A Little Naughty, a Little Nasty, but Always Charming

It may well be his most important decision of the day. Sprawled across a couch in the dressing room of a San Francisco sound stage here, Morris Day must decide which of three silk shirts he’ll wear for a new video that is about to start shooting. “Let’s go with the cream hookup, the one with the sexy lace trim,” Day tells the wardrobe consultant holding the shirts. “Solid!”

Solid (pronounced salad) is one of Day’s current watchwords, and it’s not surprising. It’s been a good year for the 28-year-old Prince prodigy. His new album “The Color of Success” has gone gold (sales of more than 500,000 copies), his concert tickets have been selling briskly and Hollywood is calling, pushing him to star in a movie.

But right now, Day is focused on one of his favorite indulgences--his wardrobe. “My clothes are a personality type of thing,” he says. “They are an extension of my hairdo, an extension of the cologne I put on. It’s all part of the total package.”

The package, in this instance, is a larger-than-life, cartoon-like persona, a stylish rascal wrapped in silk--a little naughty, a little nasty, but always charming. “He’s kind of an arrogant, sometimes irate, handsome gentleman,” Day says, describing his on-stage alter ego.

The character, like Day, is no overnight success story. Born in Springfield, Ill., Day moved with his family to Minneapolis when he was 6. In high school, Day (then a drummer) met up with Prince and at 16 joined his band. Eventually, with help from Prince, he formed his own funk/rock band, The Time, which allowed his flamboyant personality to surface.

Day’s slick shtick won rave reviews from fans and critics alike when he made his movie debut in Prince’s “Purple Rain,” portraying a sinister rival band leader. “The part was more or less written for me,” Day says. “The movie was supposed to be a true story about Prince’s organization, and I was second on the totem pole as far as seniority went.”

When “Purple Rain” wound up the surprise smash of 1984 (it has taken in about $70 million to date in ticket sales), it not only launched Prince’s movie career but also put Day on the map. However, the attention took its toll on his relationship with Prince, and in the summer of 1984 Day quit his band, left Minneapolis and moved to Los Angeles with his mother (they live just blocks apart in Beverly Hills). He changed management, hired an expensive publicist and prepared to move into the “second phase,” as he likes to call it: a solo career.

Once in Hollywood, he became a darling of the movie business. Perhaps in search of another Prince, the studios wined and dined him. “I really found out what it was like to be the piece of meat for all of the wolves,” says Day, who is pursuing a movie career along with his music career. “For a while, there I was, taking meetings eight hours a day, five days a week.”

Producer Brian Grazer (“Splash”) was one of those who met with him. “I saw ‘Purple Rain’ and I came out thinking this is just the hippest guy I’ve ever seen. He defines hipness,” Grazer says. “I rented the tape and I just kept watching his scenes and he just looked so confident. That’s what a star is; that’s what we’re looking for.”

20th Century Fox agreed and in November, 1984, Day was signed to a non-exclusive three-picture deal at the studio. To date, while Fox has several scripts in development for Day, he has yet to reappear on the screen and nothing has been “green-lighted” (received a nod to go to production).

According to Fox production chief Larry Gordon, who approved the Day signing, Day’s busy touring schedule has made it difficult to focus on finding him the right vehicle. “We are developing several scripts for him,” says Gordon, although refusing to elaborate on the nature of the scripts. “I think he can carry a film. These are not one-man shows but they are leading roles.”

It has been a bit more than a year since Day signed his deal at Fox, and part of the reason he has not yet shown up on screen is because he’s been quite selective about what the next movie will be. He turned down an offer to portray Little Richard. He passed on a Disney movie called “Off-Beat.” (“We begged him to do the movie,” says Disney chairman Jeff Katzenberg.) He read for “The Color Purple” and for Ron Howard’s “Gung Ho,” and has been reading scripts for months. “The right one just hasn’t come along yet,” he says with a shrug. “A starring role requires a lot of time, and I want to build to it.”

Currently, one of the most promising properties is a project called “Dangerously,” written for Morris Day and Chevy Chase by writer-director Ken Finkleman (“Airplane II: The Sequel”). The movie is in development at Warner Bros. and though Day has not signed yet, insiders say Warners wants him for it.

Still, despite the commercial success of “Purple Rain” and the critical success of “A Soldier’s Story,” it remains difficult for blacks to land starring roles. Says one producer: “The problem is if you have a script and you need a black comedy lead, unless you get Richard (Pryor) or Eddie (Murphy), you’re out of business.”

That may be an exaggeration, but while Day is fully aware of the racial climate in Hollywood, to him it is not a burning issue. “I don’t get bent out of shape over the racial content of films,” he says. “It’s not like I’m not concerned, but it’s not my function in life to make this a better world for everybody. Sure, there are racial problems in this business, but I really feel that if you have enough determination, you can overcome those barriers yourself without waiting for someone else to pave the way for you.”

Despite his success here, Day seems to have mixed emotions about the movie business. “It’s cool but it’s fake,” he says. “You become friends with so many people who ordinarily wouldn’t even say hello to you. But that’s just Hollywood; it’s basically a bourgeois type of hookup. It takes doing well in a movie like “Purple Rain” to fall into that circle. But it’s cool. It’s on me, and as long as it’s on me I can handle it.”

Having created the Morris Day character, he seems more comfortable than ever in dealing with his solo career. He wants to continue making records, and he’s eager to find a movie project for the coming year. But his ultimate ambition? “Ultimately? Ultimately, I’d like to become the richest man in the country,” he says with a broad grin. To Morris Day that would undoubtedly be a solid hookup.