‘Soul Food’ Star Brandon Hammond Opens Up About Why He Quietly Left Hollywood (Exclusive)

By the time Brandon Hammond stole the scene in 1997’s classic film, Soul Food, he had a resumé that rivaled not just fellow child stars of his time, but also the up-and-comers-turned-Hollywood-royalty with whom he was starring in the George Tillman Jr. film.

At 13 years old, Hammond had racked up credits in Space Jam, Menace II Society and Waiting to Exhale, so by the time the Soul Food offer came about, he was versed enough in the business to choose his own scripts and seasoned enough to understand the emotional weight that came with the role of Ahmad.

“I read the script and I mean, immediately, I just loved it. I could visualize it…” Hammond tells PEOPLE exclusively.

“It was such a refreshing thing because it was like, ‘Look, we are doctors, we are lawyers, we are musicians, we are hairstylists, truck drivers, stay-at-home moms.’ It just gave the full gamut of who we are and it was just so relatable.”

Starring Vivica A. Fox, Vanessa Williams, Nia Long, Mekhi Phifer, Michael Beach, Irma P. Hall and more, Soul Food hit theaters on Sept. 26, 1997, and became an instant hit.

The film follows the Joseph family as they try to keep the pieces of their family together after their matriarch, affectionately known as Big Mama, went into a coma following a procedure to amputate her leg. The story, which is semi-autobiographical for Tillman, is told from the perspective of Ahmad, the 11-year-old who tries to restore his family the best way he knows how.

With $43.7 million made at the box office (it was shot on a $7.5 million budget), the success of Soul Food opened up a world of endless possibilities for Hammond. However, an unexpected diagnosis rapidly changed the trajectory of his life and career.

“I was diagnosed with this super, super rare, autoimmune condition called Castleman disease,” Hammond says.

“What most people don’t know is that I was diagnosed not long after. So Soul Food comes out in ’97, September 26th. We’re at the NAACP Image Awards in ’98, [that’s] February of ’98 and we have an amazing night. We won for Outstanding Motion Picture, I won for Outstanding Youth Actor — I believe Irma won, Vanessa won. We just kind of swept that night. It was just an unbelievable night. Three or four months later, I am fighting for my life, basically.”

According to ClevelandClinic.org, Castleman disease is a group of disorders that involve a hyperactive immune system.” Usually, a person’s immune system gets active when there’s a threat in the body, but then settles once that threat is gone. However, if you have Castleman, your immune system remains activated, which can then lead to “long-lasting inflammation that can damage organs.”

“I had all these chest pains, and my eye was flushed out red, just all types of physiological things were happening to me that we could not explain. And I was traveling all over — to Baltimore, to the National Institute of Health, to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Cedars-Sinai, UCLA, USC, and could not figure things out,” Hammond reveals.

“And then I had a biopsy because they were seeing that my lymph nodes were swollen. And that’s when I got this diagnosis for this thing called Castleman’s disease. I had never heard of it before, but apparently, it’s super rare in children and it’s super rare in Black people. So when you talk about rare, I’m the rarest exception to that rule.”

Just like that, the career he had steadily built came to a screeching halt as he retreated from the limelight after he was advised to keep the diagnosis under wraps.

“A lot of people don’t know that because people have asked, ‘Hey, what happened? Why’d you stop acting?’ And I used to give these really kind of vague answers and responses because I wasn’t ready to talk about it,” he tells PEOPLE.

“I was kind of told not to talk about it. Of course, in hindsight, I regret that, right? But I was just following what I was told to do. My agents told me to keep it under wraps.”

Though his closest industry friends and peers knew what was going on, Hammond would keep mum on his diagnosis, stepping behind the camera for a few projects, but overall, creating a life outside of Hollywood.

On June 4, Hammond paid a visit to Irma P. Hall in her home in Texas for her 90th birthday. Hammond shared the picture of his visit to his Instagram, and the reunion immediately went viral, with fans expressing their glee at seeing Big Mama and Ahmad together again.

The frenetic response further propelled Hammond on the journey he was on, one where he was not only ready for a full Soul Food reunion but that he was also ready to tell the world his story.

Now 41, Hammond is currently working on a reunion documentary titled Sunday Dinner: The Soul Food Reunion, which will catch up with the Soul Food cast, three decades after the film’s release.

“Initially, the idea to do a reunion was born out of, honestly, seeing the Fresh Prince of Bel Air one. Martin also did one, Friends, etc.,” he says. “[I felt] Soul Food deserves that type of recognition for what it means to the culture. It deserves to be given its flowers. [I thought] the actors, the filmmakers, we should do something like that, too.”

The initial idea was that he would echo the events of the film by getting everyone together for an intimate, one-night-only Sunday dinner and just celebrate the staying power and impact of the movie. As those plans were underway, however, Hammond decided to change course.

“My partner, Jenesis Scott and I, [after] seeing the different reunion specials that came out for iconic shows like Martin and Fresh Prince, we said, we should do a documentary on not just the making of Soul Food, but actual conversations around what that film meant to the culture.”

That means instead of doing a private one-off, fans will now get to experience a full film, filled with archival footage, never-before-seen behind-the-scenes moments and the entire cast sharing memories of their time making the 1997 classic.

“One thing I’ve always said, especially recently, is that Soul Food elicits a feeling. I can’t even describe it, but when I made the post about Irma, I can’t tell you how many people were like, ‘This just makes me feel good seeing Big Mama and Ahmad reunited after almost 30 years.’ It just makes me feel good,” Hammond says.

And he plans on bringing those nostalgic vibes to the project. “This documentary, the feelings that you got while watching the film, and I’m talking about happy, joy, sad, angry, laughter, all of that, I want to encapsulate all that.”

Making a documentary about a film that’s so beloved and cherished by many, of course, comes with its own set of pressures and responsibilities, but ultimately, Hammond hopes people understand he, too, has the same fondness for the film.

“I just want people to realize how important a film this was to me, really, because this is like my love letter to a film that has meant so much to me, both personally and professionally,” he tells PEOPLE.

“The fans are a large reason why I could even approach something like this. They’ve kept it relevant, they’ve kept it in the zeitgeist, right, and I appreciate them so much for that. And finally, also being able to tell my story with it is really important to me. This is definitely me taking my power back.”

Sunday Dinner: The Soul Food Reunion is currently in production and is slated to come out in 2027, to coincide with the film’s 30th anniversary. Vivica A. Fox and George Tillman Jr. are on board as producers, along with his wife Marcia Tillman, Jenesis Scott, Victorious De Costa, Bob Teitel and Myiea Coy.