Omarion and Marques Houston
Original airdate October 31, 2007

Omarion and Marques Houston are longtime friends whose careers have been quite similar. Omarion's multi-layered career includes singing, television and film. Once the lead singer of R&B boy band B2K, he launched a solo music career in '04. Houston was frontman for the trio Immature/IMx. He recorded his first solo CD in '03 and starred in his own UPN sitcom. The two combined forces in a production company, Franchise Boys, and star in the upcoming horror film, Somebody Help Me.

Tavis: In 2004, singers Omarion and Marques Houston teamed up with director Chris Stokes on the film project "You Got Served." The movie cost less than $10 million to make, but grossed more than $50 million. So needless to say, Hollywood paid attention. They're back together again this holiday, this Halloween, in fact, for a new horror film called "Somebody Help Me." The film opened earlier today in select cities. It'll be available on DVD November 13th. That's a quick turnaround; we'll talk about that in a moment. Here now, a scene from "Somebody Help Me."

[Clip]

Tavis: Whoa. (Screaming, laughter)

Omarion Grandberry: Whoa.

Marques Houston: Act on, get the act on.

Grandberry: Whoa.

Tavis: O, how you living, man?

Grandberry: Oh, man, great, man.

Tavis: Good to see you. Marques, how are you?

Houston: I'm great, man.

Tavis: Good to see you both.

Houston: Wait, wait, before you go any further, you know we brought you a gift.

Grandberry: Oh, yeah, we had to go ahead and hit you with it.

Tavis: It's just coming out now.

Houston: Bang, hit you with it. November 13th, it will be in the stores.

Grandberry: There it is.

Houston: DVD, man, everybody (unintelligible) right there.

Tavis: You got that? You got that?

Houston: Everybody, go get this movie, man.

Tavis: Is this a new thing? The movie, like, comes out today, and the DVD drops, like, a few weeks from now. Is that, like, a new thing, putting DVD's out that close to a movie?

Houston: Definitely, man. The DVD business is -

Grandberry: It's great.

Houston: It's just magnifying by a hundred right now. We put it out in select theaters and select cities and everything like that, and it's coming straight to DVD as quick as possible, so.

Tavis: You guys are considerably younger than I am. Like, what's the attraction to your generation to get stuff on DVD this quickly? Back in the day, movies would come out, you'd see it on TV, then on cable, and then years later, they get around to DVD. This is a - I'm blown away by this turnaround.

Houston: It's business. Business is advancing, the entertainment business, and the movie industry and everything is advancing so fast. And you know, normally they'll put DVD's out just straight to DVD or they'll put it in the movies and it'll go to DVD, but we did something different, Chris Stokes, and he wanted to do something different with this because of our fan base and everything, and the fan base of "You Got Served." We have a really solid following, so we wanted to just put it in limited theaters and just turn it into DVD as quick as possible.

Tavis: So what made, Omarion, what made "You Got Served" work so well? I mentioned the numbers earlier - less than $10 million to make.

Grandberry: Well, it's over $100 million.

Houston: Oh, we at $200 million.

Tavis: Oh, was I wrong about that?

Houston: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (Laughter)

Tavis: You see that brother right there named Chris? You can cuss him out for that. What made it work so well?

Grandberry: I think because of the element of dance. After that film, a string of dance films came out and it just really, really sparked a whole new thing for the industry, being that it was so successful and we only did it for a little. But honestly, the dance thing has always been big; there's just never really been anyone to capture it the right way and do it the right way, and Chris Stokes actually did that, yeah.

Houston: I think one of the most exciting things about the movie is because we come up watching Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson, the videos that we've done, like the dance videos that we've done, you've seen the Missy videos and all that, but incorporating that and mixing it in with the BBoy and the whole - it was a whole world, like this underground world of dance, and nobody had any idea about it. Nobody even expected the movie to do so well. So I think it was that, mixing in the dance that you've seen in our videos of B2K, (unintelligible) B2K (unintelligible) videos and Missy videos, stuff like that, the old Michael Jackson. Like that dance mix with the BBoy and mixed with the breaking and all that.

Grandberry: Something new.

Houston: And mixing it all together, it was something different, something fresh.

Tavis: Tell me about the relationship with you and Chris. Obviously, there's something there, and any good director finds talent, if it clicks, you come back to it again. Spike Lee and others have done that many, many times. What's up with you and Stokes?

Houston: I think Stokes, he really knows us as artists, as individuals. He's both of our manager, and he's been there from day one for both of our careers. So I think he really - he has an eye for it, man. He has a great keen and sense for directing, and he has a great eye for it. And I think working with him is - even though we're all personal, like, workers and we're all friend and everything, and still, like, when he's on that set, man, he's just -

Tavis: Busy.

