Players Star Damon Wayans Jr.'s One Major Complaint About Sex Scenes In Rom-Coms
Pretty much every romantic comedy has a scene where the two impossibly beautiful leads get hot and heavy — and Damon Wayans Jr., star of Netflix's new original rom-com "Players," says that there's one big thing he'd change about said scenes.
During an interview with Yahoo Entertainment to promote the movie, which also stars "Not Dead Yet" and "Jane the Virgin" actress Gina Rodriguez, Wayans Jr. said that he feels like rom-com sex scenes are way too staged. "I think what I would lose is how good the sex is in all the movies because they're always like rolling off each other, like, 'That was crazy.' ... It's wack a lot of the time," Wayans Jr. said.
The "Happy Endings" veteran went on to tell the outlet that he would rather see "stuff that happens in real life." What Wayans Jr. is specifically talking about here is relatively unclear, and he didn't elaborate in this interview, but he clearly has some sort of idea about what might be more true to life.
Damon Wayans is no stranger to romantic comedies — and he loves the genre
Damon Wayans Jr. also said in the interview that he really loves the romantic comedy genre, which makes sense, considering he's appeared in rom-coms like "How to Be Single" in 2018 and "Love, Guaranteed" in 2020. Sure, romantic comedies can be predictable and rote, but Wayans Jr. said he actually loves that aspect the most.
"I used to not like the idea of knowing how the movie is going to end from the beginning, but after doing this movie, I thought because this was such a fresh take on the rom-com, that I'm OK with [knowing the ending]," Wayans said of "Players," where his character Adam and Gina Rodriguez's character Mack are best friends constantly trying to help each other find hookups and dates.
"I already knew how the movie was going to end by the second scene, even when reading [the script], but the journey is what kind of differentiates it," he concluded. "So I'm cool with that staying the same."
Where have you seen Damon Wayans Jr. before?
If Damon Wayans Jr. looks familiar beyond those romantic comedies, it's probably because he's appeared in a handful of iconic sitcoms. In 2011, he started out as a main cast member of the beloved Fox series "New Girl" alongside Zooey Deschanel, Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield, and Hannah Simone. But after that series was officially picked up, he was already appearing on the ABC cult classic "Happy Endings." Ultimately, Lamorne Morris joined "New Girl" after Wayans Jr.'s character Coach was written off and the actor was free to play Brad on "Happy Endings," which was entering its 2nd season at the time.
"Happy Endings" ended up getting abruptly canceled after its 3rd season, leaving Wayans Jr. free to return to "New Girl," which he did on and off for the rest of its run. Currently, he hosts the game show "Raid the Cage" on CBS — and you can watch him in "Players," which is streaming on Netflix now.