James Michael Cummings grew up in Boston before going to New York to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. For "Kwani has Questions," he told Kwani why he had to work on losing his Boston accent, the mentors he had along the way and why he's especially fond of his latest film, "Not Another Church Movie."
The satirical film follows the journey of talk show host Hoprah Windfall who uses her direct contact with God, played by Jamie Foxx, to discover filmmaker Taylor Pherry. Kevin Daniels joined the interview to explain how his roles as Pherry and Madude Hims pay homage to Tyler Perry's work.
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Read lightly edited excerpts from the interview below, and watch the full interview above.
NBC10 Boston: You are from Boston. That is a fact. What was your upbringing like here?
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James Michael Cummings: I was born in South Boston and we had moved to Hyde Park, a very tight-knit community. I'd gone to Xaverian Brothers High School, and worked at the Boston Garden. When I was 19 years old, I found myself wanting to become an actor. I [took] some classes and the reality was, I was told I had to go to New York City. I wanted to become an actor. And so I moved to New York. I took my chances and went to New York City and it might have been the best thing I ever did.
Kevin, since you're here, I would love to hear what the experience was like. Not only the concept, you reading the script, but then also playing out the role.
Kevin Daniels: I had a blast. I grew up with these movies. My mom would go and watch the Madea films and loved them. I never got a chance to work with Tyler Perry but it's great to be able to pay homage to all the great comedies that he's created and all of the work that he's made. I got mad respect for him. That wig was hot.
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Being that you did understand the cultural significance of Tyler Perry and what he's done for the world of film, how did you approach playing his role or playing the role?
Daniels: I gave as much deference to what he did and what he created. I didn't even attempt to try to do the voice that he did. I was like, I'm going to try to make this my spin, my version. Madude [Hims] has her own version. Same cadence, the same idea. But you know what it's like to be a little bit of a parody of it. I just really enjoyed, like getting an idea of, just kind of an unfiltered look and view of the world.
What do you hope the takeaway is?
Daniels: I want people to come and laugh, you know? Like, we've all gone through a pretty hard few years with the pandemic. Everyone's just trying to make it, you know? I think this is a great escape to come and see. We can find our humanity. We can laugh at it. We can laugh at some of the mistakes we all make. And I think it's a fun little movie.
Jimmy, What do you think will be the reaction from Tyler Perry and Oprah [Winfrey], if they haven't seen it already?
Cummings: They're going to love it, it's fun. It was fun making it. When we developed it we made sure that we were creating entertainment. That's what it's all about. Everyone watches the news, and we all get caught up in loops of things, but we need to get caught back up in going to the movies and having a good time, sharing moments with people and sharing laughs.
