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Interview with Necessary Roughness Special Guest
While teenagers today may have a hard time placing Orlando Jones at first glance, almost anyone else would have no trouble associating the funny-man with his role as 7-Up spokesman in early 2000s or as one of the original cast members of the sketch comedy series MADtv.

Jones turned his seemingly comedy-based interests into a full-fledged acting career, not moving away from comedy necessarily but certainly embracing the dramatic roles that were offered to him. His latest endeavor mixes both comedy and drama together as he takes on the2-episode guest-role of life coach Lazarus "Laz" Collins in USA's summer hit series Necessary Roughness.

PCM's Allison had the opportunity to participate in a call with Jones and asked about the differences and challenges of establishing a character in a mere two episodes versus developing a series regular.

"It's a little - it's a totally - to some degree the approach is the same and to some degree the approach is different. You know, most of my career has been in the movie business where, you know, you're going to live with whomever it is for, you know, three, four months or longer," Jones began. "A lot of the ground work I think ends up being done by sort of the writers and you ultimately look at, you know, the arc of the episode and try, at least from my perspective, to - and view the character with as much nuance as you possibly can."

"And I think that's really been the challenge," Jones continued. "I mean, it's really easy to play Laz to me as this really sort of sleazy guy who just sort of comes in and takes advantage of TK. I kind of feel like that's kind of straight on - up the middle and on the (nose) and you should have seen it coming."

"So what I wanted to kind of get my head around when approaching something and it gets kind of low, low, low, what's the reality of it and what's the best side of the worst guy," he explained. "And often when you're doing something where you have a role, this guy, you know, is a lovely person. He's welcoming. Well, what is he trying to hide? What's his secret?"

"So, I mean, ultimately I think, you know, we're kind of binary people and there's two of us living inside all the time, you know, that get into (bad)," Jones revealed. "So I think the tough part is trying to (curse) that and then try and find the moment in the scenes that you have in order to give the character some, you know, life and, you know, some interest and nuance."

"So that's generally the approach, you know, and it's difficult primarily because, you know, it's (relegated) by screen time so you try and deal with it as best you possibly can and look at each scenes and not what the objective is that's happening in the story but then how you can make the objective of the story a little bit more interesting than it's going to be than if you just hit it on the (nose)," Jones finished.

While Jones is no stranger to most mediums of acting, we also asked if there was anything he was surprised to learn about himself from the character. Did he walk away with any life lessons from playing a life coach?

"I don't know that I have time to do that," Jones laughed. "I definitely have previously not been, you know, the biggest fan of the life coaches. I always thought of it sort of like, "Seriously, that's really what you do?" So I think I definitely gained a little bit more respect for that profession because like I do think that, you know, at their core, they really are trying to, you know, help people so it's kind of positive look on people who are devoting their lives to try and to go for the - you know, do better for themselves and do better for others."

"So that, you know, I think I gained a little bit more respect for the profession and that," he revealed, "you know, for me that was because it was something I previously just made fun of."

But playing the troubled TK's life coach means while he does get to spend quality time with Mehcad Brooks who plays TK, he doesn't have all that much interaction with other characters. So we wanted to know who he would have liked to share a few more scenes with.

"I really - you know, Callie and I have known each other for a while from New York so, I mean, I definitely wanted to - I would have loved to interact with her more," Jones began, "as well as, you know, Marc Blucas' character. I like the characters on the show. And it was - I certainly was (focusing) more on TK and Nico and, you know, Callie and I a little bit of running into each other but for the most part, our interaction is (relegated) through TK. I would have loved to have gotten through the differences in our philosophies and the differences in our approaches to working with athletes. That would have been interesting. I would love to do that."

Jones had plenty more to share about his career, his role on the show, and the show itself! Be sure to check out all that he revealed below!


Now, what type of research did you do for Laz? To get into the head of a life coach?

It's funny you should ask that. I actually dated a girl many moons ago whose best friend was a life coach and I actually called her just because at the time that I was dating her, she was just the girl I was going out with crazy friend and all of a sudden I was interested which I think threw her for a loop.

And I just kind of wanted to understand what the training background was for being a life coach, you know, with like a weekend seminar type thing and what it was. And also (to know) what kind of credentials they had and what most of her clients had been. So that was sort of my first call.

And my second call was to a couple of my buddies who were professional athletes. I just wanted to see what their therapy life was like for a lot of the problems they go through, you know, adjustment to family or, you know, things going on with the team and so on and so forth.

So that kind of was the - that was the gist to the research but I got wildly different answers from the professional side, more like the (unintelligible) than I did from the side where, you know, girl in California who professes to be a life coach.

And can you talk about working opposite Mehcad Brooks and what that was like?

Mehcad is awesome. I think we are convinced that we were separated at birth. Obviously, he got more of the hormones than I did. So he's a little bigger than me which is usually unusual because, you know, actors are often like, you know, midgets. So it was kind of funny that the onset was, you know, I'm 6'1" and I think he is like 6' 2" or 6' 3".

So Mehcad Brooks is I think wildly talented and a really fantastic actor but most importantly to me, I just think his ethic about working and sort of wanting to do everything he can to have all the elements there when you're doing the scene are really incredible. I love the guy. I really look forward to working with him again.

Getting back to the research you did for Laz, I just want to know, since you grew up around professional sports, what was your first impression of the character? Like, did he remind you of anybody you knew?

Yes. I mean, he did. You know, it actually feels like, you know, a lot of times assistant coaches, you know, fulfill that role because they're the ones often that meet the family and sort of know the dynamic of the player before the player comes in to the system.

So it's interesting, you know, how much of that and how much, you know, the guys who do what Laz does (appear) and what their perspective is. You know, because they all have this sort of very plenty perspective which is, you know, "I'm going to go out there and hustle and I'm going to make you some money. And I'm going to make you do the right advice," and so on and so forth.

But, you know, it's really like, "You know, as long as you can put money in my pocket, I'm willing to help you. And if you can't, I'm not." But they don't see it like they're being sort of, you know, bloodsuckers. They really see it more like somebody who's going to fulfill this role no matter what and they are sort of doing you a service by virtue of the fact that they put a lot of money in your pocket in the process.

So, you know, it's interesting to me that professional sports has this on - (in its face), but it's rarely talked about. So it was kind of exciting to me that somebody was delving into that area and talking about sort of, you know, what happens sort of, you know, off the field as work. So I think, you know, that's most of it.

And we understand you're doing a two-episode arch. Would you relish the opportunity to be a reoccurring kind of arch-nemesis of Dr. Dani and/or Nico?

Yes, I mean, I love the show. I think it could be a lot of fun to see where that goes. I mean, I (therefore) think it really changes that - the dynamic because, you know, Dr. Dani's approach is so - you know, it's clinical, it's factual, it's based on something. So I think anything that gives her something to play off of is wonderful as Callie is I think is great. So that comes (about and) be amazing. Had a great time in the show and, you know, it'd be fun to go back.

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