Marlon Wayans Was Threatened With a Lawsuit for ‘Character Defecation’ in Response to His ‘Scary Movie’ Character

When actor Marlon Wayans wrote his Scary Movie character, Shorty Meeks, he had a specific person in mind. And as the comedian recently revealed, after the 2000 movie came out, that person threatened him with a lawsuit for a hilarious reason.

Marlon Wayans’ character in ‘Scary Movie’ was based on a friend

Scary Movie is a 2000 slasher parody written by Marlon Wayans and his older brother Shawn Wayans. The film follows a group of people who accidentally kill a man and end up getting murdered one by one a year later. Marlon plays Shorty, a high school student who is almost always stoned on weed and isn’t the sharpest of the bunch. 

In a recent chat with GQ, Marlon revealed he based his Scary Movie character on someone he knew. And he said that friend confronted him and threatened him with a lawsuit after the movie came out. 

“Shorty was based on a friend of mine who was a weedhead named Shorty,” Marlon Wayans explained. “He was mad at me. He didn’t see Scary Movie, so he thought I did him dirty. He was like, ‘Son, I’m suing you for character defecation.’ I said, ‘You mean defamation,’ and he said, ‘Nah, son, defecation because you s****ed on me. I saw Requiem for a Dream.'” 

As it turns out, Marlon’s friend thought the actor based the character in Requiem for a Dream on him. ” I said, ‘I didn’t do you in Requiem for a Dream; I did you in Scary Movie,’” he recalled telling Shorty. “Then he wound up seeing Scary Movie and goes, ‘N*****, my bad. That s*** was hilarious. I should win a Grammy for that.’” 

Marlon Wayans improvised many of his scenes in ‘Scary Movie’ 

The character of Shorty was based on his friend, but while writing the screenplay, Marlon Wayans didn’t flesh out much of his dialogue. In his GQ interview, the actor revealed he worked with his director brother Keenen Ivory Wayans and improvised many of his scenes. 

“I won weedhead of the year two times, I think, for Shorty,” Marlon Wayans said. “Then Shorty was funny because when we wrote the original Scary Movie, we didn’t really have anything written for Shorty. 

“So I’d get to set, and Keenan would go, ‘OK, what’s Shorty going to do today?’ So a lot of those scenes we did off-the-cuff.”

The actor reveals why he didn’t change Shorty much for the sequel

Marlon Wayans reprised his role as Shorty for the 2001 sequel, Scary Movie 2. And he explained why the character remained largely the same for the second film, aside from his hairstyle. 

“His Afro grew. [But] I think [he’s the] same character, different situation,” Wayans told GQ.

“You know he’s always going to be the weedhead’s perspective of what would happen from a high person’s perspective.”