Dennis Haysbert's Other Role
Actor Dennis Haysbert, of Waiting To Exhale and Major League fame, stars in a new CBS drama Now and Again, which launches Friday night, Sept. 24.
But he has also taken on another more serious, public role, reports CBS News This Morning Co-Anchor Mark McEwen.
Haysbert didn't hesitate when asked to be national spokesman for the Harlem Health Expo; his sister is an AIDS case manager for HIV positive children. So promoting early testing for the virus is all in the family.
"Let's just destigmatize getting tested," he says. "If you don't know, you can't save yourself. You can't save others."
And on national television Haysbert took the test and encouraged youths to visit the clinic's trailer to get tested as well.
"[The] bottom line is this: If you're untested and you contract this disease and you don't know about it, [you're] going to die," says Haysbert.
While he was confident that his test would come back negative, he says that was not the point. "Someone has to step up to the fore and say, 'Look, this is how easy it is,'" he says.
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