We could have come up with some great questions for award-winning actor and producer Anthony Anderson, the star of hit television series black-ish and acclaimed movie Beats. But sharing is caring, so for THIS INTERVIEW we used questions from 6 of his fans. Anthony answered everyone one of them!
Matthew Walker: How much did you enjoy playing Antwon Mitchell on The Shield?
Anthony Anderson: It was the best thing I’d ever done. It was the only time I actually called people and asked them to watch me on television outside of getting my very first job. All of my fans were people who appreciated my work, but they’d never seen me do something dramatic. They’d only seen me do comedic stuff. This was a departure from that. I felt I was doing such great work. I hadn’t been given the opportunity to do so, and I really stepped outside of myself, and really became this character Antwon Mitchell. I’ve known Antwon Mitchells in my life! I grew up in Compton! I knew this guy. For me to do that, and to do it with Glenn Close and Michael Chiklis and Forest Whitaker and everyone else I worked with, it was just another chapter in my life I’m extremely proud of.
Sam Helmick: How did you and Taye Diggs make it through Malibu’s Most Wanted without dying laughing?
Anthony Anderson: We got through it because we had to, but we messed up a few takes because of the comedy of the characters we’d become. It was hard at some points to get through scenes because of the ridiculousness of Bloodbath and Tre, and the pseudo-gangstas we’d become in this ruse! Teamed with Jamie Kennedy, we had a lot of fun. They probably could have made a movie of the outtakes!
Antionna Renee: Did you really smash your hand in Barbershop? Because it looked like it really hurt!
Anthony Anderson: No, that was acting. But what I did do was drop a real ATM on my foot in that scene! It created a real problem with my big toenail on my right foot. We were working with a real ATM that weighed a couple hundred pounds and we had a couple fake ones. We were supposed to drop the ATM, which we did, but we dropped one end on my foot. And it just so happened to be the real one! My toe swoll up; it didn’t look quite like what you saw in the movie, but you know what I was going through! [Laughs]
Julie Epple: How was it to have Jim Carrey as your dad in Me, Myself & Irene?
Anthony Anderson: The ludicrousness and ridiculousness of having Jim Carrey as my father on film made it that much more fun to play and portray! Just the genesis of how the three boys were born, how it happened, how he believed we were really his because of his naivety, made it great to come to work every day and work with Carrey. He was so giving as an actor. He allowed you time to do what you wanted to do within the scene. He allowed us to improv like he was. I had a ball!
Aly Boggs-Smitley: What’s it like working with a writer like Dick Wolf?
Anthony Anderson: Well, by the time I got to Law & Order Dick Wolf was no longer writing, which he hasn’t done on his shows in quite some time. He created them and established the template. But as a producer and boss, he’s one of the best I’ve ever worked with. He told me if I ever had a problem or an issue to come directly to him. He always had an open-door policy. If there ever was an issue with anything, I could pick up the phone and call him to address my concerns. It was great to work two-and-half seasons of a show that was around 20 years! It was such a well-oiled machine when I stepped into it. There wasn’t a glitch at all.
Willie Young: What was it like working with all those legends in Life?
Anthony Anderson: Working with those legends in Life was great! I’m going to give you two stories. One, working with Eddie [Murphy], Martin [Lawrence], Bernie [Mac], Obba Babatunde, and all the guys I worked with, and for this to be my first featured film, and for it to be titled “Life”, I felt it was my birth into the film industry. Being with those guys was remarkable! On the flip side, [I was] in a film called The Departed directed by Martin Scorsese starring Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and a host of others. One was my birth into this industry, the other was departing one level and elevating to the next level. To do both those films was just incredible. To work with people at the top of their game, doing the best we could while making two great movies, it was incredible to be a part of. |THIS.
[By Willie Young, Aly Boggs-Smitley, Julie Epple, Antionna Renee, Sam Helmick, Matthew Walker, and Mr. Joe Walker]
