Dewayne Perkins dishes on ‘The Blackening,’ evil Santa, and how ‘Armageddon’ inspired his gay awakening
SNL star Chris Redd and Fire Island‘s Torian Miller).While with 3Peat, he wrote a sketch inspired by the unfortunate horror movie trope wherein the Black characters always seem to die first—but if all the characters are Black, then how does the slasher decide who to make his first victim?The ingenious premise eventually became the digital short “The Blackening,” which was a viral hit when it dropped online back in 2018 and caught the attention of Girls Trip writer Tracy Oliver and Barbershop director Tim Story, who approached Perkins to turn the concept into a feature film.Cut to five years later, and The Blackening is about to be the horror-comedy of the summer, co-written by and starring Perkins himself.
It’s a full-circle moment for the performer, whose career—which also includes roles on The Upshaws and Saved By The Bell, as well as writing credits on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and his Emmy-nominated work on The Amber Ruffin Show—is only just getting started.Ahead of The Blackening‘s theatrical release on June 16, we invited Perkins to be the latest guest in our rapid-fire Q&A series, Dishin’ It.
