The Best Man gang’s back! But there’ll be no breaking out of “40s” as Melissa De Sousa‘s Shelby famously suggested in her introductory scene in the 1999 rom-com. The fellas from the film are currently sipping on their new bourbon, Sable.
Sable is a joint spirits venture between Harold Perrineau, Morris Chestnut, Taye Diggs, and The Best Man writer and director Malcolm D. Lee, born out of natural curiosity and pure selfishness, says Perrineau.
“My wife and I had met this company, Bespoken, and we were super interested in the way that they did spirits — they’re earth conscious, they have proprietary software — and when we were finishing The Best Man: The Final Chapters, I personally didn’t want to stop working with them, so I asked everybody if they would be interested in doing a spirit together,” the actor who portrays Julian “Murch” Murchison in the franchise tells ESSENCE.
Lee and Chestnut were immediately game, but Diggs had some initial reservations, he admits.
“I’ve never been one to embark on new projects and step out of my comfort zones and start a business, but it just felt right when you take the relationship that we’ve all had with The Best Man series and what’s happening in the world of spirits and us being mature Black men,” says the actor who portrays Harper Stewart. “I just kind of followed my gut.”
The journey of bringing Sable to life, although a learning experience, has been pleasantly intuitive, the men say of the final product, which is comprised mostly of corn, rye, and malted barley, with notes of burnt sugar, dense mocha, and dark fudge.
“It’s been a smooth process,” says Lee. “We agreed on everything: the flavor profile, the bottle, the imagery, the lettering, the color, the pattern, all those things were easy.”
As was choosing the name of the spirit. “I don’t think we knew at the time that Sable meant black, but it certainly connotes Black and classy,” Lee continues. “It’s sleek and smooth, and there’s an upscale aspect to it. My messaging, that I think we all agreed upon, about what we’re gonna do with this bourbon is that it feels aspirational, upscale, but accessible just like The Best Man movies do.”
Sable has already worked its magic on Diggs, who jokes he grew up on Zima and lemonade vodka. “When I’m in ads and I taste it, it almost seems too good to be true,” he says. “If I weren’t me, and I was some average Black dude, and I saw these really cool guys from the movies drinking this brown stuff, I would get it just to be like them, especially if I grew up on their films. And just like our characters in The Best Man stories, we have matured with the times. So, it’s a really great moment for people that are kind of going through what we’re going through. Hopefully, we’re introducing them to new experiences.”
The promotional shoot for the brand marked the first time the quartet had been on set together since they wrapped their 2022 Peacock sequel. They enlisted stylist J. Bolin, who often dresses Chestnut, to create their signature looks. “It’s the first time for me, because I’ve always been the quirky dude, that I felt cool as f–k,” says Perrineau, which is exactly the vibe the men want consumers to get from their product.
“There’s not a lot of Black men in this space at all, and we have an audience that’s so great with us, so loyal and trusts us, and we also have a real trust in each other,” Perrineau adds. “People have been really receptive to it. We really picked a beautiful product. The drink is great. The bottle is sexy. It all just works.”
The timing of the launch also aligns with the 25th anniversary of The Best Man, whose characters were revisited in the 2013 Christmas-themed sequel The Best Man Holiday and again in the aforementioned series, The Best Man: The Final Chapters.
“I won’t lie. When we started, I was like, OK, let’s wrap this up. Let’s not overstay our welcome. And then I thought it was so good, as a viewer, I didn’t feel like we were done. I wanted more,” says Diggs. “It’s up to Malcolm, but I would love to do more.”
Perrineau had a similar reaction when the TV drama aired. “I would literally go to work and come home and put the show on just so I could hang out with everybody as an audience member because that’s what I felt like. So that’s kind of why we have this,” he says.
Though Lee says he has other stories he wants to tell at the moment, Perrineau has an idea of how to leverage Sable to get another sequel out of him. “We’re going to get Malcolm drunk and make him write a drunk version of a new show,” he jokes before adding a sobering reality about their new venture together. “This is our next chapter.”
