And a lesson in this movie is dig beneath the surface. And so with my words, with my character, I purposely created a character that was away from how you've known me thus far in my career.
Baseball player. Yeah, that was my dream before acting, or alongside acting.
But because I could throw so hard when I got to college they made me a pitcher.
But I got drafted out of high school, and my mother wasn't having it. She was like, you're not about to think that you can just play ball, because if you get hurt, you're going to be out of luck.
But there are still good shows like 24, Boomtown and the Wire, the Shield.
Denzel has been that leading man, but it took him a while to get to Training Day and Hurricane Carter.
Hopefully when you see the movie, Maybe you don't have the Orlando in your life, but you know that guy. He goes to church. He's down the street. He's one of the boys at the schoolyard. They exist.
I admire Brad Pitt, honestly, just because of how he started and the obstacles he had to overcome to have the career that he's had.
I could run, but I was throwing 93 mph coming out of high school.
I did a play years ago called Fabric of a Man, and it was first taste of live stage.
I got country music in me.
I got rock in me.
I hosted Soul train but I listen to everything.
I lived out of the country for the first six years in my life and when I came to the country - my mother's from Brighton, Massachusetts.
I loved running. I can catch everything in the outfield. I could throw people out from the fence.
I think because people are passing - people that we are aware of are passing at - I don't say a great pace, but it seems like people are dropping, and I think it's just making - there's a consciousness and there's sensitivity to it.
I'm a drama guy.
If I had done it - if I had to it all over again, I would have stuck to playing in the outfield.
It was truly a lesson in don't take something at face value. You know, so many of us do in life. Whether it's because of how somebody looks or because of what they're wearing or what have you, you kind of assess a person in the first five minutes before they even speak.
Let a woman have her place, because as you provide foundation for her, she provides a foundation for you. And through that vulnerability comes strength.
Morris Chestnut helped me learn that. In Brothers he said, Stay away from the funny man. Because for every joke you have, they've got a hundred more.
Orlando's a part of me. The next guy's a part of me. And the next guy's a part of me. That's all I'm trying to do, is tell cool stories that people can relate to.
Television is in a different time because of reality television, so it's not as exciting.
That was my thing: you get to play everyday, you get dirty every day. Pitching you can only play every four days. You got to sit there and watch.
That's because I didn't have to work with Madea. I only had to work with Madea once, and that was at the barbecue and I didn't have to get close to her.
Well, you can't compete with a six foot five man in a wig.
You know, I don't play the race card a lot. I'm half-black, half-white, and I'm proud of - my skin is brown. The world sees me as a black man, but my mother didn't raise me as a black man. She didn't raise me as a white guy.
You know, Tyler Perry - my mother will watch the movie and she'll say, that's my baby. That's my baby. That's the baby I raised.
The best thing in life is doing things people say you can't do.
Shemar is an avid biker.
Shemar was drafted to play baseball by Baltimore and Boston.
His uncle played semipro for the Red Sox.
His mother only spoke Dutch to him as a child.
He majored in communications at Santa Clara University.
Shemar attended and graduated from Santa Clara University.
Shemar has black hair.
He currently plays Special Agent Derek Morgan on Criminal Minds.
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