Marlon Wayans talks honestly about Black mental health

Marlon Wayans advocates for the necessity for therapy within the Black community and shares how much it has impacted his overall well-being.

The veteran actor and humorist sat down with Hollywood and the mind on September 12 for a day of essential conversations about Black representation and mental health. Reflecting on his 30-year profession, his experiences with grief, the pursuit of joy, and his views on spirituality, Wayans passionately emphasized the importance of therapy in his life and within the Black community at large.

“I have been in therapy and I suggest people continue with it,” Olson told Hollywood & Mind founder Cathy Applefeld. “It’s funny…Black people, we often struggle with our mental health. We laugh about it; we are not taught this. I want to use my platform, my voice, to tell people, my people, that we need this. It helped me.”

Wayans attributed the sadness he experienced after his parents’ death to changing his perspective as an artist and the impact he desires to make on the world.

“Don’t limit your dreams,” he told the audience. “I don’t desire to be divisive in anything I do. This world needs laughter, love and numerous learning and that is why I’m here.

The star also talked about his recent stand-up special on Prime Video, wherein he delves into his struggles with depression following the death of his mother in 2020 and his father three years later.

“My mother’s death shattered me into a million pieces. I was devastated,” Wayans revealed. “When I lost my mother, they couldn’t make alcohol strong enough for me. When my father died, I slowly pulled myself together. When you undergo pain and destruction and then you definitely pick yourself up, you have not lost yourself, you’ve got just found a greater you.

Wayans stars in Jordan Peele’s upcoming psychological horror film, which is scheduled for a September 2025 release. He plays a legendary quarterback who takes a promising young athlete (played by Tyriq Withers) to his isolated compound for training. The comedian considers taking up the lead role in a movie to be a transformative experience.

“In the film I play the greatest quarterback of all time. I went on a journey to learn what it was like to be great, and I realized that by working on this character, I was actually building a better version of myself,” Wayans said. “I jumped into a dark pool to find this character, because in search of characters you go to dark places, and when I was looking for the character of Isaiah, I looked up and saw a broken Marlon lying face down and I thought… forget about it. GOAT,” he said, referring to his character. “This one needs your help. And so finding Isaiah helped me find a better version of Marlon.”