There’s only one degree of separation between actor/comedian Tracy Morgan and the world of rap music. Morgan grew up across the street from Jay-Z and Biggie and has always wanted to work with Ice Cube. He got his chance to do just that in the Screen Gems comedy, First Sunday, in which he and Ice Cube play best friends who concoct a desperate scheme to steal money from a church in order to pay off a $17,000 debt.
Knowing Ice Cube was attached to the film is one of the reasons Morgan said yes to the project. “My agent and my manager called me and said people were reading for this movie and would I be interested in it. And I said, 'Yeah, absolutely.' I've worked with the Alvarez brothers before and they told me that Ice Cube was in it, so right there for me the deal was sealed. To work with Ice Cube is something that I always wanted to do since Are We There Yet?. I wanted to work with him face-to-face though, so I came and I read for the movie and they gave me the part. So hallelujah!”
Morgan says hanging out with Ice Cube is a joy. “He's one of the most well adjusted, down-to-earth people that I've ever met in show business,” declared Morgan while on the set of First Sunday. “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. I mean as a person, he's cool. He appreciates what you do. He appreciates what everybody is bringing and he shows it and it's cool. Not a man of many words, but plenty of action.”
Morgan’s also enjoying his time with writer/director David Talbert. “He's awesome,” says Morgan. “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 Lombardi — 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. 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.' But he gets in there with you and he's like, 'Yeah yeah, do that, do that, do this.' He isn't trying to create the magic for you.”
“As a director, the number one thing you want to do is capture it, and he's capturing all the magic. 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.' 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.”
As for switching back and forth between his TV series 30 Rock and movies, Morgan doesn’t have a problem making the transition. To get himself pumped up for tackling a movie, all he has to do is think about the end product. “Oh man, just think about it. You think about the premiere, you think about the red carpet, you think about all the things that go into it,” explains Morgan. “You think about the people who are going to come to the movie. That jazzes me up - $9.75, that's the price of admission. You know, all of that jazzes me up! When it hits, you just get psyched. It's not work when I'm here. You can see it. So being here you don't have to do much to get hyped - just coming to work.”
As for how his character of LeeJohn in First Sunday differs from his 30 Rock character Tracy Jordan, Morgan reveaded there’s one huge difference. “LeeJohn is showing emotion and he has a buddy. Tracy Jordan doesn't. I mean, he is loveable, he's likeable, and 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. 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 tearjerker. But who wants to see that? Who wants to pay for that? Eddie is known for doing his funny thing, but I'm quite sure as a dramatic actor he would be [good] because all the great ones make you laugh and cry. Remember Richard Pryor in Lady Sings the Blues? He cried. So that's what I want to achieve.”
“Comedy and drama are both the same,” explains Morgan. “It's like love and hate, joy and pain. You can't have one without the other. 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? There is a balance, whether you know about it or not. 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.”
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First Sunday hits theaters on January 11, 2008
