I was a big fan of Jackie Gleason, [but] didn’t know much about the TV show. The TV show was really kind of before my time. But I got the box set and started watching it and was really entertained by it, and thought the characters were important. The aspect of the relationship where a guy’s a dreamer and he always wants to do the right thing but [he's] always messing up. I thought that was still relevant to the day, so I just thought it was important to at least give it a shot."
Cedric the Entertainer on "The Honeymooners" Reflecting Life in America: "I think Ralph was definitely, from the TV show, he was really kind of gruff, irritable all the time. I think that’s America still today. People are very irritable. No, but I think... You know the type that he always believed that his next move was going to be the greatest move ever, and it was going to be the thing that was going to break him out of this mundane regular lifestyle. And I think that for the most part, we as Americans still live like that. A lot of people have dreams like that. That is the common place. That’s why there are so many lotteries and infomercials where you can get rich quick and sell real estate and buy buildings for no money down, which you can’t. I tried it."
Bringing Warmth to Grumpy Ralph Kramden: "I thought that that was probably, for me, the most important aspect of it. I knew that we were doing a comedy but to do a kind of extended film version of a half hour sitcom, I thought it was going to be more important that you were able to follow these characters and be able to get into them and hopefully want Ralph to win and have some connection with the characters. And then also just taking it on from a predominantly white show, making it an African-American show, what I still wanted to do was accomplish the everyman aspect of it. That even though we’re switching it to African-American, everybody still should be able to identify with Ralph. I think that was the other aspect.
The story ended up becoming a lot more important [than] the comedy in a lot of ways. And then we had to go and find ways to really draw the comedy out. I just really thought it was important that you buy into this couple, in this guy, in his life. And then once you get that, then you can get everything else."
Cedric the Entertainer on Jackie Gleason: "I think for the most part, what I really liked about Jackie Gleason was that he was just this kind of larger than life character. He really knew how to be a star, which I really loved about his personality at the time.
But for me, like myself, he was a big guy who wore suits and was dapper and lived life having a good time, at least it appeared to be. He was a very smart businessman as well, so I just kind of liked that attitude. And he was very funny. He was physical funny. He wasn’t afraid to do some physical stuff, and at the same time, like a great Jazz musician, he could just pace a joke out. He wouldn’t rush it at all. You can see him hold a joke and hold a look for 10, 30 seconds just making you laugh. Knowing you’re laughing but he’s not changing his facial expressions at all. You’re like, 'That’s great.' So I really admired that about him."
The Strain of Yelling: "No, it didn’t strain me but it was something that when taking this role on, I watched the old TV shows and watched how much this guy yelled the whole time. I was like, 'That’s got to be stressful.' I think it gave me more headaches than anything. But my voice was fine. Norton!"
PAGE 2: Cedric the Entertainer on Improvising and His Role as an Executive Producer
