[IMG:L]Hollywood.com was invited to the set of First Sunday to chat with stars Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan.
Sunday is known as a day of rest to most people. But Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan aren’t most people.
After coming off the success of the Friday movie franchise, Ice Cube is moving on to what he hopes is the next best day of the week–Sunday, or First Sunday, that is.
As star and producer of the film, Ice Cube meets up with his partner-in-crime to scheme their next big get-rich-quick scheme at a church where they hope to find sanctuary. They end up getting a lot more than what they bargained for.
“I never realized, you know, that I’m kind of stuck in this weekend. So a Saturday movie is somewhere in my future. I can feel it,” Ice Cube said, laughing. “It’s just a perfect title. I got people asking me, ‘Is that part of the Friday series?’ What’s good is we are doing a whole other movie, a different day of the week, a different tone–and it’s cool.”
[IMG:R]On a recent visit to the First Sunday set, Hollywood.com got to see everything in action–literally. As reporters, armed with pen, paper and recorders in hand, walked onto the lot at Faith United Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, the scheming was already in motion.
The director, assistant directors, producers and crew walked and talked vigorously over their headsets, watching intently at the monitors as the camera shot was set up on Tracy Morgan’s character, Leejohn Jackson, who just woke up from a nap in the basement of the church only to have a few words with Durell Washington, played by Ice Cube. Oh, and did we mention Leejohn has a gun in his hand?
First-time feature film director David Talbert described Durell and Leejohn as good guys that do not-so-good things–people who aren’t bad, they just get in bad situations. In the film, Durell needs $17,000 to keep his baby momma from taking his son to Atlanta to start a hair salon, and Leejohn needs $12,000 after a scheme to trick-out wheelchairs backfires and someone’s ready to collect on his debt.
They both need money desperately and while they’re doing community service, follow a fine-looking woman, Tianna Mitchell (played by Malinda Williams from Daddy’s Little Girls) into a church. Without hesitation, they strip off their orange jumpsuits and end up attending the church’s First Sunday with congregants who are pouring money into the donation buckets.
“The preacher says, Malachi, Chapter 3 asks a simple question: Will a man rob God? And they look at each other [and] it’s set up–they are going to break into church on the First Sunday night, steal the money and pay off their debt,” said Talbert. “And everything goes crazy–the money is missing, there’s an auxiliary meeting that same night that they didn’t know about and the choir is having a special service.”
[IMG:L]Making a Scene
In this scene, everyone’s being held hostage, they’ve been in the church for an hour, the air conditioner is broken and everyone is about to snap.
“Let em’ have it, Loretta!” Talbert yells playfully through the microphone to co-star Loretta Devine, who plays the church secretary trapped in the basement with other congregants, portrayed by such seasoned actors as Chi McBride (Boston Public, Roll Bounce) and Michael Beach (Waiting to Exhale, Third Watch, ER).
Shooting a close-up on Leejohn’s gun draped over a ketchup bottle on the table, he wakes up confused from a nap, gets up from the chair, the camera pans to Durell in the kitchen of the basement and the two have an argument.
“What if they don’t know where the money is?” Leejohn wonders.
“What if they do?” asks Durell.
“What if they don’t?” quips Leejohn.
“Do you know where the money is? ‘Cause I don’t know where the money is. Get back in there,” Durell barks.
Looking at the congregants holed up in the small room, sweating and fanning themselves, Durell adds, “I’m sick of y’all, so tell me what I need to know.”
Balancing Act
Ice Cube took a break from filming to candidly speak with us in a room adjacent to the main set. He said he would like to make more movies of the genre, which he describes as a dramedy.[PAGEBREAK][IMG:L]”For me [dramedies] seem elusive… the whole story is an edgy balance. You know, we tell people we’re robbing a church and you know people are kind of taken aback a little bit by that,” said Ice Cube. “When I add that we’re stupid enough to rob a church … people can see what’s the funny in that.”
The film is not rated R, but it’s “gritty” and “real,” said Talbert, much like the comedy found in Friday and the heart of Barbershop, mixed with his own brand of inspiration.
