All my friends from my past would know me as Scott Diggs.
But then all that died down and as far as casting was concerned it didn't really matter that I had been on Broadway.
Hollywood only lets a few of us in at a time only because audiences may not be ready to accept Black people as leading actors.
Honestly, when people ask me these questions it just tickles me because I wasn't like this in high school. I mean it was me, but I was thinner and nerdier, and didn't have as much confidence.
I jump at any chance to go back into theater.
I keep all my clothes on in House on Haunted Hill, Mary Jane's Last Dance, and The Way of the Gun.
I really take pride in being able to say that I would have gotten that part whether or not Stella had ever existed because that's the kind of cat Doug Liman is.
I would love for film to go back to those days where you had to be able to do everything just to get by.
I'm always up for going back to the stage.
In the forties, fifties, and sixties they were good singers, good actors, and good dancers. That's the school that I come from.
It has been refreshing that the last four roles that I've done have not been so blatantly sexual with me being put on some imaginary pedestal.
It's a trip but it hasn't crossed over to the point where women are throwing their panties at me.
Like I went out to a predominantly black club last night and nobody said anything and I was wishing somebody would so that someone would dance with me.
Not one role that I've played has been written specifically for me.
On the set I never know what day of the week it is.
So I don't know that I'm ready to add all that stress, but I definitely love to sing and if it were easy then I'd do it.
Taye Diggs comes from Scott-taye. When I went to college I liked it because it was so different and I have an infatuation with nicknames.
The large ensemble cast and the fact that it was being shot in New York, combined with a lot of strong positive images as far as African Americans are concerned, really turned me on to The Best Man.
The more people who see it, the more money you make. And the more money you make, the bigger a box office draw you are.
The Wood was about young people and the other one is more of a grown up movie.
There's no white person I know that can say that they haven't been through what any of these Black characters are going through.
Whenever I do acting for film there's always a certain amount of altering I have to do to my style because it's so different.
You just don't see the same type of all-purpose entertainers nowadays.
You see someone who sings and you need to know whether or not they are going to have the mass appeal when they cross over.
Taye has appeared on stage with his wife, Idina Menzel, in Rent, The Wild Party, and Wicked.
Taye won the role of Winston Shakespeare in How Stella Got Her Groove Back, even though the producers were looking for a tall black man with dreadlocks.
Taye had several scenes cut from the "Rent" movie. In one he pays for Angel's funeral and admits that he knew Angel killed Evita. In another one, he has lunch with Roger and says that he knows that Mimi has always loved Roger.
When Taye found out he got a role in "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" he ran around the Rent rehearsal space naked.
After graduating from Rochester's School of the Arts before, he enrolled in Syracuse University, majoring in musical theater.
Taye married Idina Menzel on January 11, 2003. They met in the original Broadway show of Rent (she played Maureen, he played Benny) in 1996 and they also were in the Rent movie together in 2005.
In the movie Rent, Taye performed in Seasons of Love, Rent, You'll See, La Vie Boheme, I'll Cover You: Reprise, and Goodbye Love.
Taye won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award in 2000 as Favorite Supporting Actor for his work in "House on Haunted Hill".
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