Is Otis McCutcheon Based on a Real Person?
The Hulu limited series Welcome to Chippendales is a new true crime saga that follows the rise and subsequent fall of Chippendales founder Somen “Steve” Banerjee. Showrunner Rob Siegel sticks fairly close to the real events that happened involving the murder of Nick de Noia, but he also created a few characters for the series. Not everyone in the series actually existed in real life. So, is popular Chippendales dancer Otis McCutcheon based on a real person? Here’s what we know.
‘Welcome to Chippendales’ features Quentin Plair as dancer Otis McCutcheon
Audiences meet Plair’s character, Otis, in the first episode of Welcome to Chippendales. Steve, played by Kumail Nanjiani, brings on Emmy award-winning director Nick de Noia (Murray Bartlett) to choreograph the male dancers, and Nick immediately notices Otis’s talent. Steve seems concerned at the decision at first because Otis is Black. However, he quickly decides his presence will be “good for business.”
When Otis shows up to work one day, several people stand outside the nightclub protesting. Otis tells Steve, worried the protesters might cause issues. He then learns that Steve called the news to cover it, following the old “any publicity is good publicity” motto. Otis becomes intrigued by Steve’s business skills and says he wants to essentially shadow Steve to learn how he operates the business.
Even though Steve placed Nick in charge of creative decisions, he becomes annoyed at Nick and Denise’s (Juliette Lewis) plans for a new show while he traveled to India for his father’s funeral. As a way to reinforce that Steve runs the show, Steve orchestrates a photo shoot with some of the male dancers, including Otis. However, when the calendars arrive, Otis sees he doesn’t appear in the calendar at all, despite being Chippendales’ most popular dancer.
Otis confronts Steve about the calendar. anSteve explains that it’s one thing for the women to enjoy a Black man in the privacy of the club, it’s a different issue to hang a picture of a shirtless Black man in the comfort of their own homes. Steve attempts to explain it’s strictly a business decision, but the move bothers Otis. Later, Steve discovers Otis putting together a calendar of his own and erupts in anger at the thought of a competing calendar. However, it still shocks him when Otis makes the decision to quit.
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‘Welcome to Chippendales’ character Otis McCutcheon seems loosely based on Hodari Sababu
If fans of Welcome to Chippendales simply google the name Otis McCutcheon, they won’t find anything relating to the popular male dance troupe. However, it looks like Siegel loosely based Otis’s character on a former Chippendales dancer named Hodari Sababu.
Sababu’s time with the Chippendales overlaps Otis’s time in the Hulu limited series. Plus, a few other details match up with Otis’s storyline in the show. A podcast titled Welcome to Your Fantasy, hosted by Natalia Petrzela, dives into the dirty details behind the history of Chippendales, and Sababu appeared as a guest.
In the episode, Sababu mentions an incident that Welcome to Chippendales mimics with a few minor changes. “I remember one time he wanted some… In order to get more publicity, he called a bunch of churches in the area. He said, ‘Ah, yeah, we heard that there’s a showdown there these guys are getting naked.’ These church leaders, ‘Oh my God.’ They came, and then he would call the news channel. “I heard that there’s going to be a bunch of church ladies picketing outside of Chippendales,” and all the news cameras were there, and all the church ladies were there. And they’re picketing, no more naked guys. No more naked guys. Millions of dollars worth of free publicity,” Sababu says on the podcast.
Sababu also talks about how he was the only Black man working as a dancer. Similar to the series, this was a detail Sababu had a hard time looking past.
Hodari Sababu opened up his own male strip club after leaving Chippendales
After leaving Chippendales, Sababu took the knowledge he learned from Banerjee and used it to open up his own male strip club called Lady Killers and Bad Boys. However, he wanted his club to be for and by Black people. With only four episodes of Welcome to Chippendales available, viewers only saw Otis quit at the end of episode 4. Whether or not Siegel showcases what Otis decides to do next remains to be seen.
Check out Welcome to Chippendales Episodes 1-4, now streaming on Hulu.
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