So has filming in a church made Ice Cube more aware of his surroundings?
“I don’t know. [There’s] still a lot of profanity that’s going on and probably shouldn’t [laughing]. People forget where they’re at–then everybody starts to look around,” said Ice Cube. “I know being in the church has definitely helped Tracy Morgan and Katt Williams–you know, their dark side is starting to see the light [laughing]. I feel like we’re on a stage to be honest.”
In his own twist, Morgan referenced the Elizabethan era to describe the balance between comedy and drama in First Sunday.
“They’re the same. Shakespeare said that. Dude, you didn’t know that, you didn’t study that? Comedy and drama are both the same. It’s like love and hate, joy and pain–you can’t have one without the other,” Morgan said. “I mean, I’m doing Leejohn and all this funny stuff in this movie, but who knows what I’m going through in my real life. Who knows what kind of phone calls I get. So there is a balance whether you know about it or not ‘cause life is not perfect and it gets a little bumpy for all of us, a little rough for all of us. Yeah, I have my stormy seas. With that, I’m doing this movie and look at this opportunity I have.”
He even got a little personal, showing us his electronic ankle bracelet he was ordered to wear after being arrested for drunken driving last November in New York.
“Do you want to know the balance on me? I’ll show you the balance, bro. This is how f*cking real I am (lifting up his pant leg to reveal his ankle bracelet),” he said. “That’s the infamous Tracy bracelet. That ain’t cool and I’m letting you all see that because I’m not hiding nothin’. I’ve always been an honest person, but you know I had some problems. But look where I’m at right now. My boy Ice Cube came and said, ‘We’re going to fix you right up homey, we’ll fix you right good.’”
[IMG:R]Morgan went on to say that working with Ice Cube had been a “joy” and a dream turned into reality. After watching Are We There Yet?, he had always wanted to work with him.
“He’s one of the most well adjusted, down-to-earth people that I’ve ever met in show business,” said Morgan. “He’s a cool dude. He’s like me–we’re both 38, we both got three sons, we’ve both been married to our wives for years … we have that in common just off the bat. And then there’s that chemistry. He appreciates what everybody is bringing and he shows it–and it’s cool. Not a man of many words, but plenty of action.”
A Director’s Actor
Morgan is not the only one to get little mentoring on set.
Producer Matt Alvarez, according to director Talbert, has taken more black directors to the “promised land” and Talbert plans to be the next one who moves on to big budget Fantastic Four projects, he said. “Matt put together an incredible team of not only talent and behind the scenes, but his partner Cube came to the table and helped me develop the script even more,” he said.
As the saying goes, you can be an actor’s director, and Ice Cube, Talbert said, is a director’s actor.
[IMG:L]”There’s no better actor for a first-time director than Cube because he’s been in so many movies and he knows when something’s not right, but he doesn’t put you on blast. He says, ‘Hey, man’ (mimicking a conversation with he and Ice Cube)… [Then I say], ‘So there, I’ve got another idea [laughing].’ So he’s really ‘big brothered’ me as far as he’s been like a director’s coach,” said Talbert.
A playwright and theatre director by craft, Talbert had to quickly adapt to telling stories for the screen versus the stage.
The idea for the script came about two years ago when Talbert brought it to his manager Dave Mcllvain, who introduced him to producer Tim Story. After some cast members fell out, Talbert said he never thought he’d actually get to make the movie, but then hooked up with Alvarez (Friday, Barbershop, Are We There Yet?) and Ice Cube, and it was a green light for the project.
“Green light, thank God. It was flashing yellow,” Talbert said, laughing.
According to the actors, Talbert has really proven himself as a movie director.
