It’s been close to 18 years since the release of “Love Jones,” but if you were to go by Larenz Tate’s social media mentions, you’d think it was just released yesterday.
“Darius Lovehall! Yeah, Darius Lovehall! Let me tell you, this is going to be a plug right now for all of my social media @LarenzTate. I’m really starting to get into this social media thing,” Larenz told MadameNoire in an exclusive interview. “I gotta say, there has not been one day since I’ve been on social media that someone hasn’t mentioned ‘Love Jones.’”
Larenz went on to say that he’s a little shocked by all of the attention “Love Jones” still receives.
“When I say, not one day has gone by. I’m thinking, ‘It’s a movie. Really?’ I’ve done a lot of work. There’s ‘Dead Presidents,’ ‘Menace,’ ‘Crash,’ ‘Why Do Fools Fall In Love?’ No, hands down, ‘Love Jones’ is the one that gets a mention every day. Hands down, there’s no comparison. The audiences love that movie.”
Though he’s gearing up for the premiere of his new USA series, “Rush” as well as for the premiere of his new BET movie, “Gun Hill,” both of which debut next month, the seasoned actor says that giving fans a “Love Jones” sequel has become a priority on his list, as well as his co-star Nia Long’s.
“We’ve been talking a long time,” Larenz excitedly explained. “Nia and I, I’ve been trying to figure out, do we do the sequel? Is there a way to do a sequel? Is there a way to do a continuation? Or is there a way to do a part two?We’ve been creating all kinds of scenarios. It’s still very much so at the top of our conversations. It has become a priority. We have to address this. What are we going to do because the audiences in that time, not only do they celebrate the movie, they want to see what happened.”
Of course, being the mastermind behind the follow-up to such an iconic film is no easy feat.
“It’s really tough to figure out how you catch lightening in a bottle twice. The movie was such a success. Maybe not when it first came out, but over the years, it’s become such a cult classic. It’s become such a groundbreaking movie for our generation and now the next generation is picking it up. They’re into the whole poetry thing and the whole notion that African-Americans, black folk, people of color are smart and don’t have to deal with all of the so-called stereotypes.”
“No one got hurt,” Larenz continued. “The only thing that was hurt in that movie was someone’s heart and that was something that was very special. Those elements and those underlying themes are what keep people wanting more because Hollywood stopped making those films. Hollywood got into a whole bunch of other stuff that wasn’t rich in culture and rich in story like ‘Love Jones.’ There’s a need for it. There’s a void and that’s one of the real reasons why we’re considering doing a part two. We really are talking about it because they don’t make those types of movies anymore. So why not go back to what worked?”
The amazing on-screen chemistry that Larenz shares with Nia Long also appears to have served as an incentive to make the sequel happen.
“Nia and I, when we work together, we work!”
The two appeared briefly together on Don Cheadle’s “House Of Lies” recently and plenty folks were expecting Love Jones-esque make-out scenes, but fans were left a bit disappointed.
“We didn’t really work together, we were just on the same series at the time. And everyone thought we would, you know, hook up. But it wasn’t my show, it was Don Cheadle’s show so he hooked up with Nia!” he joked. “But we was like, ‘That’s fine! We wanna wait for our scene anyway! That don’t even matter!’”
Sooo are you here for this “Love Jones” sequel?
They saw how well The Best Man Holiday did at the box office last year. Whole bunch black actors gon have they hands out for
