Taye Diggs's charm is UPN's star attraction
TORONTO -- Taye Diggs is caught between two love interests, and apparently he's busted. Totally busted. In for some serious grief.
''Oh, you're just a stuttering bumpkin."
''You're so, 'I'm caught! I'm caught!' "
''That is just so wrong!"
In the scene they just ran through, Diggs's character -- lawyer and single parent Kevin Hill of the UPN show by the same name -- has run into one woman he's dating while out walking with another. On the first take, Diggs hems and haws his way through his predicament, employing shrill laughter and some overnervous body language that, his costars insist, would be a dead giveaway to any real woman getting two-timed by her man.
''No woman would buy that," teases Leila Arcieri, who plays the lawyer girlfriend, Monroe McManus.
''You'd be so busted," chimes in Lisa Marcos, who plays the actress girlfriend, Evelyn Cruz.
Clearly, it's time for the charm. For the patented Diggs smile. For the big baby browns. For that little-boy innocence.
''What do you mean?" Diggs says, his eyes widening.
''You're saying you'd just assume? You'd just assume?" he continues.
He goes on and on, until Arcieri is helpless.
''OK, OK," she says, succumbing. ''I would trust. I would trust."
Diggs smiles to himself.
But on the next take, he plays it much more cool.
This is life for Diggs nowadays: marathon shooting days, endless rounds of promotional interviews, the constant pressure of headlining a new drama on a network that has banked on his box-office appeal to bring it some new buzz -- and a broader viewership.
''He's the bionic man," director Arlene Sanford says while shooting a scene on the set near the shores of Lake Ontario. ''As in, he works 16 hours a day and he's in every scene and he doesn't complain about it and he's prepared and he takes direction."
So far, all that's working: The show, which airs at 9 p.m. on Wednesdays, debuted to an audience of 3.9 million, an overall increase of 51 percent from the same time slot the previous year. In the demographic representing women 18 to 34, viewership was up 210 percent.
Diggs's winning smile and eyes -- and a few other features -- became a sensation with his breakthrough role as the hot younger man who gave ''Stella" her groove back in the 1998 film starring Angela Bassett. Diggs, 33, has since become a staple of black romantic comedies (''The Best Man," ''Brown Sugar") while mixing in cameo parts in the likes of the Oscar-winning film ''Chicago" and the Emmy-winning show ''The West Wing."
There are no serial killers on his resume. He generally doesn't like to play against type. ''Kevin Hill" fits that mode.
''I wanted to do something that I thought could work and be a hit but would also allow me to be me and do the one thing that I think people like to see watching Taye Diggs," he says. ''There's that brand 'Taye Diggs.' "
