Wayanses Go Loopy For 'Little Man'

It was a merry morning on the plaza Thursday, when The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith took his interview with Shawn and Marlon Wayans outside.

The brothers were there mainly to talk about their new movie, "Little Man," but somehow ended up giving Harry fashion tips and voicing their opinion of Bobby Flay's cooking segment, which involved grilling hamburgers.

"Now I want to tell you something," Marlon said, in full performance mode. " Y'all need -- you got barbecue over there? You got to get some hot sauce over there. Y'all doing it wrong. You got to do it ghetto style."

Chimed in Shawn, "And I didn't see that dude wash his hands when he made them patties."

"That's flavor! That's flavor!" exclaimed Marlon.

Shawn's retort: "That ain't the type of flavor I want."

Leave it to Harry to jump at the possibility of more Wayans-style entertainment. He immediately asked Shawn and Marlon, "When you come back, will you come back and do a food segment?"

And Shawn and Marlon promptly agreed to do just that, if "Little Man" makes $120 million at the box office. (They say it cost about $60 million to make the film.)

The movie is such a stew of situations that there's a good chance the brothers will be cooking something up on The Early Show somewhere down the road.

Marlon plays Calvin, a little person who also happens to be a jewel thief (with a partner played by Tracy Morgan). During a botched heist, he slips a diamond into a woman's purse. The woman (named Vanessa, played by Kerry Washington) is married to a man named Darryl, played by Shawn.

In order to get into the house to get the loot back, Calvin pretends to be an abandoned baby, left on Darryl and Vanessa's doorstep.

"Not a cute baby, but a baby. Ugly little thing. I was never a cute baby," Marlon explained.

"What are you talking about? Shut up!" bantered his brother.

"There's pictures of Shawn and everybody holding Shawn," Marlon said. "When I was little, it was just me in a crib. That's all."

"Wrong show! Wrong show!" chided Shawn. "Don't go crying on TV. Save it for Oprah."

So how did they make Marlon look 2 1/2 feet tall?

"They digitally took my head and put it on … another person's body," explained Marlon. "It wasn't no nip and tuck… They didn't, like, cut me in half. No surgery."

Added Shawn, "There was a little actor named Linden Porco who played Marlon's body double, So I did all the scenes with him and, in post(production), we added Marlon's head."

Shawn and Marlon not only star in "Little Man" but (in typical Wayans fashion) they also wrote and helped produce the movie. Their brother, Keenen Ivory Wayans, directed it.

It has been more than ten years since Shawn and Marlon debuted on TV in the series "The Wayans Brothers," and since then, they have scored on the big screen with movies like "Scary Movie" and "White Chicks."

Did it ever occur to the brothers, back in the '90s when they were first starting out, that they might someday be powerful enough to make movies and call their own shots?

"We always dreamt of it. We always hoped for it," Shawn replied.

"More than that," added Marlon, "we always worked toward it. And … we're going to keep working and doing what we love, which is making people laugh."

And keep having fun doing it," concluded Shawn.

In passing, Harry complimented Marlon's hat, and the brothers started suggesting other "styling" ideas – not only the hat but an ice grill (dental work involving encrusted jewels, gold and diamonds attached to the teeth) and a diamond in his ear.

"You think I could do it? I'm there!" said Harry.