Darrin Dewitt Henson Talks Beef With Columbus Short

Darrin Dewitt Henson has been in this game for a minute. Though I first noticed him as “Lim” in the Soul Food series, his first love has always been dancing. And it was through this form of expression that he branched into the acting world. Recently, we had the chance to chat with Darrin and get caught up on all of his new projects (He’s a busy man.), talk about his favorite artists to choreograph and of course get to the bottom of the beef between him and Columbus Short.

Tell us about your new movie After

In my words After is a very heartfelt, dynamic film about an American family who goes through hardships of life as well as hardships of loss. Really, the movie is about surviving through life and being able to strive forward although we come up against some challenges that may be either physical, mental or spiritual challenges.

What attracted you to the film?

I actually had a friend who died in 9-11. And when I read the script, I felt like it was such a creative way to tell a story. That’s why it was near and dear to me. I thought that this movie was a way to kind of deal with the loss and in a very, very powerful way, to speak to people of color and show that we’re all human and we’re all going to deal with death and hardships in life. This was a way where I could convey it and it spoke for me and allowed to heal at the same time.

What other projects do you have the works. 

I have a film coming out called Chocolate City which is like the Black Magic Mike. I also have another film coming out called Bad Apple. I’m also in Carl Weber’s Choir DIrector and I play the choir director. Another film which is a Christmas film, so I have about four or five films coming out next year.

What will distinguish Chocolate City from Magic Mike?

First of all, kudos to Magic Mike. Kudos to Channing Tatum for developing that script that would spawn a movie like Chocolate City. It was interesting when the director called and said that he was interested. I was on the fence. I didn’t really know because I’ve never done anything like that before. But I can tell you that it was such a freeing, kind of energetic, synergistic rush being on that stage doing that and being half naked. It was liberating! It was a fun film to do. We had a great time, I choreographed it as well so that was pretty awesome. My character Magnus– he’s like a conscious stripper. It’s so interesting.

So which was your first love, acting or dancing?

Definitely dancing, absolutely 100 percent. And that’s why I still do it. I love dancing. I love choreography. I love movement and I love the expression of the body. That’s what it is, it’s expressing yourself through your body. And I love that, I love being able to do that.

How does dancing help to convey emotions in acting?

Because dancing is emotional. So what I did was, as a dancer, when I turned to acting, I just used the transference of energy. I took that same energy and applied it to my characters. So I’m able to convey these characters emotionally because dance and the feeling of using your body, affords you the opportunity to do that and I knew that a long time ago. Which is why when I made the transition, I was excited about it. And still am excited about it because I’m literally not even half way through my acting career. I would say I’ve done about a quarter of the work I’m going to do as an actor. I’m still new so it’s exciting.

Who were your favorite artists to choreograph?

Michael Jackson, Prince, N’Sync, Jordan Knight. I had a good time working with Britney Spears, definitely J-Lo. Those were the most fun because they were the most challenging. They had the ability and the stronger someone is, the deeper you have to dig. I thought that it was fun that they challenged me.

Read about the testy Twitter exchange with Columbus Short on the next page.

So tell us about this Twitter exchange with Columbus Short?

For me, seeing where Columbus was going a long time ago–Columbus and I had a private meeting. And I was trying to help Columbus before he made all of the choices that he made. And I just tried to mentor him and he just didn’t take the mentorship. He felt like he was above the rim. But really where it came from, was one day I was frustrated.

And I just said what I said on Twitter because I was frustrated and it really didn’t have anything to do with Columbus, it had to do with me. For the last seven years, I’ve walked past people, signed autographs with people, took pictures with people, raised money for organizations–and those same people, for the last seven years were like ‘I HATED you in Stomp The Yard.’ I HATED you.’ And that’s all I heard. But I should have listened with an objective ear that said, ‘You’re a really good actor because I didn’t like you in that movie.’ But for seven years, all I heard was I hated you, I hated you, I hated you. And I think, somehow, that weighs on you as a person because sometimes you don’t know how to separate that. And I had just come from an organization, the M.A. Lee Scholarship Fund, and this lady came up to me and she was like ‘I hated you.’ And I was so tired of it.

And I went on Twitter and said, everybody loves Stomp The Yard the film but for me, it’s a sore thumb, who’s the bad guy now Columbus? And it was probably the wrong thing to say but really, it was kind of like a dig at what a bad guy really does. Because I felt like as society, do you not know the difference between acting and real life? And that’s really what it was about. Really, if I could say something, I would tell people wake up. Because now a days, they don’t separate you from your character. It’s really strange and I think that’s because of reality shows.

I probably started that and it was irresponsible and Columbus being who Columbus is, went off and said certain things. But really, when I stopped it and quieted it, I said ‘I’ll let people think it’s about Stomp The Yard but Columbus you know what it’s really about.’ And really it was just a frustration. Columbus, when we did Stomp The Yard, came up to me and said, ‘Man, you’re the reason I even started dancing.’ Like, that’s the truth, that’s just the fact. You can’t erase my history. I helped create pop culture. That’s a fact. My MTV music award is on my shelf, that’s a fact. But no one loves a person that is beating up on someone else, so I understand why his fans came after me.

But it was interesting how people said, ‘He’s trying to get fifteen minutes of fame.’ At the end of the day, Columbus Short doesn’t even want to be Columbus Short right now. He has more problems than he could ever want to have. It’s just not fun for him. But really, it was wrong for me to do what I did and say what I said. And it was really out of frustration. Because when I post things about positivity and how much money we raised, and how many people came to the gala and how $100,000 was contributed for these people to go to college, nobody tweets that, nobody retweets this stuff. But if you say one negative thing, 20,000 people are retweeting it. It wasn’t a beef because I’m not in competition with Columbus. I’m not in competition with anybody. I’ve never been. I compete with Darrin Dewitt Henson. And I say I’m doing damn good for a guy who came from the Bronx, who had an idea about creating the world’s largest selling dance video and then being on one of the most famous shows for Black people and then later on, being in a film. One of the reasons, I did the film was because I wanted to be in the fraternity with John Travolta, Gregory Hines, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly and that fraternity is dancers and choreographers who became actors. That’s why I did Stomp The Yard. And that was my own goal. So I’ve never been in competition with anybody, I’ve only been inspired by people.

There was something I learned a long time ago, it said ‘Ask more of yourself than anyone could ever ask of you and you’ll always be prepared.’ That’s the kind of stuff I’m into, that’s the kind of agitation that I’m about. When people ask me what kind of books I read, I tell them Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, The Power of One. You talk about these things and you hope that they spread this information because these things helped you. I mean, I’m a guy who came from the Bronx, didn’t have any money. So, when you say millionaire, you would go, ‘Man, you can’t become a millionaire.’ But when I became a millionaire, it didn’t seem so hard anymore. And what I learned was, what makes you important in life is when you become useful to other people. And what I did was, I created brands that helped other people in their lives. And that’s how I made my money, it was a residual effect and then I incorporated and then I opened businesses. These kind of things are infrastructures to me that are important. It’s the how-to. How can I perpetuate growth? And that’s really the voice that I want. That’s the voice that I want people to know and hear about.

Once again, I’ll say it was very irresponsible to continue the so-called beef but it never was really beef at all.

You can purchase After on DVD now. Chocolate City is in post production will come out early next year. In the meantime, you can follow Darrin on Twitter @MrDHen and check out his new dance, web series “The Hotel” on YouTube.