Jaleel White is back on the scene after making a “shitload of money” as Steve Urkel on popular show “Family Matters” as he gets ready to release a new film. Here’s some interesting tidbits from a new interview with Vanity Fair:
Is it true that you were originally cast as Rudy Huxtable on The Cosby Show?
Yep, that’s why the character was named Rudy—it was intended to be a boy. That’s my tragic auditioning story. We were all packed up and ready to go to New York and my agent had told my parents that they needed to start looking for places to live out there. Next thing you know, there was one more audition and that was supposed to be a formality at the network. And a little girl comes walking in, and I’m like—even at eight years old—“Who’s she?” And they’re like, “She’s auditioning for Rudy, too.” So I’m like, “Oh, it’s not as much of a formality as I thought.”
Twelve years ago or so you said about Steve Urkel, “If you ever see me do that character again, take me out and put a bullet in my head and put me out of my misery.” Do you still feel that strongly?
It’s one of those things that it’s very unfortunate how quotes are taken out of context. I remember that interview very vividly. I loved playing those characters; I didn’t play one, I played a lot. If I were Bart Simpson and I were animated, I’d still be on the air right now. Trust me. But the fact is that I was maturing. I knew physically I had made certain sacrifices to keep that property alive that just couldn’t be made anymore. I wasn’t changing my hair; I was staying out of the gym. To be honest, I was retarding my own growth as a man in order to maintain the authenticity to what I thought that character should be.
In later seasons you were getting quite tall.
I was getting network notes on the bulge of my sack! I wore my pants so freaking tight and it was like, after awhile, we got a problem there. So, literally, the last season we loosened up his pants.
How do you respond to a note like that?
It’s not overly sophisticated, man. I’m the highest-paid black kid in the history of television, just so you understand that. I was trying to prolong the checks!
Good to hear a childhood Hollywood star not strung out on drugs or broke, read the rest HERE.
