by Nahlah Abdur-Rahman
September 28, 2025
Hammond revealed his well being struggles as he works on a reunion documentary for “Soul Meals.”
Brandon Hammond, the kid star identified for his roles in “Area Jam” and “Ready To Exhale,” has a severe cause for why he left the highlight after the ’90s.
Hammond revealed about how his well being points acquired in the way in which of his burgeoning performing profession. Hammond had begun to make a reputation for himself in Hollywood with roles in high movies, additionally together with “Menace II Society” and “Mars Assaults!”
Nevertheless, his profession got here to an abrupt halt upon listening to about his uncommon prognosis. The 41-year-old informed Individuals about how he discovered he had Castleman illness, an autoimmune dysfunction. He’s shedding a light-weight on his struggles behind the digicam as he prepares for his personal comeback.
“I used to be recognized with this tremendous, tremendous uncommon, autoimmune situation known as Castleman illness,” he mentioned. “I had all these chest pains, and my eye was flushed out pink, simply all forms of physiological issues have been occurring to me that we couldn’t clarify.”
On the time of his well being scare, Hammond was basking within the success of the 1997 basic movie, “Soul Meals.” Hammond performed the movie’s protagonist, 11-year-old Ahmad, within the household drama.
Now, he’s getting actual about his inside struggles. Across the movie’s preliminary launch, Hammond saved experiencing intense, mysterious chest pains, main him to find the sickness.
“After which I had a biopsy as a result of they have been seeing that my lymph nodes have been swollen. And that’s once I acquired this prognosis for this factor known as Castleman’s illness. I had by no means heard of it earlier than, however apparently, it’s tremendous uncommon in kids and it’s tremendous uncommon in Black folks. So whenever you speak about uncommon, I’m the rarest exception to that rule,” detailed the actor.
Simply as Hammond started to make a reputation for himself within the leisure trade, he needed to take a step again whereas getting his well being so as. Nevertheless, he shied away from explaining what occurred to curious and anxious followers.
Lots of people don’t know that as a result of folks have requested, ‘Hey, what occurred? Why’d you cease performing?’ And I used to provide these actually type of imprecise solutions and responses as a result of I wasn’t prepared to speak about it,” he shared.
He mentioned his agent additionally informed him to maintain quiet concerning the illness, alluding that it might jeopardize his profession.
“I used to be type of informed to not speak about it,” added Hammond. “After all, in hindsight, I remorse that, proper? However I used to be simply following what I used to be informed to do. My brokers informed me to maintain it underneath wraps.”
Whereas initially informed to maintain his well being issues in the dead of night, Hammond is able to reappear within the highlight. His documentary, “Sunday Dinner: The Soul Meals Reunion,” is already within the works. He not solely hopes to share his story, but additionally reminisce on the basic movie that co-starred Vivica A. Fox, Nia Lengthy, and Vanessa Williams.
“[I felt] ‘Soul Meals’ deserves that sort of recognition for what it means to the tradition. It deserves to be given its flowers… This documentary, the sentiments that you simply acquired whereas watching the movie, and I’m speaking about comfortable, pleasure, unhappy, indignant, laughter, all of that, I need to encapsulate all that.”
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