d always make sure he sent his bodyguards with me, if we were out at a spot. He was really like a big brother.

So you were with two natural comedians and they didn’t crack on you once?
Well, we were shooting the end of the movie, and we’re walking on the sand and my feet got a little ashy. And if anything out of the ordinary happens they will joke on you for the whole day, sixteen hours of the same joke. So Will looked down at my feet and he’s like, “Damn, you look like you been making buttermilk biscuits with your corns.” That’s where it started, and it just went from there. I’d be in the middle of a seen and they’d be like “Assshhanti, Assshhford and Simpson, and assshhen!” It was like five months straight of that.

This is your second action flick, after Cradle 2 the Grave, does it seem like action is the genre for you?
I would just want to have a little more diversity, because with Cradle it was martial arts, which is way different than what’s happening in Bad Boys II. So I just want to switch it up within the action genre, and I still love my romantic comedies. I got one coming right out after Bad Boys II.

And what’s that?
It’s called The Breakup Handbook with Jamie Foxx and Morris Chestnut. It’s basically a lot of different interwoven stories about mistaken identity. Initially, I’m dating Morris’ character, who’s a cousin of Jamie, and then we end up dating and it just becomes this whole mistaken identity thing. It’s a little bit heavier on the romance than on the comedy end. It’s the first time you see Jamie as a romantic lead who gets the girl, and it’s not all about jokes. He really does a great job in this.

Wow, you’re in a lot of films this year. How do you do it?
I’m like a cat — I always end up landing on my feet. But when you throw a cat off a building, even if you throw it on its back, that whole way down that cat thinks it’s going to die and then miraculously it lands on its feet. That’s what I feel like being black in Hollywood. Yes, I eventually will get a job, but it’s not one right after another. It seems like that, because this year I’ve had three movies come out. But it’s a struggle each day to convince somebody that the role could be black or that the role could be a female or that the role could be me. So it’s not like I’m just getting handed things, unfortunately. That would be ideal, but that’s not my reality.


First published: July 21, 2003

About the Author

Ken Gibbs is entertainment editor at Africana.com.
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