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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Phylicia, I know you've worked with Kenny for quite a number of years. What inspired you to take on the film too? And John, how did you come on board?

PHYLICIA RASHAD: What's important is it's an American classic. The playwright was 27 when she wrote it, [which] is amazing. I think it's a work that merits attention. It's good to bring the finest to our people. And when I say our people, I mean everybody in America.

JOHN STAMOS: I've always been a big fan of this piece. I know our generation has probably not seen the [1960] movie [starring Sidney Poitier]. I thought if I could help bring some younger people to watch this very important piece, I want to be a part of it.

How did you feel about playing the guy nobody really likes?

RASHAD: He's so good as that guy. [Laughs]

STAMOS: It was difficult. I think it was good that I hadn't spent time with the [rest of the cast] because I really did come in as an outsider. I kind of got right into these scenes. I had to look these people in the face and tell them they couldn't live in the neighborhood they got their dream house in. It was one of the harder roles that I've taken on because there's a very fine line in playing this guy. He is narrow-minded. He probably wasn't racist, and doesn't believe that he is. He thinks it really is better for them to be with their own people. I think he was taught that way.

RASHAD: If [he] is not a full human being then the story loses its full impact. You're not looking at a caricature, you're looking at a person who believes what he's saying.

The ''American dream'' is a very intangible concept when you really think about what it means. How do you think that idea has changed since 1959?

RASHAD: It's a human story, and we're still human beings. There are still families that struggle for one reason or another with financial issues, with health issues. There are families every day that sustain the loss of a mother or a father and have to keep going. There are families all over this country that experience generational divide, and how do you hold your family together.

COMBS: To be honest, it is more accessible — the dream is. There have been people that have proven that we can do it, and that's one of the best ways to inspire people: whether it's Oprah or Spike Lee or Quincy Jones or Michael Jackson or LeBron James or Muhammad Ali. But...you still have so many millions of people that feel like the dream is so far from their grasp because of the economic conditions that they live in, or how they're brought up.

LEON: Last week I was working in New Orleans...and what [Hurricane] Katrina exposed was that America still has a long way to go. It's better, but we still don't have full access. Even now, with [Combs'] character, he's a black man who's struggling to accomplish his dream while his sister is the one who's an academic.

That's very much a topic of discussion today. Could you talk about that, about African-American men your age working against the odds?

COMBS: I think what you see is such a large percentage of African-American men don't get to go to college. So they try to figure out alternatives to become somebody. A lot of people try to make the dream be about money, or... it's not even that, they just want to be somebody. They want to be respected and considered. And the problem of more African-American men being in jail than being in college is a huge problem. To be born into it. They make sure that you hear those facts. I remember growing up as a kid knowing what my life expectancy was based on where I was...

On the socio-economic ladder?

COMBS: Yeah, being brought up in Harlem. Those things are very, very discouraging. That reality of college is not really a reality to them.

There are challenges in Hollywood too. In terms of roles for African-American women, is the lack of them something that frustrates you?

McDONALD: Hell yes! [Laughs] Sorry, let me try again. I'm not bitter.

What do you think of Tyler Perry and the empire he's making?

LATHAN: I'm doing his next movie.

So you obviously like working with him?

LATHAN: I don't know if I like working with him yet. [Laughs] No. It is very unequal and the [number] of roles for people of color is uneven, for black women. It's so blatantly not representative of the world we live in. At the same time, one percent of people who call themselves actors work. And we've been working, so we're grateful and we're so blessed, and we're conscious of this every day.

McDONALD: There's still a long way to go. My sister is a writer, and some of the stories she's come home and told me. They've said to her in pitching [ideas], ''Well yes, that's great, but it won't work.'' Why? ''Well, because the main character is black. If you could maybe make them...'' And you go, In 2008, she's being told this. That's just sort of unbelievable.

NEXT PAGE: The difficulty of going from stage to the small screen


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