*In the scheme of life, going against the grain is sometimes better than going with the expected. Sean Patrick Thomas is living proof that turning left instead of right can put you on the road to a classic destination with a memorable role and a trilogy of paths toward the hearts of movie fans.
The role: Jimmy James, the educated, arrogant barber turned activist Thomas portrayed in the classic film “Barbershop” and its two sequels, “Barbershop 2: Back in Business” and “Barbershop: The Next Cut.”
Although the success of “Barbershop” proved Thomas chose the right route, things could’ve been much different. The actor was coming off the success of his biggest film at that time (the 2001 teen dance feature “Save the Last Dance”) and had momentum on his side going into his next project. Thomas headlined the Paramount Pictures movie, which centered around an interracial relationship between his character, Derek Reynolds and Sara Johnson, played by Julia Stiles. As he considered his follow-up to “Save the Last Dance,” Thomas keenly remembered those who told him to pass on Jimmy, while voicing their distaste for “Barbershop” before it arrived in theaters.
‘I think it’s more than that’
“I remember before I did the film, I had a lot of people tell me, ‘don’t do that movie’ because it was the first movie I did after ‘Save the Last Dance,’ which was very successful,” Thomas told EURweb, noting how “Barbershop” was described as “basically just ‘Friday’ in a barbershop” by those early critics. Despite the slanted opinions, the Delaware native saw something different about the Tim Story-helmed comedy, which ultimately struck a nerve with critics and movie fans in a good way.
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“I thought, ‘You know what? I think it’s more than that.’ And so 20 years later, it’s very gratifying to know that I was right, that it was a lot more than that and I’m very proud of it,” Thomas said, reflecting on efforts to create a quality production with “Barbershop.” “Once I met with [“Barbershop” producers] Bob [Teitel] and George [Tillman Jr.] and Tim Story, the director, I never had any doubts about any of it. They were very serious about doing good work and that’s all I needed to see. Once I saw that, I never had any doubts about anything. I just felt like I’m just going to commit to this character.”
For Thomas and his castmates, part of that commitment meant learning to cut hair, a skill Story made sure the entire “Barbershop” cast knew prior to filming a single scene.
“What was genius about what Tim did before we shot the movie, we all went to barber school, all of us, the whole cast. I think we spent two or three days, somewhere near [Story’s alma mater] USC, in a barber school. We all took barbering class together from real barbers,” Thomas explained, adding the move “served two purposes.” “On one hand, it got us more accustomed to just the basics of how to hold the clippers and how to cut hair. And also, we got used to being around each other while we were doing that. And then once we got on set, there were barber consultants there. We just kind of had, sometimes we had fake guards on the things so that we didn’t really shave people’s hair off and stuff like that. But we were all very comfortable with the equipment by the time we got on set.”
Although it’s been a while, Thomas confessed he still has “a little bit” of his barbering skills. Those skills came in handy when the pandemic first ran amok, with many barbershops being unavailable for those in need of a haircut.
“During the shutdown for Covid, all the barbershops were closed. And so I had to bust out a few of my rusty barbering skills to cut my own hair for about a year. So that’s what I did” Thomas said. “I don’t, by any means, claim to be good at it. But I was able to at least make myself groomed and presentable during the pandemic with the skills I learned from that movie.“
Released on September 13, 2002, “Barbershop” starred Ice Cube as Calvin Palmer Jr., the owner of a struggling Chicago-based barbershop. Much to his dismay, Calvin inherits the shop after the death of his father. Seeing the barbershop as a burden, Calvin harbors thoughts of selling the longstanding community fixture to the local loan shark, Lester Wallace (Keith David).
Lester’s plan for the barbershop? Turn it into a gentlemen’s club, where the girls are dressed up as barbers and “they’ll give you a trim and you can get some trim.”
Armed with positive reviews and word of mouth, moviegoers sided with Thomas in seeing something different in “Barbershop.” The 102-minute Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) movie was a certified hit, collecting $75 million worldwide at the box office. From there, the “Barbershop” universe was born, spawning a pair of follow-ups (2004’s “Barbershop 2” and “2016’s “The Next Cut”), a spin-off (2005’s “Beauty Shop”) and a small-screen expansion of the franchise (Showtime’s “Barbershop: The Series,” also released in 2005).
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the arrival of “Barbershop” in theaters. To this day, the film resonates with movie lovers who caught it on the big screen and, like new fans of the franchise, plug into it still with frequent showings on various television networks.
Along with Calvin, his wife Jennifer (Jazsmin Lewis), and Jimmy, “Barbershop” introduced the unapologetically old-school Eddie Walker (Cedric the Entertainer), the take-no-crap apple juice protector Terri Jones (Eve), formerly incarcerated tough guy with a heart Ricky Nash (Michael Ealy), naïve Nigerian romantic Dinka (Leonard Earl Howze) and Isaac Rosenberg (Troy Garity), the barbershop’s only white barber who was hungry to showcase his barbering skills on a willing customer. Completing the all-star roster were Anthony Anderson, Deon Cole, DeRay Davis, Lahmard Tate and Tom Wright.
