Categories: Showbiz

Lamorne Morris Reflected On Playing The Only Black “New Girl” Character

“Even though it’s not personal, sometimes you take it personal,” Lamorne explained. “I’m the one Black character on this show, and they don’t know how to figure out my character.”

Lamorne Morris spoke about his experience playing the only Black lead character on the hit ’10s show New Girl.

Emma Mcintyre / Getty Images

Lamorne played Winston Bishop, who was added to the show after Damon Wayans Jr. — who played Coach in the pilot — couldn’t commit to the show once it was picked up for a full season due to scheduling issues (though his character would later return).

Greg Gayne / Fox / Courtesy: Everett Collection

Lamorne spoke to Entertainment Weekly about relating to Garrett Morris, the first Black SNL comedian who he plays in the new biopic Saturday Night. He explained, “Being in New Girl, I was a new character after the first episode, so a lot of time was spent trying to develop my character and figure out who I was on the fly.”

Variety / Variety via Getty Images

He continued, “Even though it’s not personal, sometimes you take it personal, and you’re like, ‘What the hell, man? I’m the one Black character on this show, and they don’t know how to figure out my character. He ain’t got no job. Is that the storyline now?'”

Ray Mickshaw / Fox / courtesy Everett Collection

“I had a lot of those thoughts, even though now looking back, it wasn’t personal,” he added. “It’s not easy to develop characters for a television series. And so kudos to the writers for figuring it out and really sticking with me because there were days where I felt like I’m going to get fired.”

Ray Mickshaw / Fox / courtesy Everett Collection

Beyond New Girl, Lamorne continued, “A lot of times you work on a project where you are the only Black character, but then you look around, there’s also no Black crew members, so sometimes you’re like, ‘What age are we living in? What is happening over here?'”

Emma Mcintyre / Getty Images

“There’s 100-something people y’all hired, and ain’t nobody Black but me!” He added, “I don’t want to say it’s nefarious. But I am saying I notice it because when you tell a Black joke and you look for somebody to be like, ‘Yeah, I get it,’ but you don’t get that.”

Gilbert Flores / Variety via Getty Images

You can read the full interview here.

Do you have a favorite Winston scene on New Girl? Tell us about it in the comments.

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