Source: Frederick M. Brown / Getty
The man once known as Harrison Wright on Scandel is back. Columbus Short returns in Fear Files on TV One. Short plays a politician, Councilman Harvey Jordan, who is blamed by the community when a fire kills the last holdout on an stadium project he sponsors. Lynn Whitfield and Robin Givens co-star. His first major tv role after losing his job on Scandel. The ripple of that lost continues to effect him both personally and professionally. What happened?
“I allowed people to control my emotions,” he told the Tom Joyner Morning Show. When you allow people to control your emotions, i.e., me calling you a ninja last time we did the interview….11 months ago or a year ago, I was in a real fog trying to make sense of my life. I probably prematurely got out in front of it before I should have because I wasn’t mentally ready to handle all of that yet. I should have dealt with my personal life was instead of trying to salvage a career that was going to go the way it was going to go anyway.
Short says losing his gig on Scandal was definitely a wakeup call. One of the show’s most popular characters, he was killed off last season, though in circumstances that might potentially mean he could return.
“When you look up and your job is gone and that’s what the world is balancing your credit on and who you are as a person on that’s one thing. But when you lose your home and your child and visitation… I’m a father, that’s one of the most important things and the best thing I am is a dad. So losing that is real eye-opener to what’s going on. I can’t blame people for the situations in my life. Take some ownership, fix it, get back on your feet right now or you’re going to die. It’s going to be over with.
As for his Scandal is concerned, the cast still supports him. “I don’t watch because I miss my family,” hesays. “It’s hard for me to watch not becaue the show’s not good or that they’re kicking butt over there, but I miss the family. I’ve just gotta keep moving and push forward. They’ll always be family to me from Kerry on down to the coffee man. They are all family. God has a timing for everything and I appreciate it. Russ Parr told me to ‘Be rejoice in your, not be disgruntled in your test,’ and that was a big eye opener for me. So I’m just being grateful for the test.”
