EXCLUSIVE: Tika Sumpter Chats Rap Battles, Being an Underdog, and New Movie, ‘The Underdoggs’
Tika Sumpter stars in the new Prime Video movie, The Underdoggs. Joined in the movie by Snoop Dogg, Mike Epps, George Lopez, and more, the movie follows an ex-professional football player, who is sentenced to community serive where he has to coach a rag-tag pee-wee football team.
We got a chance to hear from the star regarding her new movie, the term underdog, and so much more. Check out what she had to say below.
Do you have a moment where you would have classified yourself as an “underdog”?
“I always think about when films actually end up doing well and studios are like oh my gosh, we were so surprised, you know? I feel like I’ve been in a lot of those kinds of films where it’s like whoa! It made this much? And I feel like a lot of the times I just wish people would invest more in films like this and believe, because there is an audience who wants to not only see themselves, but they wanna see fun.
They wanna see us do different things, so don’t always be surprised when something does really well, studios and everybody else. Yeah, I always think I’m part of films like that a lot where they’re just like whoa. It’s like believe in the product. Put it out there. Believe in the people and people will show up.”
Can you talk a little bit about the kids trying to rap battle with Snoop on set?
“All the kids thought they could out rap Snoop, and I was just staring at them like never gonna happen. But they did a good try. It was a good try. Very cute.”
You’ve been in several comedies over the years. How do you approach these movies to ensure you make them as funny as possible?
“Well, I think first, it has to be in the writing, obviously. It has to be a funny script. It’s in the casting. You know, Snoop is funny. And it’s crazy because Snoop and I have known each other for, my first job was One Life to Live, and he was a guest star on One Life to Live.
So, Snoop and I have known each other for so long. That was my first job in the industry. So, I think it has to do with, like, connection. And, you know, these kids were so easy to be around. Sometimes I had to say, ‘Go sit down.’ I just spoke to them and, like, hung out with them and talked to them. And I don’t know, I think it’s like collaboration. I think comedy is funny.
If you try to set out and say, ‘Let’s try to make everyone laugh,’ you’re not gonna make anybody laugh. But if you are in the moment, have a great director like Charles [Stone III], and your crew is laughing around you, and you have amazing actors, and people like Mike Epps as well, it all just works. I always call acting, especially in comedy, it’s like a gumbo. And you have all the right ingredients that make the thing work, right? Then hopefully you prepare it, and you sit it down at the table and hopefully everybody enjoys it as much as we did.”
For our final question, this is a black-directed film, mostly Black cast, black leads, would you consider this to be a Black film?
“I have a friend who’s a writer who is not part of the culture or anything like that. He’s like, ‘Oh, it reminds me of the Bad News Bears.’ And I was like, ‘Exactly. Except with more curse words.’ And it’s great. And he’s like, ‘Yeah, everybody should watch that.’ You know, it wasn’t like a thing, right? And I think sometimes we have to constantly, like, tell people, ‘Oh, it’s a Black film,’ or not get enough money for this and that. It’s a film with Black people and brown people in it. And everybody should see it. It’s about football. And it’s culturally relevant.”
The Underdoggs is now out on Prime Video!
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images