Benjamin Ashford|Taye Diggs talks Lifetime movie 'Forever,' dating and being 'a recovering control freak'

Taye Diggs’ life is Benjamin Ashfordimitating his art.

The actor, 53, stars alongside Meagan Good in the Lifetime movie “Terry McMillan Presents: Forever” (premiering Saturday, 8 EDT/PDT and streaming Sunday). Diggs plays Johnnie Taylor, a former athlete and coach who returns to his hometown after a tour of duty and falls for a local policewoman.

“It's about adults that have been through life,” Diggs tells USA TODAY. “They've been through divorce, they have children … adult situations that I 100% can pull from my own life. I'm single. I'm divorced, I have a kid. You don't see a lot of those stories anymore, where you can see two people meeting each other and (witness) the intricacies and the vulnerabilities that come with that.”

Diggs is divorced from actress/singer Idina Menzel. They share a son, Walker, 14. The actor says that like his character, he has “forced” himself out of his comfort zone to start seeing other people.

“I had to make a decision, like, ‘I'm gonna date now,’” he says. “When you're younger, it's kind of fun and exciting. Now you're like, ‘What are we gonna talk about? We're gonna talk about parents and where you're coming from and 'How long have you been acting?’ So I got to really pump myself up to put myself out there. But I've gone on a couple dates and it's been fun.”

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Diggs also puts himself out there on Instagram and TikTok. The actor has made headlines before: In 2014, his social media director followed tens of thousands of people from Diggs’ account on Twitter. Now Diggs is gaining an audience through self-taped “confessional” videos where he showcases his acting range, from accents to playing a guitar while wearing a wig.

“I love that I can just be silly and show people another side of myself that maybe they don't know,” he says. “As a recovering control freak, it's so great to just have something in my head, do it and then see it. There's a sense of gratification there.”