Houston: You know what I'm saying? He's a hard director, you know what I'm saying? Sometimes he's hard to work with, because he's, like, I need this, I need no mistakes, and this and that.

Grandberry: Right, right.

Houston: So I think he just gets it, and we get him, and it's a family. Like me and him, our chemistry is great on screen together all the time.

Tavis: You're from - somebody is from Inglewood.

Grandberry: Inglewood.

Tavis: That's what I thought, Omarion.

Grandberry: Yeah, yeah.

Tavis: Born in Inglewood, and went to school here.

Grandberry: I actually went to Hamilton High School.

Tavis: Yeah, (unintelligible).

Grandberry: There it is.

Houston: Uh oh.

Grandberry: No, it's a lot of (unintelligible).

Houston: Yeah, (unintelligible). (Crosstalk)

Tavis: And the two of you actually hooked up when?

Houston: We've known each other since (unintelligible).

Grandberry: Since I was, like, five.

Tavis: Yeah, that young.

Houston: Yeah, four or five years old.

Tavis: So you've been like brothers your whole life.

Grandberry: Yeah, pretty much.

Houston: Our whole life.

Tavis: When did you guys figure out, though, that you weren't just brothers and you just didn't like each other and enjoy hanging out, but there was a connection on the talent level that you guys could do this kind of stuff together?

Houston: Well I think I came into the industry first, and, like, I always saw Omarion's one of them kids that just was talented soon as he was born, you know what I'm saying? You have those, like, special kids where they come out the womb -

Tavis: Singing and dancing.

Houston: Omarion came out dancing, you know what I'm saying? In the hospital room. (Laughter) So I think it was always something that - a spark that was in him. It was only a matter of time before he was able to get out there and do his thing, and just looking at his whole career, I'm definitely proud, as a big brother, you know what I'm saying, of everything that he's done and accomplished for his career. But I think it was immediate, that immediate connection (unintelligible) -

Grandberry: It was like a meant to be, kind of.

Houston: Yeah.

Tavis: So what's it about Marques' talent, then, Omarion, that you connected to?

Grandberry: Well really, I've always kind of wanted a big brother, being that I was the oldest. And that's such a really, really hard job sometimes, you know what I'm saying?

Tavis: The eldest of how many kids?

Grandberry: About seven.

Tavis: Seven, yeah.

Grandberry: Yeah, so it's always hard to have to set the example and know you've got to do things for this brother and that brother. And I've always kind of wanted somebody to cater to me in that way, and because we've known each other for so long, he actually just ironically filled that position, and I've been able to share just my thoughts and creatively with where I want to be in my music and everything. He's just - that's my brother.

Tavis: And tell me about the project itself, "Somebody Help Me."

Houston: Well, "Somebody Help Me" stars, of course, Omarion and myself, Brooklyn Sudano, Alexis Fields, a great cast. It's about the four of us, we take - well, me and Omarion, we take our girlfriends up to the woods, up to Lake Arrowhead -

Grandberry: (Unintelligible.)

Houston: - to do our little weekend trip. It's my girlfriend's birthday, so Omarion's character, Darryl, he wants to originally go to Vegas, and I'm the one that's like no, we want to go to the cabin, fresh air, let's go to the wild.

Grandberry: I told him we should have went to Vegas.

Houston: Let's go to the wild, it's going to be fun. His uncle actually owns a cabin where we're staying, so it's all set up.

Grandberry: I hooked that up.

Houston: And then we invites some of our friends (laughter) to come to the cabin. Now when we get there, we throw the little birthday party. It's only, like, what, like, eight of us, nine or 10?

Grandberry: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Houston: Something like that.

Grandberry: Had a little drinky-drink.

Houston: So get a little drink, get a little drunk, (laughter) then we get to wilding out. The next morning, four of them are missing, or something like that.

Grandberry: Yeah.

Houston: And then we have to figure out why. And then one by one, everybody starts missing, and we have to figure out - try to put the puzzle together and figure out why they're missing, where they're at, and then we have this little girl, which is played by Brittany Oaks, her name is Daisy, that kind of helps us with the whole - not giving too much away, but it's real suspenseful. You have the suspense of, like, the Freddys and the Jasons, you have that whole element mixed with, like, the soft and the guts and the gore of the (unintelligible) the movie's, like, hostile and stuff like that. So you have a mixture of both of those, like, the action and the running and the chasing, with the cutting and -

Grandberry: But I will tell you this.

