Martin Lawrence

After his parents request that he come home for their 50th wedding anniversary, the TV host packs up his 10-year-old son and diva bride-to-be and heads back to Georgia. It's a chance to prove to his family that he's no longer the awkward kid they relentlessly picked on. At least, that's the plan...

But when his crazy, lovable family calls him on his big-city attitude and challenges him at every turn, RJ is forced to take a hard look at the man he's become. He may be a superstar in L.A., but he's just one of the guys in Dry Springs as folks say "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins ."

Read the interview in its entirety below,

One of the things about this film is that I feel it’s equally balanced with a family that’s highly drama family dynamics and sibling rivalry, and the comedy, what did you want the impact of this movie to be?

Martin Lawrence: Just what it is, for you to say that you enjoyed it and…I loved the film it meant a lot to me…this is something that I wanted to do with this ensemble cast, that I think is very funny, it’s a family movie and we all know how important family is and you know it's just what it is…for me I loved it, I love the heart it has, I love…it's reminding us to stay with what started us, which is family, so for me it was big so thank you.

How do you go about deciding what movies you're going to do?

Martin Lawrence: Oh the paycheck…the paycheck usually helps me…(laughter) no, you know, if the script is good and it's something that I can read when I go, you know, what if I do this film then I can do justice to it, then I try to get into it and it's something I try to put out there for you guys to see and hopefully enjoy.

We have seen, once again with Owen Wilson, that people who make people laugh and love them 'cause they are entertaining to us can have very dark, private lives and trouble…

Martin Lawrence: Right…but people who don’t make people laugh could have very dark lives and everything else…

But do you think there is a pressure coming up with trying to make people laugh or insecurity?

Martin Lawrence: Sometimes the pressure is all you can make it, you know what I mean, if it's something that you really love what you do and you get into what you do, so you work hard to do just what it is your trying to accomplish to make people laugh, I don’t think you have to have a dark side to make people laugh.

We get to see a different side of you this time, it's not the funny Martin that we know and love, we get to see a more dramatic side of you…talk about that rage.

Martin Lawrence:You know to be able to show a dramatic side in this movie for me was special because I don’t get the opportunity to do that very often, and being able to do it opposite of James Earl Jones was big. He showed me what the real vet was cause I thought I was doing something and he turned around with a tear in his eye and said, “young man can you do this?” And I couldn’t do that…I said, “oh god I’m dealing with a real veteran here!” But um it was a lot of fun and I was glad to have that opportunity…to try anyway. The obstacle course I’m…I was just glad I was in shape for it 'cause I didn’t realize we had to do so much physical stuff and I just thank God that I play a lot of basketball and exercise cause we really have to put it to the test.

The most challenging thing of the obstacle course was?

Martin Lawrence: Most challenging? I don’t know, probably some of the sprints.

How many days did you do that?

Martin Lawrence: Oh we shot that for about 3 or 4 days yeah…it was probably a whole week…

In the rain?

Martin Lawrence: Not all in the rain, we were there the day of the rain, but that was special cause of how we all stood together and just supported each other and sang songs, laughed until the rain subsided that was a special day.

Just the cast of this is phenomenal and you all seem to have a general good aura for each other, did you find you had restraints with your comedy at times or was there anything that you had to cut or delete that you’ll probably have to make some bloopers for them?

Martin Lawrence: No…I mean, I’d be interested in seeing the bloopers they have cause I don’t remember them, but I didn’t have to pull back on anything cause you know I been doing it long enough that so I know when to press go and when to press stop so you know I just enjoyed everybody else and what they had to deliver. And Mike was just so funny off camera, you know, using his energy, his spirit, and Cedric singing all the time, you know when we weren’t doing anything just his energy and spirit, Monique is just hilarious, so the whole cast was just a joy and wonderful.

Do you feel like the leader cause you’re the biggest name in the movie? I think you’re the most bankable there…

Martin Lawrence: Well I’ll gladly take that role, I mean the Chicago Bulls have Michael Jordan right, Lakers got to have Coby, and Miami got to have Shaq so you know I’ll take that, but, you know, I couldn’t have done it without my teammates so we all help each other, we’re one big cast, we’re one that’s it.

I know you’re a sports fan so who are your picks for the Super Bowl, you have any plans?

Martin Lawrence: I got New England you know, Brady and them are real smooth, I’d like to see somebody have that perfect season you know I’ve never seen that happen before so yeah I’d have to go with the best guys.

Any special plans…Super Bowl parties or …

Martin Lawrence: Well I thought of going to the Super Bowl and that would be my first Super Bowl that I ever went to, then I’m off to New York for a promotion with Regis and Kathy…oh I mean Kelly…sorry Kelly.

This is the first time in a long time that I have laughed out loud…so what was the last thing that made you laugh out loud?

Martin Lawrence: What makes me laugh is when you guys laugh, you know what I mean. To see ya’ll laugh that makes me enjoy my laugh cause I’m laughing with you, and I’m feeling what your feeling, and if you think it’s funny and I’m right about it, it’s a good feeling you know, so there’s a lot of people…the cast that’s in the movie make me laugh. We has so many fun moments filming it you know that I got to laugh off camera and on camera with this cast so it was beautiful.

According to the script, how did you work it out in your terms of writing?

Martin Lawrence: Before we did the movie I sat down with them an I just offered my suggestion on what I thought could help the movie, and you know originally the script didn’t call for him being a talk show host and I suggested that to them and he was sharp enough to put it in there and there were a few things that we talked about that he put in the movie so I was very much involved in the process.

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