White Chicks star Terry Crews has revealed the 2004 comedy was laborious to film for its leading men Shawn and Marlon Wayans due to their whiteface makeup.
The Wayans brothers starred as two disgraced FBI agents who go undercover as a pair of white women while protecting them from a kidnap plot during a weekend in the Hamptons.
Crews, 57, the former NFL player who appeared in the film as oversexed basketball player Latrell Spencer, said that although the film is still popular 21 years after its release, people “don’t understand” how hard it was to make.
The star explained how Shawn and Marlon suffered through five hours of makeup application and five hours of removal each day to get them into character as socialites Brittany and Tiffany.
Crews said the brothers, who were also producers on the project, would be on set for 10 or 11 hours of filming that didn’t involve them – all while in full costume – and push back their own call times.
“They would get three hours sleep and then wake back up in this horrible makeup,” Crews told Nicole Byer on Jimmy Kimmel Live! as she covered for the show’s usual host on Wednesday night (13 August).
“I remember seeing Shawn and he was like, ‘I don’t think I can do this anymore.’ I watched them crack up. He’s pulling his pantyhoes out of his butt and he’s like, ‘This is just too hard.’”
The film’s director, Shawn and Marlon’s brother Keenen Wayans, had some choice words for the stars in that moment: “[He] walks over and goes, ‘Hey brother, you thought of this. This was your idea.’”
Crews, who is also known for starring in Brooklyn Nine-Nine and hosting America’s Got Talent, added: “It was a tremendous effort. But look at what it is now.”
White Chicks was released to negative reviews in 2004, but became a box office hit after making £113m (£81.9m) from a $37m (£26.8m) budget.
“It changed my life,” Crews said. “Twenty years ago we made this movie. To see what it has become year after year. Every summer a new 13-year-old discovers White Chicks.
“I go to the mall and these kids run up to me. They could be my grandkids.”
