Shawn & Marlon Wayans: change sex and race in new comedy: 'White Chicks'

Jet, June 28, 2004

In White Chicks, a bizarre and new comedic take on men pretending to be women, Shawn and Marlon Wayans are FBI agents who end up dressing as White socialites and learn numerous valuable lessons about women and life.

In the movie, the two are brothers Kevin and Marcus Copeland, struggling FBI agents who have screwed up most of their previous assignments. When a plot to kidnap high-society girls Brittany and Tiffany Wilson (Maitland Ward and Anne Dudek) is uncovered, their rivals Vincent Gomez (Eddie Velez) and Jake Harper (Lochlyn Munro) get the plum assignment.

Kevin and Marcus end up with the thankless task of escorting the spoiled brats to New York's chic resort--the Hamptons. When Tiffany's dog causes an accident, a fight results, and both women end up with sores and cuts. Those minor injuries are tantamount to disfigurement to these women. Rather than risk being on the cover of Hamptons Magazine not looking their best, the two refuse to go.

Fearing they'd be fired for failing to complete their assignment, Kevin comes up with the idea that calls for Marcus and him to go undercover as that pair of demanding divas. He hopes that in the process he and his brother snag the kidnappers and restore their reputations. The two real sisters stay in a swank New York hotel while Kevin and Marcus, with the help of a make-up genius, play the sister act with hilarious results.

Brother Keenen Ivory Wayans, who directed the movie, pointed out that it was Shawn's idea. "We were sitting around reading magazines and one of them had a story about Hampton socialites," he said. "Shawn was reading the interview and laughing. 'Marlon and I should play girls like these,' he said. I thought it was a brilliant idea. Now, it's not a movie about anyone specifically, but about that world of seeing and being seen. I knew if we did it, it would be hysterical. But, I wanted to be sure that they looked convincing. That was the real challenge."

Ultimately, Keenen Wayans said: "After living as females and being around them, the two guys become better men."

The first major test for Kevin and Marcus is when they deal with the friends of the sisters, who are immediately suspicious about their having gotten taller and having fuller lips. Luckily, the girls chalk it up to collagen.

The guys discover a world of petty insecurities, grudges and competition. And it's a world where sex is a very valuable tool.

It's not just the Long Island crowd that comes under scrutiny. The Copeland brothers aren't the most wholesome, either. Kevin is single and meanders from one sexual encounter to another, even though he wants to be as happily married as his brother is. At least he assumes his brother is happily married. Marcus's marriage, however, is anything but wholesome. His wife calls him on the cell phone incessantly to satisfy her need for attention.

"Marcus is just a guy who works hard," Marlon Wayans said of his character. "He loves his wife, Gina (Faune Chambers), but doesn't understand her mind. There is a communication gap between them."

Shawn described Kevin as "a really good guy. He's a guy who's looking for love and he's not comfortable with his financial situation. He doesn't feel he has the right goods to attract the kind of girl he wants. So, he pretends to be something he is not in order to get the girl that he wants."

Shawn and Marlon had to survive a grueling five-hour daily ordeal of prosthetic makeup application for the roles.

"It was so miserable for them having to wear makeup, hair, women's clothes and walking in those shoes," Keenen says with a laugh. "It was eight weeks of PMS and cat fights. But it paid off because they are really funny."

Ultimately, that brief entry into womanhood is very educational. Marcus comes to understand his wife much, much better. "I become a more sensitive man because I begin to understand what she goes through every day to please me," Marlon says. "I develop a newfound respect for my wife because of my journey of being a woman. And it helps my marriage."

Kevin learned valuable lessons as well. "All along he pretends to be something he's not in order to get Denise (Rochelle Aytes), and what he discovers is that she doesn't want that kind of man at all, but rather the guy he really is. By being a woman and being around women, he comes to understand their feelings and their emotions and it opens him up to an entirely new perspective.