Celebrating ‘Baby Boy’ 10 years laterTyrese Gibson, Taraji P. Henson look back at their very first film
by Wilson Morales
June 29, 2011
With the release of ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon‘ and ‘Larry Crowne‘ this week, there are two actors from those films who have come a long way since they made their film debut together ten years ago in John Singleton‘s coming of age, urban drama, ‘Baby Boy.’
Released by Columbia TriStar Films on June 29, 2001, the film starred two unknown actors named Tyrese Gibson and Taraji P. Henson.
Also included in the film were A.J Johnson, Omar Gooding, Snoop Dogg, Ving Rhames, Angell Conwell, and Oscar winner Mo’Nique.
Jody (Gibson) is a 20-year-old African American in South Central L.A. who is trying to live large but doesn’t have a job. He’s got two babies by two different women and still lives at home with his mother (Johnson). Growing up is tough on Jody, but a series of events involving his mother’s new boyfriend Melvin (Rhames), his girfriend Yvette (Taraji P. Henson) and her ex-con ex-boyfriend Rodney (Snoop Dogg), force him to learn lessons about living, loving and surviving as a man in the hood.
Prior to Baby Boy, Tyrese was a successful singer who also appeared in episodes of ‘Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper,’ ‘Martin,’ and ‘The Parent ‘Hood.’
Since then, both Tyrese and Henson have gone on to bigger roles and accolades. Tyrese would later work with Singleton on two more films, 2003’s ‘2 Fast 2 Furious‘ and 2005’s ‘Four Brothers,’ and star in all three of the ‘Transformers’ films, as well as this year’s ‘Fast Five,’ reprising his role as Roman “Rome” Pearce.
Henson also worked with Singleton on ‘Four Brothers,’ but found more fame that year as Shug in Craig Brewer‘s 2005’s ‘Hustle & Flow.’ With supporting roles in ‘Something New,’ ‘Smokin’ Aces,’ ‘Talk to Me,’ and Tyler Perry’s ‘The Family That Preys,’ none were greater than her role as Queenie in David Fincher’s 2008′ film ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,’ which led to several accolades including an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
The Washington D.C native has since starred in a few notables such as ‘Not Easily Broken,’ the Tyler Perry film ‘I Can Do Bad All By Myself,’ and most recently the Lifetime film, ‘Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story.’
Currently, Tyrese is still in the box office charts with ‘Fast Five’ and ‘Transformers 3,’ as well promoting his New York Times best-selling memoir, ‘How to Get Out of Your Own Way.’
Henson has the upcoming film ‘From The Rough‘ premiering this weekend at the Essence Music Festival; and this Fall, she will do her first regular TV series with the CBS drama, ‘Person of Interest.’
In an interview with Ebony magazine, Henson recalled her experience in working with Tyrese in ‘Baby Boy.’
“What Tyrese and I had was so special because we were both virgins,” she says, remembering their Baby Boy lovemaking scenes. “I had never done nudity, and he had never done nudity; we kind of held each other’s hands and got through it.”
Meanwhile, Tyrese spoke with Blackfilm.com about what he got from John Singleton after working on his first film.
“One of the things that I didn’t appreciate when he first spoke on it was when he said, “Don’t act, react.” Then he said, “There’s more power in silence than in words.” So, when you are doing scenes, try your best to be intuned with what’s going on at that very moment. You’re able to show people what you’re thinking and feeling from them looking at your reaction without using words. If you at ‘Baby Boy’ at that one scene where he went off to kill Snoop Dogg’s character and then I got into bed, and my girl (Henson’s Yvette) looked at me and I looked at her, she pulled me closer to her. She knew what had just happened without me having to say that we killed Rodney. So, there’s a lot of power in silence. I didn’t appreciate it when he dropped that on me back then, but I do now.”
Trailer provided by Video Detective
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