With such an ensemble, “Barbershop” took Thomas back to his days doing theater in front of a live audience. As director, Story further enhanced the setting with the cast’s comfort and togetherness amongst themselves.
“Tim did a great job at the time of getting the cast together and getting us used to being around each other before we even got on set,” Thomas mentioned. “It was very similar to like a play rehearsal, which is what I was accustomed to, coming from the theater. Just the seriousness that they took it with and the camaraderie and chemistry, we were able to build before we even went to Chicago to shoot.”
The World According to Jimmy
With any film, a script is the foundation, with an overall plot outlining characters and their individual stories. As the one who brought Jimmy to life, the “Barbershop” script was the blueprint for Thomas to put his stamp on the character to leave a memorable impression on film viewers.
For Jimmy, the “Barbershop” trilogy was a journey of sorts, as his view of himself and his activism underwent a makeover. The spark for the change was lit in the first “Barbershop” film, from Jimmy’s rivalry with fellow barber Isaac Rosenburg. Isaac’s demeanor and way of life drew Jimmy’s constant criticism, with the aspiring activist accusing Isaac of trying to be “black.” Jimmy’s dislike of Isaac, plus an attitude where he acted like he was above his co-workers, made a case for Jimmy being a real jerk.
While this turned off Jimmy’s fellow barbers and theatergoers in general, those same movie fans ultimately had a change of heart for Jimmy after Isaac called the young cutmaster out for who he really is during a heated confrontation. In another scene, Ricky checks Jimmy while discussing reparations for black people for slavery. Overall, Jimmy’s air of superiority begged for someone to take him down a peg or two.
“My whole feeling about the character was that he always had a sense of himself, that this was just a stepping stone to greatness beyond cutting hair. He’s just cutting hair to get himself in school,” Thomas shared while discussing his approach to playing Jimmy. “He doesn’t see that as his future or anything that has any real relevance to who he is as a person and who he’s going to be. But he’s also very, very, very attached to his community and attached to his blackness and attached to a sense of a mission as a black man in Chicago and in this world.
“I think that what’s great about this character in the film is that he kind of learns to merge his sense of purpose beyond the barbershop with his sense of black righteousness. And to me, what that does is that it humbles him,” continued the “Till” star. “He learns that, ‘You know what? I have this mission as this black man outside of the barbershop, but my education as a black man is happening in this barbershop.’ And I think at the end of the first movie, he really just gets grounded in that and stops thinking of himself as something above and beyond the barbershop and as somebody that’s actually being nurtured and fed by the barbershop and those relationships.”
From the clarity received in the first “Barbershop,” Jimmy’s journey continued in “Barbershop 2: Back in Business,” with the character’s activism highlighted. The second chapter found Jimmy pursuing a more active role in bettering his community with leaving Calvin’s barbershop to work for local alderman, Lalowe Brown (Robert Wisdom). Unfortunately, Jimmy sees a different side of the alderman, realizing it’s better for him to forge his own path as an activist instead of aligning with a politician who is only in it for selfish means, with the community running second.
“Barbershop: The Next Cut,” doesn’t go deeper into Jimmy’s journey, but the character’s activism and love for the community are part of who he is, just like Calvin and his barbers as the group hatches a plan to hold a 48-hour ceasefire to combat gun violence in their community.
Co-Star Appreciation, Lessons Learned
Looking back at “Barbershop,” Thomas reminisced over lessons learned beyond how to properly hold a set of clippers, courtesy of a comedy legend.
***Spoiler Alert*** The lessons came with a lot of laughs.
“Being in the room with Cedric the Entertainer was just incredible because I had never really worked to that extent for that amount of time, you know, with such a seasoned, brilliant comedian,” Thomas expressed. “Just to see the speed with which he can come up with different little jokes and different lines and different little ideas. He just had so many rapid-fire ideas and every single one of them was brilliant.
“He had me laughing all day, every day. I had never really been around anybody on a movie set that had that much inventiveness and creativity and it just never stopped, all day, every day,” the actor added. “I remember that very vividly and just with everybody in the main core cast, we all just got along very well. There was not a whole lot of egos going on. There was not a whole lot of drama or tension. I remember always coming in to work ready to laugh and that’s what we did because I remember laughing more than anything else.”
In addition to the laughs, Thomas discovered through Cedric the value of being unchained to what’s written in a script, “a huge lesson” the “Reasonable Doubt” star was very grateful to have received.
“Obviously sure, he’s the first person that I would think of, just in terms of like, ‘You know what? You can’t make any mistakes. Just try anything. Try everything. There’s no such thing as a mistake. We’re here to be creative and just see what happens and be organic,” said Thomas. “That was a huge lesson I learned from Cedric. Don’t be so stuck to the words on the page. Don’t be so stuck to whatever it is you prepared before you came today. Just be free and just wing it, you know. I think Cedric is just brilliant at that.”
Right along with Cedric comes Garity, who garnered praise and “a lot of respect” from Thomas for transcending the “Barbershop” script to make Isaac a man guilty of only being himself, despite how it looked to Jimmy.
