EXCLUSIVE: 'Players' cast reveals the plays they've run to get a date

Netflix’s new romantic comedy “Players” stars Gina Rodriguez and Damon Wayans Jr. as lotharios who have spent years devising the best “plays” to land one-night stands. But even though they portray players in the film, when TODAY.com asked what sly moves they've made to ensnare a partner, much of the cast didn't have great examples.

Wayans Jr., who plays a friend-zoned Adam in the film to Rodriguez's Mack, says he's never run a play on a woman before but he has fallen victim to one.

"I've had a play ran on me," he laughs. "It was in fourth grade. And this girl was like, 'I'll give you a Capri Sun if you become my boyfriend.'"

He says he told her that he didn't want to be.

"And then she grabbed me by my lapel and put her hand on my face and said, 'I'm your girlfriend,' and I said, 'I guess you are!'"

He says they lasted about three weeks.

"Shout-out, Yolanda," he laughs.

Augustus Prew

Augustus Prew plays Brannagan in the film — the only character who, spoiler alert, doesn't end up paired off in the end.

“I pretended to like a movie before,” he says. “I think the date was in the movie. So I had to pretend it was a really good movie.”

In real life, Prew has been married to husband Jeffery Self since 2018. However, Prew assures TODAY.com that back in the day, he used to have a few plays.

“It’s like the long game,” he laughs. “You slide into the DMs, like, 'Oh, are you gonna be there tonight?’”

He also shares some suggestions for opening lines for those interested.

“Maybe like a fire emoji,” he says. “Something like, ‘Oh, I like your pants,’ that sort of thing. ‘Oh, I wonder what it’s like if you don’t have the pants on?’ I don’t know. I guess it works.”

Joel Courtney

Joel Courtney, who plays Brannagan's younger brother, Little, in the rom-com, says he's only ever dated one girl: his wife, Mia Scholink.

He hasn't run many plays as a result, but he did slightly exaggerate his love of hiking to land her.

“So, I led my wife (Scholink) to believe that I liked hiking more than I did because she was so passionate about hiking,” he tells TODAY.com. He laughs and adds that he also enjoys hiking but “she love loves hiking.”

He says he found himself “absolutely struggling” on a hike with her in Big Sur back when they were still just friends. As he, Scholink’s brother and Scholink made their way up a steep embankment, it became clear to him that he was outmatched.

“And I’m trying to put on a brave face because my wife looks, you know, terrific,” he laughs. “We weren’t even dating at this time. She looks terrific. And I’m like, I’m trying to impress this girl. I was dying.”

Gina Rodriguez

No plays here. Leading lady Gina Rodriguez says that like her character Mack, she found it really hard to play "games" when she was looking for love as she got older. She tells TODAY.com that around the age of 31, she decided to make a change.

"I was just over games and I was over the BS and I was over lying to conform to what I thought somebody else wanted," Rodriguez says. "I was like, 'It is not easy to be not me. And I was not being loved for me."

She says she wanted to "figure out what that looks like," and it turned out pretty great.

"I went on a few dates and then I met my husband, (Joe Locicero), and I was like, 'Found him, bye!'" she says. The two became parents in 2023, welcoming a baby boy named Charlie.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com