Longtime actor, Idris Elba surprised fans a few years ago when he revealed he hadn’t seen the Black classic film “Brown Sugar.”
But the “Luther” star had an explanation for why he’d been avoiding it. In a resurfaced clip from a 2017 interview, Elba told Angie Martinez, “When I first started [acting], I auditioned for Brown Sugar. Boris Kodjoe got that role.”
The movie tells the story of two adult best friends who connected at a really early age over the birth of hip-hop. They continued to stay close, but when they each got into their own respective relationships, they could not seem to ignore the romantic feelings they had for each other. Boris Kodjoe plays the role of Kelby Dawson, an NBA player who proposes to the character Syd Shaw, played by Sanaa Lathan.
Taye Diggs is Lathan’s lead co-star, who plays her best friend Dre Ellis. Ironically, Diggs’ character marries the Reese Ellis character, played by Nicole Ari Parker, who in real life is married to Kodjoe.
Martinez was taken aback because, as it turns out, she was in the 2005 film as well. After asking him to clarify if it was a “true story” that Elba was telling her, she asked, “You know who else was in ‘Brown Sugar’?”
Elba responded, “Sanaa Lathan.” Martinez gave him another chance to get the correct answer. She asked, “do you know who else?” Elba finally got caught on and answered, “You.”
“I was in ‘Brown Sugar,’” Martinez confirmed before saying, “What are you talking about? I was in the radio station.” But Elba revealed that it wasn’t that he missed Martinez’s cameo in the movie, it was that he just hasn’t seen it yet.
“I didn’t even watch it I was so salty.”
Fans in the comments section underneath the re-post debated whether Elba would have played Kelby Dawson better than Kodjoe. One person said, “I would’ve been here for it…although I think Boris captured the characters corniness very well,” and a second person wrote, “I can’t see him on that role.”
Others suggested that it would not have been believable for Lathan’s character to leave her fiancé for Diggs had the role been played by Elba.
“Sanaa would have never left you if you played that character. The whole storyline would have had to change,” wrote a third fan. And a fourth sarcastically asked, “Who’s leaving Idris for Taye?”
