Meet Edwin Hodge

Here's a terrific article about Edwin Hodge who plays Morgan Teen in the film who -- as the article pithily states it -- plays the young incarnation of Keith David.

Edwin was quite a find. He came in to read with his brother and both were great. But at that time I hadn't decided on a "type" yet. I didn't know if I wanted a teen of some stature like Edwin or his brother, or a more jokey charactery best friend type. Choosing between Edwin and his brother was hard enough, but it was also difficult choosing between Edwin and this very funny young man who would've fit the charactery type.

Why it was difficult, I don't know, because when I watch the film now it's impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. Edwin added so much humor and personality to the part that he really made it his own.

I admitted to him early on that he was taking on a pretty thankless role because the idea of his character is to contrast who Morgan was as a teenager with who he becomes as a grown man. Morgan Teen was specifically written in the way many best friend roles are in the hopes that the audience gets the rug pulled out from under them when they learn more about the character as an adult. So, I asked Edwin to do what he could with it, and what he did was elevate a fairly cliche'd role into something memorable without damaging my original intent.