Donald Faison of Turk from ‘Scrubs’ fame spoke to The MUSE about his friendship with Zach Braff, the future of ‘Scrubs’ and his new movie, ‘Next Day Air,’ which hits theaters May 8th.’
The Muse: Donald, what’s the environment like on the set of ‘Scrubs’? Is it much as much fun as it looks?
Donald Faison: Yeah, we’re a great group of people. We’re going to be friends ’til death for sure. It’s a great place to work.
MUSE: What are you planning to do now that the show is over?
DF: We’ll see. I’m hoping to stay in TV and movies. It’s really cool to have ‘Next Day Air’ coming three days after ‘Scrubs’ has its finale.
MUSE: How do you feel about the end of ‘Scrubs’? Do you think the series has come to a good conclusion or does it feel like it’s too open-ended?
DF: We actually don’t know if this is going to be the end of ‘Scrubs.’ I think I can say that now. I’ll put it out there. There’s been a lot of rumors on the internet and there’s been a lot of rumors down at ABC that there’s a possibility that the show will come back again. If it does, that’s great. If it doesn’t, we finish the show the way we wanted to finish the show. Everybody gets to say their goodbye and everybody gets to wrap up their story.
MUSE: Who is your favorite person that you’ve worked with?
DF: Denzel Washington, just because it’s Denzel Washington, you know what I mean? He’s the best. Growing up, I loved him. My parents loved him. Working with him was amazing.’
MUSE: So Denzel over Zach Braff?
DF: Well Zach Braff is my best friend, so I can’t sit here and say that I pick Denzel over Zach. But as far as accomplishments for me, Denzel over Zach Braff for sure.
MUSE: How does your real-life relationship with Zach compare to your friendship on ‘Scrubs’?
DF: It’s the same relationship. The crazy thing is that now we’re not working together every day and we’re off living our own lives. It’s weird.
MUSE: So what made you want to take a role in ‘Next Day Air’?
DF: It was really good to get to work with Wood Harris again. Wood Harris told me about the movie. He said he was doing it and that there was a part in it for me. After reading the script, I really connected with it.
MUSE: What’s the difference between doing a movie and a TV show?
DF: It’s always cool to play a character that, after the shoot, you’ll never play again…That’s the real difference.
MUSE: You play a criminal in the movie, which isn’t typical for you. What’d you do to get into character?
DF: I went and stole a bunch of stuff and started smoking a crap-load of weed to make sure I was in character…I’m just playing…I think everybody has someone in their family that’s some sort of criminal. You can act like you don’t, but the jail houses prove that you do. I don’t think it’s that difficult to play somebody a little edgier. Well, it’s definitely not hard to play somebody edgier than Turk or Murray from ‘Clueless.’
MUSE: What’s your favorite scene from the movie and why?
DF: I loved the scene that I did with Mos Def. I really respect him for a lot of reasons. I mean, he’s a great actor, for one thing. Two, he’s an amazing rapper. Three, he’s an activist. Four, he’s a poet. The list just goes on with this guy, so I really enjoyed the scene I shot with him very much. Go out and see the film. It’s a blast. You’ll enjoy yourself…and there’s a really unexpected twist.
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