Hal Williams Talks About His Role in "Guess Who"

Bringing Home Dates: “Guess Who” centers around a young woman who introduces her parents to her new boyfriend. The meeting doesn’t go over well because the new boyfriend (played by Ashton Kutcher) isn’t what the protective dad (played by Bernie Mac) expected. Hal Williams confessed he never personally encountered that problem during his dating days because he usually took the easy way out. “I never brought them home (laughing). The woman I finally married when I got married the first time – I brought her home and introduced her to my parents. You know, they were thrilled. But I never had a difficult time about anybody I ever brought home. I was quite lucky.”

It was quite a different story when it came to the young men seeking out dates with his daughter. “A couple of times guys came looking for my daughter who I thought should not have been looking for my daughter, you know? And I wanted to know, ‘Who are you? You’re 6’2,” taller than me, looking for my little daughter? NO!’ That happened a couple of times. But, you know, I didn’t go off. I just kind of handled it in a very adult fashion and then called my daughter, ‘Someone’s here to see you.’ But I didn’t leave when they came,” said Williams.

Working with Bernie Mac: Crazy was the first word out of Hal Williams’ mouth when it came to discussing his time spent on the set of “Guess Who” with funnyman Bernie Mac. “It reminded me of my first big job when I was a cop on ‘Sanford and Son’ and working with Redd Foxx for five years. You never knew when you were really going to get work done because he would just off and do stand-up at any minute. Same way with Bernie. Bernie takes him a break and somebody asks him a particular question, he’ll tell one joke and that just opens it all up because he likes people to react and laugh. And he’s brilliant,” confided Williams.

Keeping Things Under Control: The hardest part of filming "Guess Who" had to do with preparing to actually begin filming each of the scenes. “It’s when we can get back to work. It was how much time we lose not in takes, but when we can get back to work. We took a break to set a lens on a camera for about 5 minutes and it ends up being half an hour. It’s that kind of thing.”

”Guess Who” vs. “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner:” Williams describes “Guess Who” as being loosely adapted from “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” Other than the very basic theme, Williams says the two movies don’t have much in common. “Just in the theme that the daughter brings home a white guy, instead of a white girl bringing home a black guy. Otherwise it’s all the comedic stuff. The comedy in the original was much more subtle. This comedy is very overt. It’s out there. It’s all comedy,” said Williams.