Mary Ellen Matthews for Variety This interview is part of Variety and CNN’s Actors on Actors series. Watch the full video interview now at CNN.com/Watch (or on the CNN app) and on Variety’s YouTube channel starting at 11:59 pm ET.
Tracy Morgan, the comedy veteran beloved for his work on “Saturday Night Live” and “30 Rock,” has returned to the spotlight with the Tina Fey-produced NBC sitcom “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins.” It’s been 12 years since Morgan nearly lost his life in a six-vehicle car crash, and, at 57, he instantly assumes the role of loving, zany mentor upon meeting 28-year-old Marcello Hernández, who recently wrapped his fourth season of “SNL” and released his debut stand-up special, “American Boy,” on Netflix. In a no-holds-barred conversation, the two swap stories about Studio 8H, and Morgan counsels Hernández on his gut health and the number of children he should father.
Mary Ellen Matthews for Variety Tracy Morgan: I like you already, man. You regular. No extra cheese, no pepperoni. Just a slice and a Coke. Let me ask you something. What was your audition like?
Marcello Hernández: Man, I was freaking out. I was calling my mom. She had quit cigarettes for so many years, and she started smoking when I got the audition because she was so freaked out. Did you come in with confidence?
Morgan: It was nerve-racking, but I knew what I had to do. I was on “Def Jam” before. I was on “Martin.” And then Barry Katz got me an audition, and I wasn’t going to do it. And then my wife said, “You know who was on ‘Saturday Night Live’? Eddie Murphy.”
Hernández: I want to ask you about your “Def Jam” set. Do you remember the joke about living next to a Puerto Rican family? Bro, that killed me. I’ve never heard anybody bring up garlic, paprika, adobo [in a comedy set].
Morgan: I was the voice for a whole generation. Nobody was saying, “my baby mother.” Latinos are here, and they not going nowhere.
Hernández: [Looking into the camera] Amen. Print it. Headline. Say it again, Tracy.
Morgan: [Looking into the camera] Latinos is here. They not going nowhere.
Hernández: [Repeats Morgan’s point in Spanish] Pa ningún lao. No vamos pa partes. Por si acaso.
Morgan: Whatever he just said.
Hernández: And when I heard you in that Def Jam —
Morgan: Did it inspire you?
Hernández: Bro, of course. When you sang —
[They both sing the chorus of “El Africano” by Wilfrido Vargas.]
Hernández: That was playing in my house [growing up].
Morgan: My wife is Dominican.
Hernández: I know! I met her earlier. We spoke Spanish.
Morgan: I was so happy when you got on the show. I was there many years before you, but if I was with you, it would’ve been me and you. You are basically me on the show.
Mary Ellen Matthews for Variety Hernández: I think about that a lot. The people that I look up to in comedy, I wish we were in school together. You got in trouble in school? I talked too much. They told me I did mischief.
Morgan: You know who gave you that voice? They couldn’t control that because God gave that to you.
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