Just in time for Father’s Day, Taye Diggs is stepping into a new role that might not get him Father of the Year. In his film Stepfather, Diggs stars as Darrell, a man who marries Asia and settles in with her daughters. It seems like the perfect match until Darrell’s dark side begins to emerge. As it turns out, he has a history of getting rid of family members whenever life falls short of his impossible standards. And that’s pretty much all the time.
“It’s a thriller with lots of twists and turns,” Diggs told EBONY exclusively. “He’s a stepfather in search of the perfect family, and you go on that journey with him. I have lots of different personalities, and it was quite the undertaking.”
While we’ve seen Diggs embody men who can be selfish and arrogant—think Harper Stewart in The Best Man, Andre in Brown Sugar, Dr. Sam Bennett on Private Practice, and even Benny in the original Broadway cast of Rent—it’s still a little jarring to see him dragging bodies across the floor in this full-fledged thriller.
“Usually it is [more fun] to play because with the antagonist, the rules are a little more interesting,” Diggs revealed. “A lot of times, the lead role can be kind of boring, but you get to do so much more when you get to tap into a darker side.”
Yup, Diggs went fully psycho for this. “There’s a scene where I’m acting with myself—three or four different personalities—and we’re all talking to each other,” he recalled with a laugh. “That was something else.”
Tamar Braxton, who plays Asia, takes the brunt of Darnell’s wrath, but she handled it like a pro, according to Diggs. “She’s a star, and she’s respected, so you know you were going to get quality,” he shared. “She’s also fun, so there was a lot of magic.”
In IRL, Diggs gets a gold star as the proud father of his teenage son, Walker. “We just got a ping pong table, so he’s been riffing up on me at ping pong,” Diggs joked.
Diggs hopes to spend Father’s Day alongside his son this weekend. “I’m going to try to convince Walker to see a movie,” he said. “I might have to prime him ahead of time.”
If Walker is into jump scares, his dad’s latest project might have to be at the top of the list.
Stepfather premieres June 19 on Tubi.