‘Respectfully, Hell No’: Blair Underwood’s Dream Role to Play Marvin Gaye Triggers Debate Over His Complicated Love Life After Ending 27-Year Marriage for Longtime Friend
The complicated paths of love and artistry often intertwine in unexpected ways. For actor Blair Underwood, his recent interest in portraying Motown legend Marvin Gaye comes four years after his own romantic life has taken dramatic, almost parallel turns.
Months after divorcing his wife of nearly 30 years, Underwood quickly got engaged to his best friend of 41 years.
Now, he hopes to channel the brilliance of the “Mercy Mercy Me” singer, whose love life was far more layered and controversial, as well as more complex.
While no biopic is confirmed, the “Set It Off” actor is manifesting the role — even as the public praises their talents and critiques their personal decisions.
“My dream project is to play Marvin Gaye in a movie,” Underwood revealed during his May 19 appearance on “The Today Show” while promoting his new historical fiction book, “Sins of Survivors: A Carter Brothers Novel.”
Adding, “We’re talking to some people,” he said before acknowledging, “And you know, it’s always been a problem with the rights — the musical rights — securing those rights. So, that’s a dance.”
Fans on Lipstick Alley responded with mixed reactions to Underwood’s desire to play the Motown legend.
“Respectfully, hell no,” one person wrote on social media.
Another critic commented, “NO. No ONE is going to see/hear The GOAT (In my daddy’s voice) when they look at him. Don’t know why he is SO desperately trying to be the next Flex Alexander.”
One observed, “I think Marvin story was so complicated it doesn’t need music or even could have an original score. He died fairly young, not sure Blaire can explain that. I don’t know who could play that role. His face was always 2nd to his music.”
A fourth said, “It would be creepy with Blair playing Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, his singing partner, and the actress playing her would be in her early 20s.”
Not everyone disagreed with the casting possibility, as one supportive fan wrote, “This tickled me. Dang I thought Blair would be a great Marvin. Why don’t you think so?”
The skepticism Underwood faces about playing Gaye mirrors the scrutiny both men have encountered in their romantic lives.
Underwood similarly found his personal life under the microscope when he announced his engagement to Hart in 2022, just a year after ending his 27-year marriage to Desiree DaCosta.
BLAIR UNDERWOOD AND WIFE DESIREE BREAK UP AFTER TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS
— TVC Entertainment (@TVCconnect) June 2, 2021
Another day, another celebrity marriage break-up, and this time it is American actor Blair Underwood and his wife of twenty-seven years Desiree DaCosta. #EsplashOnTVC pic.twitter.com/Owu4spxgAI
When Underwood and DaCosta announced their divorce in May 2021, they expressed a shared commitment to co-parenting their children, Blake, Paris, and Brielle.
Best Friend Turned Bride
Underwood’s swift transition to a relationship with longtime friend Josie Hart, whom he’s known for 41 years, drew attention. Still, he maintains that their bond was platonic until after his marriage had officially ended.
“My mother loved and adored her,” Underwood told People magazine about his new wife, whom he met when he was 16. “We lived separate lives on separate coasts. We never saw each other a lot. But when we talked, there’s always such a strong connection of just understanding each other.”
Underwood’s life experiences might uniquely position him to understand the emotional depths that made Gaye’s music so powerfully resonant.
The Washington, D.C., native’s personal life was indeed as complicated as his musical genius.
In a resurfaced rare 1983 interview with Tom Joyner posted on the Classic Motown social media accounts, Gaye candidly expressed his disillusionment with romance, stating, “Love is misery. love is miserable. I think I’ll be a bachelor and I’ll swing. And I won’t fall in love, I’ll just be love-ful, be kind and good and have fun.”
When Joyner simply asked about “marriage,” Gaye replied with a single word: “miserable.”
His romantic entanglements were numerous and often controversial. Gaye was linked to several women in the music industry, including Kim Weston, Mary Wells, and Tammy Terrell, though Wells and Weston denied these relationships.
Tammi Terrell & Marvin’s Bond
Most are familiar with Terrell and Gaye’s story when they began dating in the mid-1960s while working at Motown. The two became known for their duets such as “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” In 1967, during a performance of “Your Precious Love,” Terrell collapsed into Gaye’s arms onstage, leading to a diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor.
By 1969, the “Easy” singer had retired from performing and that same year, she made her last public appearance at the Apollo Theater, joining Gaye onstage for a heartfelt performance of “You’re All I Need to Get By.”
Terrell’s death in 1970 deeply devastated her “All I Need to Get By” collaborator, fueling his struggles with depression and inspiring the emotional depth of his later music. Her loss left a lasting impact on Gaye’s life and artistry. Musically, it inspired some of his most iconic and heartfelt work.
“I had such emotional experiences with Tammi and her subsequent death that I don’t imagine I’ll ever work with a girl again,” said Gaye in a rare 1971 interview published by The Guardian.
Gaye’s first marriage to Anna Gordy (17 years his senior and sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy) produced an adopted son, Marvin Gaye III, though Michael Eric Dyson’s book “Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye” claims the child’s biological mother was actually Anna’s 16-year-old niece Denise Gordy.
Perhaps most controversially, while still married to Anna, Gaye began a relationship with Janice Hunter (Gaye) when she was just 17 and he was 33. He allegedly asked her to drop out of high school, and they later had two children together: daughter Nona Gaye and son Frankie.
Following his divorce from Anna in 1977, Gaye married Hunter, but their relationship reportedly was troubled. His album “Here, My Dear,” explored themes of love, loss, and heartbreak with raw honesty after their separation.
This complexity in Underwood’s personal life could deepen his portrayal of Gaye, whose romantic turmoil shaped his music and image.
Like Gaye, Underwood is balancing public scrutiny with personal growth. Gaye turned heartbreak into art with “Here, My Dear,” recorded amid his divorce from Anna Gordy. Underwood’s own story — now evolving alongside Hart — could bring authenticity to a role that demands emotional depth, as he steps into the shoes of one of music’s most layered legends.
