by Matthew Jacobs | via The Huffington Post
Cedric the Entertainer has done the whole drama thing before.
You know the thing I’m talking about, where comedians take on serious roles meant to defy the wheelhouse Hollywood slots them into. Bill Murray in Lost in Translation. Mo’Nique in Precious. Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People.
The year was 2008. Cedric’s reinvention bid was a Broadway play written by none other than David Mamet, the loquacious firebrand whose heady work has been a rite of passage for actors as varied as Al Pacino, Madonna, Patti LuPone and Alec Baldwin.
“Cedric the Entertainer thought he’d try being Cedric the Actor,” The New York Times quipped, expressing understandable surprise over seeing someone with such a stable comedic presence appear in an edgy crime drama.
The production, co-starring John Leguizamo, and Haley Joel Osment, closed almost as quickly as it opened. Cedric the Actor never truly took off.
But he’s is trying again. With this year’s somber provocation First Reformed, opening in limited release May 18, Cedric has found a larger platform to showcase the serious chops that so many comic performers long to mine. A workaholic who is best known for Barbershop and The Original Kings of Comedy, he’s risen to the occasion. In the film, he plays the compassionate, steely head pastor of a church in upstate New York, where a junior reverend (Ethan Hawke) is struck by grief and a crisis of faith. In a departure from his usual scene-stealing antics, Cedric grounds his performance with watchful dignity.
Casting Cedric the Entertainer, credited in the movie as Cedric Kyles, marks a full-circle moment for Paul Schrader, the Taxi Driver, and American Gigolo scribe who wrote and directed First Reformed. In his 1979 directorial debut Blue Collar, Schrader employed Richard Pryor as a hard-up autoworker who robs his company’s union headquarters. Pryor didn’t get enough plaudits for that movie, which means we can’t let Hollywood undervalue just how solid Cedric is in First Reformed.
The day before I called Cedric to talk about his career evolution, CBS announced that it had picked up his new multi-camera sitcom, “Welcome to the Neighborhood” ― a mere two weeks after TBS ordered a second season of the Tracy Morgan comeback vehicle “The Last O.G.,” in which Cedric has a supporting role.
During our conversation, we talked about the politicization of comedy, what it’s like to audition for the first time in years, Bernie Mac holograms and who bit Beyoncé.
With First Reformed, The Last O.G. and your new CBS series, you’re suddenly inhabiting a few different creative realms. Since these projects tend to get made in vacuums, do you feel like you’re shifting from one headspace to the next right now?
For me, it is that kind of thing. I definitely always felt very versatile, and now it’s all coming at once. As a comedic actor, we always want to look for roles and opportunities to be seen seriously, where people go, “Oh, OK, I didn’t know you had that in you. I like that.”
Had you told your agents you wanted serious material?
Yeah, that definitely was a conversation. We did the third or fourth “Barbershop,” and I’d done a sitcom, The Soul Man, for five seasons. That was a real conversation, and it was one where we knew, to be in the dramatic roles, you may have to go audition. You have to take the idea that you’re a big deal and put that on the back burner and decide, yeah, you’re going to go in and meet with people and convince folks.
Even the opportunity to appear in the movie “Why Him?” was one, as well. That was another small movie, but with James Franco and Bryan Cranston, really dope actors, that you show up and you have to go audition for. You go in and you make your splash.
So this all fell in that same realm, where I was willing to do the work, willing to go meet the people, willing to try to convince Paul Schrader to do something different. He actually wanted to cast differently for this role, and it just kind of worked out that, when we met, it made sense for him.
Do you have an idea of what he was looking for?
From my understanding, he knew he had Ethan [Hawke] and Amanda [Seyfried]. It seemed like he wanted somebody who was going to be a shocking cast, in a way. A casting where people go, “Oh, shit, I wasn’t expecting that.” But he didn’t want comedy at all, so he wasn’t sure he wanted a comedian.
It was another preacher, and I’ve played preachers in comedies, so that was one of the things I was a little apprehensive about. I was like, man, my audience is not really going to see me do anything different if I’m playing a preacher. But after meeting with Paul and understanding what he was looking for, I was like, this movie is going to be dark. I read the script, and there’s no way for you to see me as the same “Soul Man” preacher watching this movie. These are not the same dudes at all.
So you did audition?
I didn’t have to audition. It was a meeting. And from the meeting, we were able to go, “All right, I like it. Let’s do it.”
I did have to go and audition for “Why Him?,” which was weird because the audition process is ― you go in and all your friends are there. I was finishing up “Soul Man,” and I was the executive producer and No. 1 on the call sheet. I’m sitting in there with [people who auditioned for “Soul Man”], and it’s like, “We’re the same now. This is Hollywood.”
Before “Why Him?” it must have been years since you’d auditioned for anything.
Yeah, it had been quite a while. Everything was usually a call: “Hey, we want you to be part of it” and “Ced, are you available?” You know, the great side of Hollywood, when life is good and you’re drinking seltzer water.
Do you see it as a mark of achievement that you don’t have to audition, rather than a sign that Hollywood slots you into the same roles over and over?
In the way that Hollywood is built, once you’re offer-only, as they call it, you take on this attitude that you’ve built up this pedigree. People know you’re either going to make me an offer [without auditioning] or you’re not, in which case I’m going to keep on moving.
For me, the parallel to your question is that I know people are going to offer-only me for comedy spots, but not necessarily for dramatic roles. So I have to be willing to go in and audition [for dramatic roles]. I have to show people that I’m willing to put in the work and want to do something different here.