Houston: - gross stuff.

Grandberry: The Black people don't die first. Hey.

Houston: Hey.

Tavis: (Laughter) That means one of two things - I know better than that, because I see a little White girl on there. I was going to say one, that means it's either an all-Black cast, or it's a real short movie. If the Black folk don't die first.

Houston: It's not an all-Black cast, but -

Tavis: Yeah, I'm just teasing.

Houston: - we got a great mixture of cast, and we didn't die first, of course. But who knows if we die? That's why you got to go November 13th.

Grandberry: And that's why you got to go November 13th.

Houston: And you got to watch that DVD.

Tavis: Without having even seen it, I knew that the two of you didn't die first, (laughter) and there's a simple reason for that. When you make over 100, $150 million movie, you can't die that early in the script.

Houston: That's right, that's right.

Tavis: But this is our ticket, right here.

Grandberry: Yeah, that's (unintelligible).

Tavis: These two Negroes (laughter) are going to have to survive. At least we get almost to the end (unintelligible). So that's just common sense right there. So tomorrow night on this program, Anthony Hopkins is on.

Houston: Anthony Hopkins.

Tavis: Hannibal Lecter (unintelligible) here tomorrow night. I raise that only because today's Halloween, obviously, so what, for you - we were having a conversation with the guys on the crew a moment ago before we started talking about who's the scariest fright movie actor.

Houston: I would say between him and Jack Nicholson in "The Shining."

Tavis: Oh, yeah.

Houston: He's pretty scary in that. (Laughter)

Tavis: See, and Nicholson did not make our list when we were talking earlier.

Houston: Yeah, yeah.

Tavis: Not bad, Marques.

Grandberry: Yeah, that was good.

Houston: Yeah, I think Jack Nicholson was a real good villain, too, but Hannibal, you can't go wrong.

Grandberry: Yeah.

Houston: Movies like that help movies like this, you know what I'm saying? (Laughter) So definitely, definitely.

Tavis: I'm sure Hopkins is glad he could help out.

Houston: Exactly. Thank you, Mr. Hopkins.

Tavis: Yeah, I'm sure he appreciates that. All right, so Omarion, what's next for you after this project?

Grandberry: Well actually, me and Bow Wow are gearing up for an album. The album is titled "Face Off," it's coming out December 11th, and -

Tavis: "Face Off," doing stuff together, or two different projects during the same -

Grandberry: No, we have an album. Four albums, one through 13 together.

Tavis: Doing the tracks together?

Grandberry: Yes.

Tavis: Wow.

Grandberry: Yeah. So it should be pretty interesting. Me and Bow have been great friends for a long time, and we just finally decided to do an album together.

Tavis: Yeah, interesting. Marques?

Houston: Well, my album is out currently right now, the veteran album's in stores right now, I have a new single called "Always and Forever," we're getting ready to prepare to shoot a video, and just keeping it pushing. We actually have another project, another film project coming up, another dance movie. It's not "You Got Served II," but it's going to be better than "You Got Served," man. We're trying to shut the whole (unintelligible).

Tavis: It's going to be hard (unintelligible). (Crosstalk) That's hard to do, man.

Houston: Chris Stokes is the director, and he wrote this one again. That same team, we got Ciara, we got Terence Howard, it's going to be amazing. Morgan Creek-Universal.

Grandberry: Oh, yeah.

Houston: It's going to be the end of all dancing.

Grandberry: Dance. That's what the point is.

Houston: We started it, and we're going to end it.

Grandberry: Oh, yeah.

Houston: That's how it's happening.

Grandberry: There it is.

Tavis: I respect Chris, but I got to figure out a way to bump this Negro off. (Laughter) He's making a whole lot of cheddar with Omarion and Marques. Every project they do, Chris Stokes, Chris Stokes, Chris Stokes.

Houston: Yes, sir.

Grandberry: Yeah.

Tavis: All right, man, well, Chris is behind this one. It's called "Somebody Help Me."

Grandberry: Yeah, that's right.

Tavis: Premiered in select cities earlier tonight, November the 13th?

Grandberry: Yes.

Houston: November the 13th, DVD, go get it.

Tavis: November 13th, DVD out - got mine already - out everywhere. Omarion Grandberry.

Grandberry: Yeah.

Tavis: Marques Houston.

Houston: Yes.

Tavis: Nice to see you both.

Grandberry: Thank you.

Houston: Yes, sir.

Tavis: Glad to have you here, appreciate you both, man.

Houston: All right.

Tavis: Stay strong, man. That's our show for tonight.

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