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Morris Chestnut says he doesn’t really think of himself as a heartthrob.
Speaking to PEOPLE at CultureCon, which took place at the Duggal Greenhouse in Brooklyn, NY on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025 and Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025, 56-year-old Chestnut talked about “taking control” throughout his career, which was launched with his breakout role in the 1991 film Boyz n the Hood.
While Chestnut is now a veteran of the screen, having solidified his heartthrob status with subsequent roles in romantic comedies like 1999’s The Best Man and 2001’s Two Can Play That Game, the actor says he doesn’t view himself that way.
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“Honestly, I don’t really think about that aspect of it,” Chestnut told PEOPLE, when asked about carrying the legacy of being a ’90s heartthrob into this part of his career. “I just try to go to work, try to do my job, take one day at a time. And I just want to keep going and keep doing more things, so I don’t really think about it in that way.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Chestnut said his career has evolved from his early days, in part because he’s “claimed his space.”
“Claiming my space, in my career — I think where I made a change [was in] auditions, I think my auditions started to really matter and started to really change when I would claim the audition space as mine,” Chestnut, who stars as the titular character on the CBS TV show, WATSON, said.
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He continued: “When you start off, you just go in there and stand where they tell you and do what they tell you, and, ‘Am I doing it right? And I’m doing it right?’ But when I went in there and just claimed that space as the character, as mine, is when I started seeing a change in my career.”
Chestnut has been married to his wife, Pam Byse, for 30 years. They share two kids, a son named Grant and daughter named Paige.
