FILM INTERVIEW
Veteran funnyman Cedric the Entertainer starts taking his career seriously.
BY DEMARCO WILLIAMS
T
HERE’S JUST SOMETHING ABOUT THIS guy. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly if it’s Cedric the Entertainer’s wide grin or cuddly good looks that win most over. For the writers in the Missouri comic’s immediate proximity, it’s the colorful ensemble he’s wearing. Looking like someone coming fresh from his first Easter pageant, Ced approaches the table in a pastel vest, shirt and tie that’s so clean, so debonair, we can’t help but smile. Ceddie just has that kind of effect on you. Clearly, casting directors feel the same way. It doesn’t matter if Hollywood is working a gritty cop drama (Street Kings), a family laugher (Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa) or a cult classic remake (Back to School), Ced knows entertaining. When INsite sits the comedian down to talk movies, standup and kung-fu dancing, he’s still got it. And we still haven’t stopped smiling… Street Kings was a real dramatic role. Were you excited to get it? I definitely looked forward to being in that movie, especially with so many great actors. You got the feel of it reading this script. Also, it was this grimy, L.A. crime drama. Cops were bad. I was like, “Ah, this would be a good look for me. This would be something that’s a lil’ different and kinda unexpected.” To play the street hustler dude, I thought was a fun role to do. And I got killed in the movie. Can you get used to a dramatic set? Definitely. I’m doing Cadillac Records right now with Jeffrey Wright and Adrien Brody. These guys are very [intense]. They know their character’s history. In between, they’ll be talking about it. They’ll be like, “You know, in 1949…” I’ll be like, “Yeah, that’s good.” I kinda studied my character and get the nuances I want to play. Then I’m like, “I’m done.” These guys are dot to dot: “The hair is all wrong!” Jeffrey will be like, “Until I change my hair, I’m not doing the scene!” You wonder why these guys are so dope when you see them in the movie. I think it’s important for me to learn this, especially with the opportunity of doing more dramatic roles and stuff. I’m just kinda watching how these guys work. With each stroke, they try to figure out what their characters are going through, just fine-lining it. On film it shows up. It really does. The most minute thing will show up and you’re like, “Whoa, that was perfect.” You gotta give that some props. Aren’t you working on Ice Age 3? No, I’m doing Madagascar 2. That sounds funny, right? We’re doing Cadillac Records right now, too. I’m having fun directing my first movie. It’s an independent comedy called Chicago Pulaski Jones. It’s a dance movie mixed with kung-fu. It’s crazy. I’ve got Kel Mitchell. He’s the lead. I got a lil’ cameo in it. I got a lot of cool, young actors and we’re having fun with it. It’s basically about this guy who’s a hip hop dancer from Chicago. They have their own special kind of dance called juking. This guy comes to a fictional Hollywood called Hollybank to avenge his uncle’s death from this crazy gang, villain dude that’s taking over the city. He can’t fight unless he hears music. He creates this thing called dance-fu. We’re having a great time with it. It’s just some stuff that’s totally out the box. With the success of all these dance movies, it parodies all the Step Up and Bringin’ Down the House movies. We dancin’ and fightin’ and doin’ flips. I got some cool stunt choreography. You’re also attached to a remake of Back to School. Where is that? It’s still a lil’ bit away. It’s a movie that was with the old MGM, before they sold to Sony and took it back. They started developing a script for it. It was moving in the right direction. And then, that [merger] process happened and it was put on the backburner. It’s not really moving forward at this point. I got a call on it. A couple of producers are thinking about picking it up PG 18 • insiteatlanta.com • May 2008
and figuring out how to get it made. Right now, it’s more or less on the backburner. Are you nervous about recreating a movie that so many people grew up on? It’s one of those films that people love. It’s got this cult following. It is what it is. And it seems like with remakes lately, they just don’t win out. I think you either have to take a totally different idea and try to do it in the spirit of that movie and create something totally different or if you just try to do a modern version, it just hasn’t been working out, film-wise. I feel that way with The Honeymooners. I feel it was a good movie but we missed trying to capture [everything]. I’m not real sure about it. I thought we had a real good take on [Back to School]. It was fun. It was modern. I was a guy who owned a store with commodes and stuff and, basically, turned it into like a Home Depot. I became successful, but my son didn’t really want to be in the business. He goes to school. It was this whole self-made millionaire situation.
He was one of the success stories. As he matured, he was able to understand about his publishings a lil’ before he died. He knew that he couldn’t just say that he wanted to keep his own publishing so he told the record company that he owed [money] to these gangsters and he made up this name. He made up this publishing company and let his record label think these gangsters owned him. They never challenged it. That’s pretty slick. Yeah, it was. They just weren’t letting people keep their records. Mos Def is playing Chuck Berry. Chuck Berry was the other one that came on to this record label and changed the music landscape again for these guys. Jeffrey Wright is playing Muddy Waters. Adrien Brody is Leonard Chess. Beyonce is in the movie as Etta James. We’re having a great time with it, too. Did he play delta blues? He played bass, the upright bass. That was his thing. He did stuff like “Hoochie Coochie Man” and “Backdoor Man” and… “I’m a Man.” You had a lot to prove back then. All right, brutha. Ced, who are some of the younger comedians that excite you right now? I mean, obviously, Katt Williams is hot. It’s a few people. I mean, the young cat who opens up for me. His name is JJ, Jeremiah Williamson. He’s out of Mississippi but he lives in Atlanta. He’s very funny guy. Rodney Perry [is funny]. There are a few guys that got some pop, some flair, and they’re trying to make a name for themselves. It’s definitely different, even watching this season of Def Comedy Jam. I think comedy has changed so much that it feels the same, like with the subject matter and what people are talking about. Even if they have a fresh take on it, you don’t really see someone with what you’d call breakout potential. With that being said, there are still a lot of people that are really good and are funny to watch on stage.
I DEFINITELY CONSIDER (THE STAGE) A YOUNG MAN’S SPORT. I’M GETTING READY TO GO OUT AND DO SOME CLUB WORK AND TRY TO WRITE SOME NEW MATERIAL TO AT LEAST BE READY IF THE DEAL COMES DOWN. I GOTTA BE READY TO THROW SOME BOMBS OUT THERE, YOU KNOW? What’s going on with Cadillac Records? I play a guy named Willie Dixon. He was a bass player, and he wrote a lot of those big blues songs. He was actually one of the main guys. At the end of his career, they sued the record label and got a lot of his publishing back. A lot of those songs like “The Rolling Stones” -which The Rolling Stones named themselves after- and a lot of those songs that big bands had remade, [he got recouped for them so] he ended up dying a pretty rich man. But because they were Mississippi men doing the blues early in their career, they were paid in Cadillacs. That’s the whole thing. The guy would give them a lil’ bit of money and buy them new Cadillacs. As long as you looked good and had a couple of thousand dollars in your pocket, that’s what they wanted. Blues was rock ‘n roll but country—with harmonicas.
You still like to get on stage? I still do it. I definitely consider it a young man’s sport. It’s some talk of us doing a Kings of Comedy 2. I’m getting ready to go out and do some club work and try to write some new material to at least be ready if the deal comes down. I gotta be ready to throw some bombs out there, you know? I’mma start in April, doing some club dates around the country. I call them “the gym.” I gotta get back in the gym, throw some punches. I’ll go to Columbus, Ohio and if it don’t work out, nobody will hear about it. People in Columbus will be like, “He didn’t do that good here.” Folks be like, “Nobody believe y’all. Shut up!”
