ComingSoon Senior Editor Spencer Legacy spoke with The Underdoggs star Tika Sumpter about the Prime Video comedy movie. Sumpter spoke about how much she enjoys working with kids and her history with Snoop Dogg. The film is set to release exclusively on Prime Video on Friday, January 26.
“Jaycen ‘Two Js’ Jennings is a washed-up ex-professional football star who has hit rock bottom,” reads the film‘s synopsis. “When Jaycen is sentenced to community service coaching the Underdoggs, an unruly pee-wee football team in his hometown of Long Beach, California, he sees it as an opportunity to rebuild his public image and turn his life around. As Jaycen works to transform the foul-mouthed Underdoggs into top-notch champions, he reconnects with his past, including an old flame and few of his ex-teammates and rediscovers his love of the game.”
Spencer Legacy: What was it that drew you to The Underdoggs?
Tika Sumpter: 1.) Snoop. I’ve known Snoop for a really long time. I actually worked with him on my first job on One Life to Live, but also, 2.) I thought the script was really good and really fun. I love Charles Stone III, who’s the director. He did Drumline and so many other things. And I love working with kids, to be honest.
I think it’s something that’s … it’s weird. It’s like an irreverent, wholesome movie — if you take out the cursing, but also, the mentorship part of it and coming back home and all that stuff. So I just thought it had all the ingredients of something that would be fun to watch myself and when my kid gets maybe a little older. [Laughs].
Speaking of kids, you have a really great dynamic with them throughout the movie. What was it like working with all these up-and-coming stars?
Tika Sumpter: I loved it. I love working with kids, to be honest. They infused this energy — this youthful, energetic energy, so they were fun to work with. They were fun to talk to and they were excited to be there. It just reminded me why I loved doing what I do. It’s like we get to play make-believe all the time, and so it was fun to do it with them.
You mentioned you’d worked with Snoop before. You have some really nice moments with him in the movie. Was that chemistry already there, with no need to work on that?
Well, it was a long time ago, and he came in as a guest star, as a rapper. But this time, it was just like we were able to work on our scenes together. We ran the lines together, we talked with each other off-camera. Because we joked around so much and we had a good camaraderie and just all felt it. It was thrown on the screen, and you saw that energy. When I watched it, I was like, “Ooh, we’re good!” [Laughs].
I like the message at the end, that winning is not necessarily the end-all-be-all. What were your thoughts when you first read that?
I liked it. It wasn’t the cookie-cutter ending, right? The thing that we all think is going to happen, because that’s just not life. Sometimes, even when you do work that hard, it doesn’t always end how you want it to, but you’re still a better person for it, no matter what. Then you do what? You move forward and do the next thing. So I love how it ended.
With the movie coming out, do you have a personal favorite scene that you can’t wait for everybody to see?
I think every scene. I can’t wait for everybody to see. [Laughs]. I want them to see every scene that we shot, literally.
