March 2004 | blackfilm.com | features | interviews | agent cody banks: an interview with anthony anderson

March 2004

Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London: An Interview with Anthony Anderson

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By Wilson Morales

Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London: An Interview with Anthony Anderson

Suffering through a head cold Anthony Anderson bravely talked with blackfilm.com withstood an onslaught of questions about his mama, filming Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London and Donnie Hathaway.

GP: Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London is a great movie for the pre-teen set. Tell me about filming in London.

AA: London is definitely a great place. We filmed 6 days a week for three months. We didn't have much time to sightsee. We did have our Sundays off. In between takes, we walked around and got our own little tours because we had access to the sites that normal tourists didn't.

GP: Agent Cody Banks has a ton of cool gadgets. What gadgets did you want when you were a kid?

AA: In the back of comic books, I also wanted X-Ray glasses. They showed the guy looking at his hand but I wanted it to look at girls' skirts. I'm just going to be real with you. That and the hand buzzers.

GP: How do you select scripts? How do you shape your career?

AA: What attracts me to scripts is who is in the cast and who is directing. That's basically it. This is who I like and I want to do it. That's what it is all about in this business working with people on the next level. A-list directors and A-list talent. You look at the career of Tom Cruise. He's picked great actors and great directors to work opposite him. It's a perfect example of what you should do. And that's taken Cruise to that ìlevel.î Iëve worked with everybody on my level. I want to continue to step up a level now. Like I say I ëm making white money now. It isn't bad. It's fun. And the projects are getting better and the talent is changing as well.

GP: Which directors would you like to work with?

AA: Yeah, the big ones. Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, the top guys that make those top films. I've been fortunate to work with Oscar winner Barry Levinson. Those are a few just to name.

GP: Have you ever done stand-up?

AA: I've never really done stand-up . It's somewhat of a hidden passion of mine. But I'm not at that place yet to do stand-up. That is a world that I eventually want to dance in.

GP: Tell me about your upcoming projects.

AA: My next project is King's Ransom. It's my first lead role. Real excited about it. I own my own advertising company and am going through a divorce. I have a girlfriend. I come up with a plan to kidnap myself so I don't have to pay my wife alimony. My wife thinks that I'm going to do something so she comes up with a plan to kidnap me. The office worker who I passed over for a promotion decides to kidnap me to get back at me and all {these kidnappings} are planned for the same night. Right now we have Kellita Smith as my wife and Donald Faizon in the cast. Also, Jay Mohr as the token white guy.

GP: You have done film work. You have a tv show. Are you going to do theater?

AA: Eventually, I will come to Broadway. It has been a passion, dream of mine to be on the stage. If I had to pick, I can't. TV and film are so different. Broadway is acting at its core. Acting comes from theater. Acting is at its most pure. It's a scary place to be. But that's what I want. I do television now because I'm the creator of the show and producer of the show. I tell people after and before me that it's about that intellectual property. Not coming into an office 10-15 years from now saying I can play this man. I understand his anger and his angst. I make jokes about making white people money but it's not about the money. It's about power and control. In control of where you want to be. It's the only reason I came to television because I need to have that control.

GP: You've been mentioned in roles such as redoing Abbott and Costello. What roles are you interested in?

AA: Donnie Hathaway is the one I want to do. I think it's a story that needs to be told and hasn't been done before.

GP: Do you sing?

AA: I do sing. A friend of mine has the rights to a story for a couple more years. I ëll help him write it and produce it.

GP: How do you stay grounded?

AA: Lots of Cocaine!! Lotss of cocaine!! No, I'm too big to be taking something that speeds up my heart. No, my faith in God and my family. It's my job and not who I am.

GP: I know you are real close to your mother. My editor wants to know: What is the best Mother's Day gift that you have given your mother?

AA: My mama always has her hand out. I tell her to tally up what I gave her throughout the year and then I say Happy Mother's Day. No, I don't' know. My mother is not a gift kinda girl. She wants me to pay her bingo tab. I'm in the process of building a house for her. I'll call her and send her some flowers. She may say put $20 in the card and I say I got you.

GP: I saw her on the Jimmy Kimmel show with you and she's very funny. Is that where you got you humor from?

AA: Like the song says, I get it from my mama. I get it honestly. There's nothing else I could have done with a mother like that.

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