Michael Bivins wanted “Love Jones” and “Menace II Society” star Larenz Tate to play him in a 2017 BET miniseries about his boy band, New Edition.
“Empire” star Bryshere Y. Gray played the singer, but Bivins told Pvnew exclusively of the casting choice at the time, “No I did not pick him, my wife picked him.”
Bivins further recalled, “Who I really wanted to play me was Larenz Tate, and then I wanted [‘Red Tails’ star] Tristan Wilds. But Tristan was booked, and Larenz was booked.”
The miniseries on BET about the ’80s group behind pop hits including “Candy Girl,” “Cool It Now,” “Popcorn Love” and “Mr. Telephone Man,” was called by the New York Times, “a jubilant celebration of a group that was preternaturally talented and rivetingly tortured.”
Members of New Edition also famously included Bobby Brown, Johnny Gill and Ralph Tresvant.
But Bivins, 55, says his wife’s casting choice was right in the end. “My wife thought he was great and it ended up working out in the end,” he said of Gray’s casting.
“I did not see it then, but I see it now,” Bivins says. “I just coached them and had conversations with him, and he ended up being the perfect person for the job. He ended up doing a hell of a job. So I cannot take credit for him. All I did was drill him.”
Bivins — who went on to have more hits with Bell Biv Devoe, and is also a producer — recently premiered his own new film, “The Hustle of @617MikeBiv,” on streaming channel ALLBLK.
Gray starred in the hit series “Empire” from 2015 to 2020.
