Dewayne Perkins Reveals the Reason His Real Name Was Used in The Blackening (Exclusive)

The Blackening, a new horror comedy from Fantastic Four director Tim Story, is a movie with a large and impressive cast, and writer/actor Dewayne Perkins is in there, maybe not surprisingly. But apparently, he felt the need to be totally sure it was going to happen, because his character is also named Dewayne (and apparently, in one cut, was named Dewayne Perkins). The reasoning behind it? Well, if he wrote his own name into the script, then any studio who bought the script would obviously have to agree to putting him in the movie. It might sound silly, but it's hard to deny it worked!

This is obviously not his first gig; you might recognize him from episodes of Chicago Fire and Saved by the Bell's Peacock revival. Still, Perkins is most known for his writing (he has worked on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Amber Ruffin Show, among others), so it's easy to see why he thought selling a script was more of a guarantee than getting cast in a big movie.

"I wanted the studio to know that I was going to be in this movie," Perkins told ComicBook.com's Chris Killian. "It's called manifestation. If y'all read this name in this script, you're gonna see me. So at the end, no one else could play this but me."

"Also, this is going to get really real...but I'll say it quick," Perkins added. "I have a stutter, and at times I stutter when I say my name, because that was a thing when I was younger. So I thought if everyone knows my name, I'd have to say it less."

The Blackening centers around a group of Black friends who reunite for a Juneteenth weekend getaway only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer. Forced to play by his rules, the friends soon realize this ain't no motherf****** game. Directed by Tim Story (Ride Along, Think Like A Man, Barbershop) and screenplay and screen story by Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip, Harlem) & Dewayne Perkins (The Amber Ruffin Show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), The Blackening skewers genre tropes and poses the sardonic question: if the entire cast of a horror movie is Black, who dies first?

The Blackening stars Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg, X Mayo, Dewayne Perkins, Antoinette Robertson, Sinqua Walls, Jay Pharoah, and Yvonne Orji. 

The film opens in theaters on June 14.