Leon Reveals That His Iconic Line In “The Temptations” Was Completely Improvised—“I Stayed In That Role The Entire Time”

“The Temptations” is one of the most iconic movies of all-time and one of the reasons why people love it so much is because of the incredible performance from Leon as the legendary David Ruffin. During a recent interview, Leon revealed that his most famous line in the film wasn’t originally in the script and completely improvised.

It’s been 22 years since the 1998 TV mini-series “The Temptations” premiered—and it still continues to air regularly on TV after all this time because it’s a great film with fantastic performances, specifically from Leon.

As you know, Leon played the controversial lead singer of the group, David Ruffin and once David starts to have internal conflicts within the group, he utters the film’s most remembered line. While facing off with Otis Williams, who initially put the group together, David says to him without blinking an eye, “Ain’t nobody coming to see you, Otis!”

The line is still uttered to this day and received a second life courtesy of social media and memes. In an interview with Netflix’s Strong Black Lead, Leon revealed the history behind the line:

“We were in rehearsals and I was David Ruffin the entire time. And I found out later my costars didn’t particularly care for me. But I stayed in that role the entire time so I was always thinking of things and telling the director and producers and stuff and things that I had researched and the way things were.

“…I just said that line in rehearsal and [director] Allan Arkush came and whispered in my ear, and said, ‘You know, he [Charles Malik Whitfield, who played Otis Williams] doesn’t really like it when you say that.’ And I turned to him and said, ‘He’s not supposed to…Did you see the reaction on his face when I said it? Isn’t that what you want?’

“I just improvise a line and next thing I know, it’s like, that line follows me around the world.”

This just proves that some of the best moments in entertainment were completely spur of the moment.

Roommates, what are your thoughts on this?