Land of the Rising Star
Day Break's Taye Diggs was just a struggling actor the first
time he went to
Tokyo. But what happened on that trip has kept him
returning to where it all began.
.
So sang Taye Diggs when he starred in one of his first professional
productions, a theme-park cabaret show called
Sebastian's
Caribbean Carnival at Tokyo Disney Resort. Diggs came to Tokyo
from New York, where, one year out of
Syracuse University, he was
landing irregular work on Broadway and in episodic television. Then
he auditioned and landed the gig with Disney … and he was off to
Japan. Born in
New Jersey and raised in upstate New York, he had a
studio apartment in
New York City, and the farthest he'd traveled
from the States was to
Canada. "I had no idea what to expect," he
says. "I decided to take a chance and see the world." So there he
was, in a straw hat, white top, and white slacks, acting as emcee
in a faux
Caribbean cabaret, singing
Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat
Song" to theme-park audiences of mostly Japanese tourists.
Cut to October 2006: Diggs is starring in the new
ABC series
Day
Break, a high-concept thriller whose premise mixes the best
elements of
24 and
Groundhog Day. Diggs's character,
Detective
Brett Hopper, finds himself in the middle of the worst
day of his life - again and again and again. Every morning, he
wakes up to the same bad day, and only when he discovers what's
wrong with his life - and fixes it - can he move on to a new
morning. It's the kind of role that demands much from its star and
the kind of role that most stars demand. So, if you haven't
noticed, from Disney to
Day Break, Diggs has made a quantum
leap.