The best movies are those that end up having a profound emotional impact on the audience… but this can have some notable consequences: if the emotional impact is too profound, what you have is a great movie that can really only ever be stomached a single time. In the modern era, Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem For A Dream is a title that stands out in this specific category – and it’s not just the film-going public that can’t watch it more than once. That’s also the opinion shared by Marlon Wayans, who plays one of the principal roles in the feature’s ensemble.
This October (specifically on October 6) will mark the 25th anniversary of Requiem For A Dream first arriving in theaters, and given this milestone event, I felt it proper to bring up the film when I had the chance to sit down with Wayans during the recent Los Angeles press day for his new horror movie HIM. As captured in the video above (where he is paired with co-star Tyriq Withers), he explained that he is very proud of the work he did on Requiem, but the experience making it left him with the feeling of needing to take a shower, and he has no intention of ever seeing the finished work ever again. Said the actor,
I seen it one time and I was in it. I've never seen that movie again. Because it was like a P.S.A. I just felt so... I don't know. I felt dirty after I did the movie. I just felt like I need to call my mama. I need to never do drugs again. It changed my life, and I only seen that movie one time, but it was a great movie.
Like Marlon Wayans, I too have only ever seen Requiem For A Dream once (it was in college, and it left me depressed for a full week), but I won’t soon forget his role. He plays Tyrone, the best friend of Jared Leto’s Harry and both a heroin dealer and user. They have aspirations to get clean and live decent lives, but the mix of addiction and criminality ultimately ruins ever chance they have at happiness. Tyrone’s miserable fate is a prison sentence where he suffers withdrawal and extreme abuse.
One can argue that it’s not even the worst outcome for any of the characters (that “prize” goes to Ellen Burstyn’s Sara, who sees a pill addiction drive her to psychosis and hospitalization), but you can understand why that’s not a cinematic experience that Marlon Wayans is excited to repeatedly revisit, right?
Of course, part of what makes Requiem For A Dream such a standout title in Marlon Wayans’ career is the fact that it’s a deviation from his work in comedy – which is what he is best known for. The Darren Aronofsky film shares that in common with HIM, which is a psychedelic nightmare set in the world of professional football, and Wayans personally made that connection during my interview. That being said, he doesn’t see his latest movie as being that same kind of “one time only” feature. He continued:
This one I can watch over and over again because I feel like it's a perfect length, and at the end... although it has similarities of Requiem: you start out with these characters, you go on this ride and they have all these hopes and these dreams and then goes crashing down. And just when you're about to hit the ground – in Requiem, it went through the ground and straight to hell. This one got closer to the ground, and then made a twist and found back up to the light. And you go off the ride and you're like, 'Oh my God, let's do that again.'
Also starring Julia Fox, Tim Heidecker, and Jim Jeffries in addition to the aforementioned Marlon Wayans and Tyriq Withers, HIM is now playing in theaters everywhere, having placed second at the box office during its opening weekend.
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