“He’s awesome. I think he’s going to be one of the greats. As a matter of fact I know this about him because he’s like Vince Lombardy–he gets in your soul. I mean as a director he inspires, he trusts you, and that means a lot to performers when there’s trust; when a director trusts you and your instincts and the choices that you make,” said Morgan. “It feels bad when somebody doesn’t trust a choice that you make. As a professional you’re like, ‘Wait a minute, that’s how I saw the character.’ As a director, the No. 1 thing you want to do is capture it and he’s capturing all the magic, the cool stuff, like Martin Scorsese–he’s capturing the magic. He doesn’t give it away, he doesn’t build walls, he tears the walls down. As a director he doesn’t bring it, ‘I’m telling you Tracy Morgan, you hear me, can you hear me, I’m telling you, you asked me a question I’m telling you, I’m very engaging [laughing].’ I love him because he doesn’t bring any anxiety on the set, he releases all of that. He’s a Zen man, he’s like Phil Jackson, he’s a Zen master.”
[IMG:R]But when the project was scheduled to begin, Ice Cube was not set to stand in front of the camera. Originally, Mike Epps and Katt Williams were set to play the two lead characters, but Screen Gems–the studio distributing the film–wanted more established actors and didn’t necessarily want a repeat of the Friday movies with Epps and Ice Cube, he said.
“People couldn’t really see us changing the tone enough to come out of that, so, you know, that’s why Tracy was brought to the table,” said Ice Cube. “I believe me and Mike, we definitely could have because we’ve done it before, but I was happy to see Tracy on the movie because I knew that we was definitely gonna have something different without even having to work at it. With me and Mike it was going to be a thing where we had to work closely to make sure it didn’t turn out to be a Friday movie. But with Tracy it’s none of that. He brings in his … east coast flavor and to me, it’s brilliant.”[PAGEBREAK][IMG:L]Range of Emotion
Having had major television success with Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, Tracy admitted that he had to make distinctions between the characters he has played. “Leejohn is showing emotion and he has a buddy. Tracy Jordan [on 30 Rock] doesn’t. I mean he is loveable, he’s likeable, he’s an international movie star. You don’t get to that level not being loveable and likeable, but in this movie I’m showing a range of emotion,” he said. “Most comedians never get asked to do that, especially when you’ve made box office success being funny. I would love to see Eddie Murphy in a tear-jerker. But who wants to see that? Who wants to pay for that? Remember Richard Pryor in Lady Sings to Blues? He cried. So that’s what I want to achieve.”
Another actor perfect for the part–or at least to get the attention of Durell and Leejohn–is Malinda Williams, who plays the pastor’s beautiful daughter and is secretly turning the tables on her hostage takers.
“My character is just trying to figure out who these guys are. I think Tianna is pretty smart. She is always trying to look for the loophole, so to speak. She is figuring out that they are not as smart as she originally thought they were,” said Williams. “So she realizes that she doesn’t have to be as fearful of them. What Tianna does is listen to the little conversations that they have between themselves. Every time they go to have their little sidebar, she turns her little bionic ear on to try and figure out who they are.”
Wearing an ever-so-racy mini dress, especially for a pastor’s daughter, Williams explained that believe it or not, a lot of thought went into her wardrobe–even by channeling a some musical inspiration.
“We went through so much trouble getting this dress. David wanted ‘that’ dress. You are pretty much seeing this dress for an hour’s worth of the movie. He wanted an outfit that people wouldn’t get tired of. It couldn’t be something where we were saying, ‘Oh, I am so sick of that red dress!’ I’ll tell you what he said to me in the beginning. We were both trying to figure out who this character was. I didn’t necessarily get it either. I grew up in the church and this dress would never fly, not even today. But there really are some women in the church that are very much D&G girls, especially today. And so I said to him, ‘Give me an example of who she would be like?’ And he said, “Mary J. Blige. If you saw Mary J. Blige in church, what would she be wearing?’ We went out shopping, and this is the one cute dress that we found.”
Not everyone shared the same enthusiasm for the dress.
“Chi McBride and I had a conversation where we developed our characters backgrounds and histories, sort of on the sidelines. He’s like, ‘You know, I really don’t get these dresses you are wearing in the church.’ I’m like, ‘Dad, sometimes you have to use what you have to lure people to the Lord. Once we get them there, we deal with them accordingly. But sometimes you have to go out in the trenches. You have to use whatever weapons you have,’” she said, laughing.
