Lamorne Morris Reveals Career Changing Advice He Got From BJ Novak and Chadwick Boseman

Actor Lamorne Morris, best known for his role in New Girl recently revealed career impacting advice he got from actor/director BJ Novak and actor Chadwick Boseman.

He recounted an instance of randomly having dinner with Novak, musician John Mayer and comedian Jeff Ross. “I remember I met BJ Novak once in my life. I think one time,” Morris said on the Life is Short with Justin Long podcast.

“[Novak] kept staring,” he continued. “We were at a dinner. It was a random dinner. [And ] it was one of those things where I got invited by some New Girl producers. It was myself, it was Jeff Ross, BJ Novak, and John Mayer. And John was doing comedy. And so they wanted us to sit with him and just listen to some of his stuff. I don’t know, I was late to the dinner. So I got there and they were just throwing jokes back and forth. And I was like, ‘What is going on at this table?'”

You have 30 seconds to make someone laugh

Morris wanted to seize the opportunity to glean some knowledge and advice from an established actor like Novak. In fact, Novak remembered that Morris was in a commercial for Twix candy bars.

“And I just remember BJ going, ‘Dude, I love that Twix commercial you did,'” Morris said. “I was like, ‘Thank you, man.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m just trying to graduate out of that. And just TV is a new thing for me.’ And were having a conversation about it and he goes, ‘If you can make somebody laugh in 30 seconds in a Twix commercial, that’s great, man. You can do it on TV.’ And that, for some reason, gave me more confidence to keep doing it.”

Morris became so well known for his role in the ad, people began to simply refer to him as the “Twix dude.”

“Even till this day, sometimes when I go out people go, ‘Hey, you’re the Twix dude.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, you know I had a TV show for seven years as well, right?’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, I’ve never seen it, but the Twix commercial, that was fantastic.’ So I constantly get recognized for some ads that I’ve done,” Morris told The Chicago Tribune.

Chadwick Boseman became a ‘distant big brother’

During his discussion with Long, Morris opened up about the bond he formed with Boseman. “So I went to the test for New Girl because that was the show I really wanted was New Girl,” he shared. “And so I went through the test and then, this is a quick sidebar, during that time, I didn’t know anything about TV or the business. I didn’t know what the first position was or second position was. So I was clueless and a buddy of mine, he had just finished a show, Chad Boseman. So Chadwick Boseman came by my buddy’s apartment while he helped me read lines.”

Morris added that Boseman became a mentor and a big brother to him too. “It’s one of those things where he was kind of like a distant big brother and a mentor where he would coach me on certain things,” Morris said. “Like at auditions. I auditioned for Selma, for example. And he came by the house and coached me like aggressively coached me on it. The guy is intense. I’m talking an intense actor.”

“And I like to do bits and I like to joke around and I was kind of doing a bit out of a scene and he stopped me and goes, ‘Hey, brother, in this film, it’s an hour and a half, two hours long. And the story of the march on Selma was a significant story in American history. I don’t think they’ll have room for jokes in this scene,'” he shared.

“He helped me get a roommate when I was broke in L.A,” Morris added. “He’s always kind of in the distance.”