The White Chicks star is set to play the late comic in new biopic Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said?
Wayans admits he is fearful of cinema-goers’ reactions when the film is eventually released in 2011, because Pryor is remembered with such reverence among comedy fans.
And he’s convinced the role will make or break his Hollywood career.
He tells the Los Angeles Times, “This (movie) is like an invitation to climb Mount Kilimanjaro for me, and I’ve never been more excited in my life than when I got the role. I want to prove I can handle a role such as this one.
“He’s huge, there is so much feeling for Richard Pryor. It’s hard to be bigger than Richard Pryor. He changed comedy, and he did it in his own unique way. Richard Pryor meant so much to black people. Bill Cosby was like Martin Luther King but Pryor, he was like Malcolm X.”
Pryor passed away in 2005 at the age of 65.
