It has been 15 years since “The Best Man,” but the cast is back better than ever for the highly anticipated sequel “Best Man Holiday,” which is now playing. Check out our exclusive interviews with Morris Chestnut, Regina Hall, Monica Calhoun, Terrence Howard, Melissa De Sousa and Harold Perrineau. 

Q:  Melissa, did you need some convincing to come back and do a sequel?

Melissa:  Well, Malcolm bought us a free meal at Boa, a steak meal, an expensive dinner, so that immediately piqued my interest.

Terrence:  And he had some strippers come to the meal.

Q:  Oh! That’s how you were convinced?

Terrence:  So that piqued my interest.

Q:  Back in 1999, Terrence, did you realize that this would be a career-defining role for you?

Terrence:  Yeah. I knew, you know, because I’m like that. I just know stuff all the time. [LAUGHS] No, nobody knows. You walk into it and you know…It’s funny in the first one, me and Harold Perrineau, we had said outside at the rehearsal. We were like, only one of us was going to walk away with this movie. And we were like, may the best man win.

Melissa:  No way! Really?

Terrence:  And so Harold called me after it came out and he was like, “Alright, you got this one.”

Melissa:  You sure did.

Terrence:  And now, but I watched this one and I had to call him and I was like, “Harold, you took this one.” It’s between him and Melissa, for taking it. Harold was incredible, wasn’t he?

Q:  Yes, but I think the entire cast was incredible. Melissa, I loved watching you. I thought you were so fun to watch. Can you tell me about playing this new Shelby? She’s a different Shelby this time around.

Melissa:  Yeah, she’s different. She has grown. I mean it’s been 15 years so you know, there has to be some growth. But she’s still the girl you love to hate….She has new things going on in her life, but I call it Shelby 2.0.

Terrence:  Yeah. A new car, a new house.

Q:  Do you have any holiday traditions you’d like to share?

Melissa:  Just a lot of liquor.

Terrence:  You know, my family’s Jehovah’s Witnesses so we just go and knock on people’s doors because we know everybody’s home this time of the year.

Q:  Any final highlights of reuniting with the entire cast?

Melissa:  It was like “The Little Rascals.” I mean, we’re just a bunch of kids that got together in a whole family. Great times.

Terrence:  There were some good highlights, like when they said, “Wrap! It’s over! You can go home!” That was fun.

Melissa:  We had a great time in Toronto. We really did.

Q:  So Monica, did you need some convincing to come back for this sequel?

Monica:  And hang out with this bunch of knuckleheads? Ohmy gosh! [LAUGHS] No, I don’t need much convincing. I had a great time filming the movie the first time. I’m sure that we could build upon the experience that we had last time. And we did. I will go so far as to say we topped the last experience.

Q:  Morris, how has Lance Sullivan evolved since we’ve last seen him?

Morris:  There’s a lot going on in his life, a lot of things he has to deal with. We have more responsibility. We’ve been married for some time now and now we have four children. So it’s trying to break the Rushing record so he has a lot of things personally and professionally that he’s dealing with.

Q:  Monica, your character has a personal struggle to deal with. Can you tell me about channeling that?

Monica:  My life experience helped me to channel some of the emotions that Mia goes through, and then also the feeling of wanting to reconnect with old friends and reestablish the bonds and catch up. So that’s where a lot of that comes from.

Q:  Morris, can you speak about working with Taye Diggs and you know, bro-ing out again onset?

Morris:  [LAUGHS] Bro-ing out! I like that. It was great to work with all the fellows again as well as the ladies. But for all of us to come together, it was like riding a bike, you know, we had the chemistry the first time, we have the chemistry this time. We just really genuinely like each other, so that helps.

Q:  What was your favorite moment to film this time around?

Monica:  There’s a few of them…the massage…And also the table scenes, the dinner scenes.

Q:  You had to, I hear, bulk up a little bit and get back into shape. Can you tell me about the physical process for you to become this pro player?

Morris:  Yeah. Malcolm wanted me to really get down and be convincing as an athlete. So I had to diet and cardio. A lot of dieting, a lot of cardio.

Q:  Are you a big sports fan in general?

Morris:  Yeah, I’m a huge sports fan. That’s all I do is watch sports.

Q:  And what’s your favorite football team?

Morris:  The Philadelphia Eagles.

Q:  And tell me, each of you, what can fans expect from “The Best Man Holiday”?

Monica:  A lot of laughs.

Morris:  A lot of laughs in this one, also a lot of emotion in this one, hopefully just an overall good movie with characters that they can relate to and storylines that they can relate to.

Q:  Tell me, where are your characters this time around in “Best Man Holiday”?

Harold:  So 15 years later, Murch is in a much better place, Julian Murch, in a much better place than it was in the first film. He’s married, finally married the love of his life. Look at her…and they have two beautiful children and they are educators now and he’s sort of living the dream.

Regina:  She’s happily married. She has a new career that she’s had the opportunity to build with her husband. And they’re in Brooklyn and they’re great. Their life has come full circle and she’s in a really happy place as a mom and as a wife.

Q:  And so you both become educators, giving back to the community. Can you tell me a little bit about a teacher or mentor who was important to you?

Regina:  Well, you know what? Because we’re talking about acting, I would say the acting coach that probably impacted me the most is Barbara Marchant who was my teacher. And also, ironically, unbeknownst to us at the time, Harold’s teacher…She’s an amazing teacher and so much of who I am, her voice, like it resonates in my head constantly still.

Harold:  Oh yeah. She asked me once when we were studying, “What’s your process?” And I go, “Oh, sometimes I think about like Denzel would do it or how Laurence Fishburne would do it, then I try to figure it out.” She goes, “Oh, that’s interesting! How would you do it?” It was the most profound question that anyone ever asked me. It changed who I was as an actor.

Q:  You have a really fun catfight scene. Can you tell me about that?

Regina:  It’s fun to watch. Well, we wanted to do the fight ourselves and it was really interesting. We did it and it goes so fast. It makes you think about how fast a fight goes in real life. But you know, we had to go there, so you work from a lot of different angles when you’re creating a moment that’s going to make you angry enough to fight.

Q:  Your character does one thing to get from point A to point B. I want to know, are there any funny, funky jobs you worked in Hollywood before you made it as an actress?

Regina:  Oh gosh, I had a million jobs. I cleaned the dental instruments after cleanings and stuff. I was also a waitress…I taught reading in the Projects.

Q: Any plans to return to TV?

Harold:  Well, that’s a really big question. I have a couple of things that I’m tied to. They may happen or they may not. I don’t know. Sometimes it’s tricky.