And those “weapons,” Williams said, are put to work as the filmmakers try to create sparks between Ice Cube’s character and her own. Although it may look easy on-screen, she admitted off screen it’s a different story.
[IMG:R]”[Ice Cube] is usually very quiet and very intimidating. Very rarely do I have a problem finding chemistry with anyone. I would go home every night going, ‘Okay, what is my way in? Is it AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted? Is it Death Certificate? I have all the albums,” she said, laughing. “What is my way in? I just couldn’t figure it out. Then I said, ‘Just observe him the same way your character would observe him.’ Because sometimes you are on set and you are amongst other actors, and instantly we’re going to have something in common. That is not the case here. I’m really having to do work. What I am finding out is the same thing that happened with the character. Tianna’s discovery of him is the same as Williams’s discovery of him, whiich is really interesting for me. I have never worked that way before. It is real. Aside from the actual crush that I have had on him forever.”
And the compliments don’t stop there. Ice Cube calls co-star Katt Williams “the king of the one-liners,” but sees another side to comedian who usually known for his raunchy stand-up routines and permed hair.
“He has like a nervous pet voice or something, you know what I’m sayin’? It all sounds funny coming out of there. [He] was full of one-liners who just like I discovered when I first worked with Katt, giving him one line is like not really even using what you have so you know his character always expands with his personality and what he brings to the table. So I knew with those two dudes the movie is set because actually what’s so cool is Tracy kind of passes the baton to Katt in this movie,” Ice Cube said.
Katt plays Rickey, a choir director–and a colorful character, he described–as evidenced by his wild clothes and hair. His fans can look forward to a wavy, short ‘do; white loafers; red trousers; red striped shirt; and a navy blue sweater vest.
“Well, however many fans I have and thank all 36 of them [laughing], they’re fans of certain things about me and one of those things is a dress marriage. So my dress has to match whatever I’m doing,” said Katt. “So I did make sure that I was comfortable with what he had on. You don’t usurp wardrobe’s job, but you want to make it where you buy the character first because that’s the first part of elementary acting, which is where I’m at.”
With his stand-up background, Katt said he was able to keep up with his part-time alter ego on set.
“The same pacing has to exist. It’s just that in stand up it’s all about the flow and the ebb of where you’re going and whether you sustain that or break it down. With acting it’s the same thing for me,” he said. “But it’s very difficult to be in this character where you’re crying and then they go, ‘Cut!’ and you go off Saturday and Sunday to D.C. and Chicago and fly back here and ok, I’m crying again. But I guess that’s why they pay you as well as they do [laughing].”
But taking on the role meant more than that to Katt.
“I’m a father first. So I was attracted to the fact that a) they were allowing me to do something as close to good wholesome fare that I was apt to do for a while. And the check made it possible to do some other things. I felt good. The kids were happy. The check was nice,” he said. “It was Cube again, it was Matt Alvarez, it was David Talbert, which once you get past ‘Tyler Perry,’ you pretty much only have David Talbert. So it was a good opportunity for me to align myself with whatever side I wanted to be on at that particular time. And given that House of Payne reviews, I think I picked well, and after that there was no thought process at all.”
[IMG:R]That’s a Wrap
And the drama, or we should say dramedy, didn’t stop there. Behind the scenes, Loretta Devine (Boston Public, Grey’s Anatomy) was getting her close up. Still filming the same scene, as Durell’s gun was pointed at the people in the basement, one woman fainted and Devine and Michael Beach’s characters engaged in a comical spat.
Morgan, who was taking a break with the crew to watch the scene on the monitor, couldn’t help but laugh as Devine said her lines, and he motioned to everyone to get in on the funny banter.
Then the director yelled, “Cut!”
And leave it to Morgan to break the once silent room with, “I was waiting for someone to fart.”
Now, how’s that for comic relief?
