Man to Man: A Wellness Series serves as a safe space for Black men to talk about wellness, self-care, self-love and much more. The NAACP Image Award nominated podcast aims to tackle conversations and topics that Black men often don’t have the freedom to discuss. Each episode, topics change providing Black men with insights and lessons on how to be real with themselves and each other. Recently Actor Hosea Chanchez sat down with Black Love Inc. General Manager and Certified Transformational Nutrition Coach David Wasicki and got real about his upbringing, his role as Malik Wright and his journey advocating for mental health awareness and support within the Black community on a deeper and more vulnerable level than he has before.
Most known for playing a star quarterback in the hit show “The Game” as well as starring in “Black Lightning,” Hosea has been in the entertainment industry for over 20 years. Chanchez revealed for the first time that his role as Malik “forced him into an archetype of masculinity”. Whenever people initially meet him, they assume he is like his character, an arrogant cocky womanizer, but are surprised to find that he’s is the exact opposite. He admits that he has to do a lot of code-switching for Malik and playing that character is “his vessel for getting out those macro-aggressions that [society] identifies with manhood and masculinity.” His own understanding of masculinity stems from his upbringing, more specifically his grandfather.
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Referring to himself as a “community baby,” Hosea was raised by both sets of his grandparents after his mother had him very young. While at the time he didn’t understand his childhood situation, he has grown to understand that they did the best they could and it turned out “being the best thing that could’ve happened to [him],” because it provided him with “grounding and security.” Growing up under his grandparents’ care, his maternal grandfather was his first representation of masculinity. When he thinks about what masculinity means to him, “the first word that comes to mind is responsibility.” He said “it’s not how deep your voice is or how big your pecs are…what masculinity means to me is caring for your family, caring for the people you love, being accountable to the responsibilities of your life and not abandoning those.”
The Alabama native was first introduced to us as Malik Wright in 2006 when “The Game” premiered on The CW. During the first season of the show, Malik’s character went through several mental health issues. Before playing Malik, Hosea never identified himself as a man that went through mental health issues. Playing a character struggling with mental health forced him to do research and it caused “a huge light bulb to go off,” which was a pivotal moment for Hosea finally acknowledging his own struggles with mental health.
He credits Malik for providing him with the space to heal himself and has made the future of the character personal for Hosea. “Malik is one of the most underserved character’s in terms of his evolution.”he says when sharing what he feels about the journey of the fictional character. What he wishes for Malik? “For Malik to find real happiness in his life and is afforded the opportunity to live a full life, and not just a life of football. A life that is pleasing to him and to his evolution as a man.” Chanchez’s hope for Malik’s future has mirrored what he hopes for his own self. “Those are the things I wish for him, the same things I wish for myself.”
After beginning to acknowledge his own struggles with mental health, Hosea looked for more avenues to shed light on the matter. He wrote and performed a one-man show right before COVID concerning grief, trauma, loss, and mental health. Good Mourning, which was executive produced by “Power” actress Naturi Naughton, tells the story of a man who lost his nine-year-old daughter to leukemia 36 days ago and now forms a unique friendship with his daughter’s favorite toy. Chanchez recognizes this play as one of his “most honest pieces of work,” and claims he was able to “hide behind this character.” Right before “Good Mourning,” Hosea had shared with the world that he was molested as a kid. Through his work with the play, he was able to express things that had happened to him as a kid and wrote the play to mirror some of his own childhood experiences, including being robbed of his childhood and masculinity at a young age. Dealing with confronting past trauma healing, healing old wounds and addressing how society often doesn’t let Black men grieve and grieve in the traditional standard, he says the character gave him the opportunity to heal a lot of the traumas that happened to him.
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Hosea is a passionate advocate for support within the Black community and says “it’s really important that we lift each other up on this journey called life and really the only way we can do that is if we’re open and communicate to one another and create a space for one another.”
His new project will be just that. “The Good Fellas,” a new talk show by Black men for everyone, will be a safe space for Black men to be their authentic selves and talk about issues on their minds.. Chanchez, creator, executive producer, host, and co-director of the show, says the title was thought of with a lot of intention aiming to “to dismantle the myth that Black men are a threat to humanity, to society, to our homes, to our children, to our communities and to ourselves.”
The actor opened up about actions he takes to start his day that help him maintain his health and wellness. “Prayer and meditation are the center of my life as well as my existence, I know that I’m not just a physical being,” he said. “I’m spirit first and body second. In order for me to nurture my spirit, I have to start my day setting a real intention for my day and I have to do everything in my power to accomplish that intention. The intention of my inner man means more to me than anything.”
The 41-year-old acknowledges that growing up masculinity is often tied to physical traits of young Black men and that as a society that is one of our biggest flaws and we should recognize the purpose in manhood is spirit. “If I had that understanding when I was younger I believe I probably would’ve been better off as a man and probably wouldn’t have suffered so much in my 30’s.”
For more, listen to the full interview on Black Love’s podcast Man to Man. The first episode of Hosea’s show “The Good Fellas” is coming soon.
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