Most of us have known Anthony Anderson as the funny man that can bring us to tears, but, the actor has been expanding his acting range, taking on serious roles like Antwon Mitchell in The Shield.
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But the funnyman hasn’t completely given up making us laugh our asses off. Anthony makes a cameo appearance in the comedic adventurous film, The Big Year that hit theaters yesterday.
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The film starring Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Steve Martin and the beautiful Rashida Jones, portrays a true story of a set of guys whose lives revolves around bird watching.
We got a chance to catch up with Anthony learn more about his role, his transition into drama roles, the first words he said to Jack Black and the jams he just can’t stop playing on his ipod.
Global Grind: Your movie The Big Year is premiering can you tell me more about it and your character?
The Big Year stars Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Steve Martin and myself. It’s a true story. It’s a film about bird watching and I play Jack Black’s boss who he need to come to and ask time off to go around the globe looking for birds. I think you can’t assemble a cast like that and not have the movie be hilarious. So I’m excited to see the outcome. I just have a cameo role in it. The producers and directors called me up and asked me to be apart of this film and I said ‘of course.’
I’ve always considered myself to be the black Jack Black and that was actually the first thing I said to him. I knew that Jack Black was a cool dude and that we were really going to get along. I said ‘Hey Jack! I just want to tell you I’ve always considered myself to be the black Jack Black’ and without hesitation he looked at me and said “You know what Anthony, ‘I‘ve always considered myself to be the white Anthony Anderson’ and so we hit it off right from there.
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It sounds like it would be so hard filming and getting through scenes with such a hilarious cast, was it difficult?
Jack and I had our funny moments in it together and it is [hard] but that’s how you know when you have something that’s going to work really well and something the audience is going to receive well and respond to, when you’re having that much fun on set because that just means that your product is going to be great if you’re enjoying making it, more often than not the audience is going to enjoy it just as much as they’re watching it.
You used to be strictly known for your comedic roles but now you’ve expanded you roster, what made you want to do more serious roles like Law and Order?
I didn’t want to be type cast as the “fat funny guy”, the comic relief and in the things I was doing I could’ve made a handsome living at it and had a great career just doing that but I just wanted to show my audience that there is more to me than just laughs. I’ve dreamt of this since I was 9 years old, this has been my dream as a kid and Hollywood can be myopic in their thinking at times in how they view you based on what you do, and especially if you do it well but I wanted to show them the flipside so I consciously made the decision I wasn’t going to do anymore comedic films, or things like that in this point in my career.
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Do you prefer comedy more than drama or vise versa?
Comedy comes natural to me not that I prefer one more than the other. I’m just a nut this is just who I am and this is what I do. I love them both. Fortunately for me I’m one of the few actors that can dance in the both worlds, comedy and drama. I don’t know what it is but very few dramatic actors can make that transformation to the comedic side but the comedic actors can make the transition to the dramatic side.
I think mainly because comedy is pain you have to be able to laugh at yourself along with other people laughing with you. You have to be very vulnerable. Not that I profess to be a stand up or anything like that but what stand up comics do is they wear they’re heart on their sleeve and they’re vulnerable and they bare their soul for the world and half the time they’re baring their souls to the world its sad but we laugh about it. If you really look at some of the stuff these guys talk about you’re like damn that’s rough but we laugh at it and I think that’s why the transition is easier for comedic actor to dance in that dramatic world and vice versa.
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What was your favorite role that you’ve done so far?
Wow um… I’m gunna have to say my favorite television role was Antoine Mitchell on The Shield just because no one had ever seen me in that kind of light before, as dark and as sinister as I was on that show. I was a ruthless, heartless kingpin and killer. You go from Kangaroo Jack to that it’s like WOAH who the hell is this dude?! So television wise I’m going to say Antoine Fisher. Film wise, Two Can Play That Game, Barber Shop, just these characters I was able to create and have fun with. I said Kangaroo Jack I make jokes about that but the experience I had living in Australia for 6 months making that movie was unlike anything I ever experience.
If you could interview anyone who would it be?
Mmm! If I could interview anyone who it be? Off the top of my head, President Barack Obama., just to get inside his head and to hear what he has to say about the experience that he’s had, not just in the last 3 years but in his entire career. And at one point did he decide that he was going to run for president, at what point did he decide Oh shit I can actually be president. It would be interesting to sit and hear his story and his journey. Brother Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, they’re a few people I would like to sit down with and have that conversation with.
Yeah like a round table?
Just the dichotomy and juxtaposition between King and Malcolm and Obama and Jesse and all those guys… Marcus Garvey. It goes on. It would be a great discussion and to have Dr.Cornel West. Yeah it would be an interesting conversation.
I know you’re a huge sports fan how are you surviving through this lock out?
That’s interesting. It should be interesting to see. There’s know lockout yet… but we know it’s gunna happen. We’ll see, we got through football, we’ll see how it goes with the NBA but I understand business and after all at the end of the day it is a business and the players and the owners have to make a business decision in their best interest so I understand that. It’s unfortunate that we’re not going to have it but we all go through it in our walks in life in our fields. It’s something that has to happen eventually. Hopefully it doesn’t last long. Hopefully they can reach an
