Martin Lawrence, as an out-of-work electronics whiz in the new comedy Nothing to Lose, meets co-star Tim Robbins when he jumps into Robbins' car, brandishes a pistol and demands money. But, he later explains in a tone of aggrieved dignity, "I don't steal. I just dabble in future used goods." It is the art of the con man--and of the movie actor--to fool others so exquisitely that he may be fooling himself. So admirers of the popular actor-comedian must hope, and detractors will wonder, when Lawrence defends himself against a flurry of criminal and domestic accusations by saying, "I've grown." "I'm cool." "I'm a kind, gentle person."
Lawrence, 32, is certainly a valuable property in Hollywood. He has succeeded in concert films (You So Crazy) and on TV (as star of the Fox sitcom Martin, which just ended a five-year run and has already earned $60 million in syndication sales). He starred with Will Smith in the 1995 hit Bad Boys and last year was star, director and co-writer of the dark comedy A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, in which he is wrongly arrested and tries to get a restraining order on a woman who is out to kill him. His new film has all the moves of a '90s action comedy: the macho bonding and bantering, the glints of earthy wit overshadowed by gun waving and pratfalling--exactly what you'd expect from director Steve Oedekerk, the auteur of Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.
You can also expect the movie to be a hit, and to solidify Lawrence's rep as a multimedia comedy star: Richard Pryor, the next generation. Lawrence has Pryor's bantam pugnacity, but he lacks the underdog charm, the skewed genius for mimicry and acerb social humor. He has got the Pryor attitude but not the aptitude. And maybe there can be another difference: Lawrence must keep from setting himself and his career on fire.
He has struck the match often enough. In May 1996 police forcibly subdued him when he was ranting "Fight the power!" in a busy intersection in Sherman Oaks, Calif.; a loaded gun was in his pocket. Last August he was arrested at Burbank Airport for carrying a loaded revolver. This January Tisha Campbell, his Martin co-star, filed a suit alleging sexual harassment and refused to appear in intimate scenes with him. In March he was arrested after a man said the star punched him inside a Hollywood nightery. Now Lawrence is fighting his ex-wife's challenge to their prenuptial agreement. Patricia Southall Lawrence charges him with "irrational and abusive behavior" (which he denies) and says he has taken "psychotropic" medicine and was cared for by a full-time nurse.
Even his friends suggest a dark side. "Will Smith is Evander Holyfield, and Martin is Mike Tyson," says Steve White, a Martin writer and onetime Lawrence roommate. "I like Tyson; he'll do anything for you. But he's misunderstood." Jamie Masada, who runs the L.A. comedy club the Laugh Factory, saw a change in Lawrence as fame engulfed him: "The illusion got to his head. He came in with bodyguards, security people. Some people can handle it. But if you're not focused and strong, it can kill you."