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Jason Sudeikis plays Larry Snyder in “Race” out this Friday.
Starring in major studio features like We’re The Millers and Horrible Bosses, and known for his voiceover work in movies like Epic and the upcoming Angry Birds, which will open nationwide in May 2016, Jason’s comedic genius stretches far and wide. He even worked on hit series The Cleveland Show. The Fairfax, Virginia native and self-admitted “procrastinator” frequently dribbled in and out of trouble while in college, and eventually took a major leap of faith driving 40 miles every day to take classes at the ComedySportz Theatre (now Comedy City) in Kansas City. He soonafter left basketball and college and made his way to Chicago. Eventually encouraged by his uncle, George Wendt (of Cheers fame), Sudeikis sent his tape to the producers of NBC’s Saturday Night Live where he was hired as a staff writer and after two years and many auditions found himself on camera and never looked back!
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Our correspondent Chasity Saunders sat down with Jason to discuss his latest film Race:
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Chasity: We all know and love you for your comedic genius!
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Jason: Thank You.
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Chasity: Not only as an actor and writer, but for your voice work. What was it about this film that drew you to dive into such heavy subject matter?
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Jason: Yeah, it was the role first and foremost. John Wooden, a great basketball coach said, “It’s more important to know what you can’t do, than what you can do.” When I read it I said “Okay, is this something I can do or is this something that’s going to feel false?” Especially going into this, I understand coming from the comedy world and people seeing me and viewing me that way. So I had to find something that bridged that gap for me, and having a background in athletics, having played basketball in high school and a little bit in college, and then being the guy that looks to be a mentor, certainly to my little boy, but then also to the younger artists and human beings in general and then being a fellow who sought that out and getting some great ones along the way, I connected immediately with the character. And then just the element of the story that needed to be told — I was asked to be told, I was moved by the fact that it happened and at how important it was and at that time how relevant it was to the Olympics that had just occurred in Russia prior about homosexuals being allowed and are they going to go or not go; so I was like “Boy, how relevant is it?” and little did I anticipate how relevant it would be upon its release. It was as relevant in 1936 and yet here we are now, but boy I mean we’ve come a long way, with so much further to go, it is not a hundred yard dash.
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Chasity: You took the words out of my mouth, you know it doesn’t seem like we’ve come too far. You’ve hosted the MTV Awards and presented at the Academy Awards, so with all of the issues that you dealt with in the film Race with boycotting, how do you feel as a comedian and as an artist about how they’re putting pressure on Chris Rock to boycott hosting the Academy Awards?
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Jason: I feel very similar to Larry Snyder. I personally as lucky as I am and to be gifted with an imagination that can think up stuff or what not, I cannot empathize strongly enough with and deeply enough with what he’s going through other than through this story and I would encourage the same thing, like “go do it and use the platform. Change the system from within the system.” It’s about the rewards of doing the job not the awards we get from doing the job. I believe that passionately and I don’t think there’s a better person. I think that it’s very fortunate for the world that Chris Rock is the one that’s in that position because he’s is as smart as they come as a human being and the fact that he [happens to be] black, go get it!
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