“What I loved was that when you read the script, you have this sense in your head of some white clown trying to act black. But then when you see Troy’s work, you say ‘no, that’s who this man really is. He’s not trying to act black or white or anything. It’s just who this person is,’” Thomas stated, calling Garity’s performance “brilliant.” “Watching Troy’s work, I thought was just incredible because he really embodied just rising above stereotypes and rising above exceptions. And he just fully embodied that this is just an urban dude and his skin color is kind of secondary.”
Looks like a job for …. ‘Barbershop 4’?
Flash forward from 2022 to 2022 and the world has changed. But the same issues remain the same.
When asked about Jimmy’s present-day whereabouts, Thomas feels his character would be a leading voice, continuing the fight against modern-day threats to make his community and fellow Chicagoans better.
“There’s no doubt in my mind he’d be the mayor of Chicago. And he’d be a mayor who is far more mature and empathetic than Jimmy was in the first one [“Barbershop”]. I think that in 2022 if we take it by what’s really going on in the world, what we’re talking about is the rise of open, blatant racism from Donald Trump and people like him. I think that Jimmy, and me playing Jimmy, would be mightily fired up and motivated by pushing back against that and protecting his people from that,” the entertainer stated. “In Chicago, I guess that would be police brutality, the wide availability of guns. I think that if we ever did a ‘Barbershop 4,’ I think that that’s what would be at the core of it. For this community and for Jimmy, it’s the pushback on the new wave of fascism and racism and anti-democratic mentality that’s going on out there right now.”
The issues Thomas mention reinforce the ability of “Barbershop” and its successors to balance serious situations with the funny. Whether its controversial law enforcement, gun violence or gentrification, the issues of the culture register on and off the screen with those who may be dealing with those same barriers in their personal lives and where they live.
“Aside from the fact of police brutality which I think is huge…I was thinking about urban renewal and all that’s in ‘Barbershop 2’ already sort of, with that kind of fancy corny shop across the street with the aquarium and all that stuff, said Thomas, referring to Nappy Cutz, the flashy new barbershop that competed across the street from Calvin’s establishment.
With an ever-growing list of internal and outward problems, politics continues to majorly impact communities of color. This year is no exception as the midterm elections take up a good bit of the news. At stake with key races is the makeup of the House and Senate in favor of the party with the most votes and voter turnout on election day and via mail-in voting.
Weighing in on voter turnout, Thomas feels “there is a sense that black people are losing our way, in terms of being politically conscious, in terms of not having faith in the system.” “I’ve worked a lot over the last eight years on voter turnout and what I hear a lot, and I went to a lot of barbershops in doing this,” he said. “A lot of people feel like everything is rigged, that nothing matters. That the politicians, no matter what party they are, are only out for themselves.
“And so what worries me about that,” Thomas continued, “is there’s a lot of good reasons for people to feel that way. I don’t discount that. What happens is that people withdraw from participating. And when you withdraw from participating, the bad guys take over. So to me, that’s a big issue with us in the black community.”
Feeling the consequences fully, Thomas’ passion for his people comes through clearly as he makes a case for everyone to have that same passion in fighting against present and future injustice.
“I want us to get re-engaged and re-energized to participate and to fight back. Because right now amongst voters, especially amongst black voters, the only ones who are really engaged and consistent with voting are black women,” Thomas stated. “Black women are very engaged. They’re very consistent voters and black men are a lot more wary, a lot more suspicious of the system. What I would like to see is, as a whole with the black community, that we find a way to push back against what’s going on out there and to realize our power.”
If the current political climate is any indication, Thomas may be on to something. Abortion, racism, discrimination, gun violence and voting rights are just a few issues that have triggered a swell of protests, movements and social media posts that leave no mystery as to what side people are very much with, respectively. So much so that it’s not hard to see Jimmy in the thick of the fight, doing all he can to make things right and easier for people in these stressful times.
A country divided. Citizens standing up for what they believe. And a ton of things happening to make a person upset, think, laugh and scratch their head and go, ‘WTH.’
Sounds like a job for ‘Barbershop 4.’ The question is whether or not another trip to Calvin’s Barbershop is needed. To hear Thomas tell it, “ Yes! Absolutely yes, if it’s well-done and well-written.”
“Absolutely because so much of what we’re talking about, Chicago is a microcosm of that. i mean to me, “Barbershop” is really a love letter to Chicago, in my opinion,” Thomas stated “I love Chicago. There’s so much going on in Chicago that needs to be healed. And anything that we could do with a ‘Barbershop’ film that could address that healing, that sense of healing, I would love to be a part of that.”
A fourth “Barbershop” movie is a question mark at this point. But Thomas is keeping himself busy in the meanwhile. The actor can currently be seen alongside his “Barbershop” co-star Michael Ealy and Emayatzy Corinealdi in the Hulu legal drama, “Reasonable Doubt,” which recently premiered in September.
Thomas’ presence can also be felt in movie theaters with “Till.” The film, directed by Chinonye Chukwu, revolves around the true story of Mamie Till-Mobley’s pursuit of justice after the brutal lynching of her 14-year-old son, Emmit Till. “Till,” which also stars Danielle Deadwyler, Frankie Faison and Whoopi Goldberg, is in theaters now.
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