You’ve talked about how you arrived at Cedric the Entertainer as your professional name, but this is the first time you’re credited as Cedric Kyles. Did that decision come out of a desire to be seen as a more serious actor?
Yeah. In trying to have the opportunity to be seen as a dramatic screen actor, I understand that, after 30 years of building this thing as Cedric the Entertainer, with great stand-up properties and Netflix specials and Kings of Comedy, and then to do movies and television as well, it’s one of these things where you know that when people see the name, they’re going to instantly think it’s comedy. If you see me onscreen, you expect to see the comedy.
But now, if you see Cedric Kyles, I feel like it’s the opportunity to grow an audience in a different direction ― to have not only my audience look at me that way, but casting directors and writers. “Oh, I like Cedric. I like the humanity that he brings,” as opposed to the comedian that’s expected to show up.
Paul wanted to know if I was willing to do it. And it was something that we had been considering as part of my team, as well. We all went over it many different times, like, “Should I change my name?” You’ve got branding that’s been working for 30 years, and certain things you don’t want to give up. In this particular case, it made sense. This was the opportunity for me to say I’m the more dramatic character now.
In the future, do you think you’ll use Cedric the Entertainer for comedic work and Cedric Kyles for dramatic roles?
We don’t know. You definitely don’t want to keep pulling people in two directions. We’re going to try to massage that. I said, “Well if you have Bono and Sting and Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers, they get to still be certain names into their 60s.” The Edge! If you get to be The Edge when you’re 69, I get to be the Entertainer all the way through.
It’s different for rock stars, I guess, but you do wonder. I’m a little concerned about all the littles in the world. I don’t know how little you can stay for a long time. I don’t know if you can be Lil Wayne when you’re 65, but let’s give it a shot.
Have you ever asked any of the littles about their plans? Maybe they become bigs next.
I literally just thought of that sitting here talking to you, so this is actually new material right now. Thanks for writing jokes with me, buddy. Check’s in the mail.
I’ll be dining out on those royalties for a long time. Obviously, you have tremendous clout in Hollywood, but do you feel you’ve gotten your due? Do you think your career has been taken seriously enough as a comedian and an entertainer?
Of course, you see people get credit, and the world is starting to spin really fast from a stand-up point of view. You had the big tiff come up with Mo’Nique about Netflix paying certain comedians right. You’ll see yourself in that argument as, you know, really being the guy that people can trust, from “Kings of Comedy” to being consistent for 30 years to selling out concerts all the time. If you spend your money to go see me, you’re going to get a good time. I’m not a call-it-in kind of guy.
You wonder, “Wow, am I getting the proper accolades for that? Why am I not considered in the top blah-blah-blah?” That happens. And then when you’re consistently in film and on television — and I say this about John Goodman and actors where, no matter what they’re in, you know they’re going to kill it — what is that worth?
So yeah, you consider that sometimes. I think it is a world where there’s a lot of media where people get behind hype. There’s a lot of voices, including individual bloggers who have the ability to say, “Hey, you should pay attention to this guy.” I think it’s important for the actor to pay attention to them, too, because you recognize that they have unique and important jobs of really transferring your message to other people that you don’t know how to get to.
That’s something I have to learn. When you’re from the old school, you’re used to people giving you props. You get your props, you take that and then you kind of spin it. But now you have to go and re-earn an audience.
That’s the thing about being in this town. You realize if you don’t have 20 million followers that Hollywood somehow is going, “I don’t know if you’re really super A-list.” And you’re like, “Really? I’m 30 years deep with this brand.” It’s, “But you gotta have 7 million followers, otherwise, we’re not putting you on our Met Gala list.”
So Cedric wants a Met Gala invitation. That makes sense. Do you think it’s easier for white actors to cross over in their careers? John Goodman is the perfect example of someone who navigates different worlds. Have you struggled as a performer of color in that regard?
I don’t know. I can’t really put my finger on anybody who has that same kind of ability to get cast like that. Maybe Anthony Mackie. Maybe. He can show up in different things. Usually, it’s dramatic, but he’s the kind of guy who can transfer from an all-urban film to a bigger film.
But I think, in Hollywood, there’s not a lot of versatility like that where people get to cross over. I’ve had a lot of versatility, when you think about it, from the opportunity to do a movie with the Coen brothers, Intolerable Cruelty, and then Be Cool. Then you come back and you do a Barbershop series. But I think that in the course of the last year or so, with the big emergence of urban film and writers and directors, that these opportunities may open up a little bit more.
The last time people banged the drum for Cedric the Serious Actor was in 2008, when you appeared on Broadway in David Mamet’s “American Buffalo.” Mamet’s writing is considered very highbrow and literary. That play didn’t stay open for long, but did you see it as your entryway into serious parts?
Definitely. It was definitely the first step. To do that at the time was really just to say, “OK, I want to do Broadway. I want to have that on my résumé.”
But when I went to do the work, I was surprised. I was working with John Leguizamo, who’s a Broadway legend who loves doing it and is also a great dramatic actor. It was the kind of experience where I had to work the most I’d ever worked. I didn’t realize how serious it was, and I didn’t have what would be my normal go-to tools in the sense that I’ve got a sense of humor and I’m an observationist. I can improvise, I can jump off the page, I can make up something on the spur of the moment. Even when you’re in comedic films, I’ve kind of earned the leisure to do that. In all the “Barbershop” movies, if I feel like saying something different in a take, it’s just A-OK because it’s Cedric and it’s going to be funny.
Click HERE to read the rest of the story, “The Artist Formerly Known As Cedric The Entertainer Has Arrived.”