Chance at stardom

Lenny Henry, who had a lot of potential as a comic actor (he's honestly hilarious in the same year's TV movie 'Bernard and the Genie' which was shown in the UK a couple of days before Christmas), might have stood a better chance at cross-Atlantic stardom if he started out slowly as the sidekick/support in a couple of movies instead of headlining his first proper movie.

Audiences are either uninterested or tend to react against a new face that is thrust at them as a 'star name' unless they have seen the would-be star in something else first, doing the groundwork that it takes to be the lead. I'm not saying that Henry didn't do the groundwork in the UK but as far as the US was concerned I believe he was an unknown in 1991.

Even Eddie Murphy, who had already established himself on "Saturday Night Live" was effectively supporting/co-starring with Nick Nolte in his first movie '48 Hours'.