Damon Wayans - Did Will Smith steal his career?

https://lebeauleblog.com/2014/10/18/what-the-hell-happened-to-damon-wayans/7/

So what the hell happened?

It’s pretty easy to look at Wayans’ film career and call it a train wreck. He never starred in a movie that was popular with critics or audiences. Even at the peak of his popularity on In Living Color, Mo Money was merely a base hit. Most of Wayans’ movies were reviled by critics and flopped at the box office. At this point in the What the Hell Happened series, I don’t think I have written about anyone with a less successful movie career.

Where Wayans has been successful has been on TV. Both on In Living Color and My Wife and Kids. Two successful TV shows is no small accomplishment even if his movie career was a disaster. Some actors just work better on the small screen. It would appear Wayans is one of them.

Also, it probably didn’t help that Wayans picked scripts that Chris Rock compared to anthrax.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Lethalweapon/comments/9lh71i/what_the_hell_happened_to_damon_wayans_lebeaus_le/e77yc6n/

He was decent in this, but I don't know how far he could had gone. Will Smith is charismatic as hell, even in his shittier movies. Damon Wayans is decent in the right part, obnoxious in others.

i'd rather see damon wayans in all will smith movies

Shit I would have liked to seen Damon and Will do a movie together. They would have been hilarious sharing the big screen in their primes.

Interesting question. While I don't entirely agree it is curious to note that the height of Damon Wayans film career which was the early to mid 90s did seem to take a rather abrupt dip during the rapid rise of Will Smith's career which exploded from the mid to late 90s. I think Will Smith's career success has been completely justified but obviously it had to have had an impact on the roles being offered to Wayans as the opportunities for black male leads were already slim enough in general.

I think Wayans deserved a bigger career than he had with some very underrated films such as The Last Boys Scout, Bulletproof, The Great White Hype, & heck even Major Payne was a lot of silly fun. Unfortunately none of his best films ever managed to be bonafide hits so the big offers started to dry up, especially when there was a certified hit maker in Will Smith. Most of Smith's big roles from the 90s definitely could have been potential vehicles for Daman Wayans but Smith's career & acting range has certainly evolved a lot since then.

"All the above roles would likely have gone to Phoenix had he not died

This is stupid. It's impossible to say who would have starred in which movie had ____ not. Baseless comment for one movie, let alone to say one guy's career would outright replace another's.

Wayans career is almost exclusively comedic, but I can see the point you're trying to make. This movie, Bulletproof, and Mo Money are action comedies much like things Smith has done; and Damon was fine in them. I don't think Will "stole" roles away from Damon, I think they simply weren't offered to him. Fresh Prince was taking off while In Living Color was going off the air. But was Wayans good in these action comedy roles? I think so, yeah. I just watched this again last night. I could see this turning into a buddy cop franchise if the original was more successful.

Word is that Damon got some payback, and jumped bones with Jada Pinkett a few times while Will was crouched down, sniffling in the bedroom wardrobe.

Life finds a way to pay back losses and gains.

He was insanely miscast in this.