With its 30th anniversary approaching, many of the stars of A Different World, the iconic show which chronicled love, life and higher learning at a fictional HBCU, are speaking up about exactly what inspired them and the work invested into playing the fictional characters of which me and all my 80’s babies had a favorite.
While Ronald Johnson, the banana-pudding colored, smart aleck side-kick was the beginning of my childhood crushes, the love affair that took center stage was the infamous “Spoiled Rich Girl Meets Woke Book Smart Boy From Brooklyn” dramatic love affair that occurred between the characters Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert.
We all know where we were when Dwayne Wayne stormed into Whitley’s wedding and declared that she should leave Byron Douglass III standing at the altar and have and hold him instead complete with a “Please, Baby please!” Actress Jasmine Guy who played the southern belle who stole the guy with the perfect math SAT score’s heart, recently sat down with Essence to talk about how the #CouplesGoals of the nineties took some work to make look believable.
Guy shares when writers first pitched the love affair to the cast, she was skeptical:
“When they told us that they were going to put Whitley and Dwayne together, I said, ‘How’s that work? She don’t even like him!’”
She goes onto share that Hardison expressed some hesitation when it came to the characters displaying affection, and that she had to encourage him to be more confident in his approach because she felt that with the characters being such opposites the “sexual tension” had to be made believable.
Guy also shares that the characters’ connection grew to a point to where Hardison’s possessiveness over “Whitley” became noticeable on and off set:
“When I had other boyfriends or guest stars would come on, he would like give them a little shade. And I couldn’t believe it.”
She also points out that Dwayne Wayne went on to represent the underdog, and was an example that you don’t always have to be the flashiest or wealthiest guy to get the girl:
“Values mean something. You don’t have to have a Mercedes in the parking lot of the college campus. These values are holding up.”
“Good people can win too.”
In a world of cheating and extortion scandals, this fairy tale is always refreshing. Take a look at Guy’s insight on her onscreen love affair below:
