Pop-Culturalist.com

Kevin Daniels is one of the industry’s most exciting voices. With over a hundred credits to his name, the award-winning actor is known for breakout roles in projects including Frasier, The Big Leap, and Will Trent. This May, he stars in the laugh-out-loud comedy, Not Another Church Movie, spoofing not one, but two characters we know and love.

Billionaire talk show host, Hoprah Windfall, frets as her box office sales plummet and her talk show audience begins to dwindle. Using her direct connect to God himself, she demands his help. So God and his angels decide there’s no better choice than to call on the hardest-working man in the world, Taylor Pherry. But when the Devil overhears this, he comes up with a fiendish plan of his own to disrupt the whole ordeal.

While Taylor prepares for one of his many jobs that mostly entail helping his dysfunctional but lovable family through their trials and tribulations, God appears and orders him to help Hoprah accomplish her mission by writing a movie. Determined not to be stopped by the Devil’s devious plans on his divine mission from God, Taylor’s crazy family and even wackier community prove to be the very substance for the storylines of Taylor’s success!

Pop Culturalist was fortunate enough to speak with the leading man, Kevin Daniels, about Not Another Church Movie, bringing the laughs, creating movie magic, and more.

PC: You’ve done it all throughout your career. How did Not Another Church Movie come across your desk? What was it about the script and these characters that resonated with you?
Kevin: My agent’s mom is actually one of the producers of the movie. My agency pitched me to her and she was like, “Oh, yeah!” I had a Zoom meeting with the producers. They were like, “If you want to come to Savannah…” I was like, “I’d love to come to Savannah.” I grew up on these movies. Madea was always playing at my mom’s house. I also grew up on those spoof movies like Not Another Teen Movie. I was like, how much fun would it be to be a part of this renaissance and bring these spoof movies to a new generation?

PC: Johnny Mack wrote and directed this project. How different is that filming experience when the person who penned the script is also at the helm directing? What was that collaboration like?
Kevin: It was so fun. Johnny’s such a cool, easygoing guy. My favorite story about this film is that because Johnny’s a writer, he worked for Jamie Foxx for years. I remember he told us that he gave the script to Jamie and asked if he could get this to Queen Latifah because he wanted her to play God. Jamie was like, “Let me read this.” He read it and was like, “You know, Queen Latifah’s really busy, but I’ll play God for you.” [laughs]

But Johnny’s been in so many comedy writing rooms where they’re always pitching jokes. We had the script, but Johnny would get onto set and be like, “I want to try this.” So we were all nimble on our feet and got to improvise, which was fun.

PC: This was a relatively quick shoot for you, but this genre is primed for improvisation, and you’re working with a cast that’s well-versed in this space. Do you have a favorite improvised moment? How were you and your co-stars able to push each other as creatives?
Kevin: Kyla Pratt is in the movie. She’s glorious, and I love her dearly, but MaDude and her character, which is a spoof of Meets the Blacks, didn’t have any scenes together. I was like, “Wait, she’s here, and I want to work with her.” So we pitched this idea to Johnny, and he loved it. They put me in the outfit, and we did this entire scene, which made the movie. That was all improvised. I’m so excited it made it in. We were just playing off of each other and trying to find the best beat. It was a quick two-minute thing, but it landed in the movie.

PC: There’s also a lot of movie magic behind this project, from filming opposite yourself to working with costars who weren’t in the actual scene when you filmed. What did you learn about your own craft having led this project?
Kevin: You really have to take it one day at a time. A lot of things are going to happen unexpectedly, a lot of stuff that you just have to be ready for. If you breathe and focus in, you can handle anything.

I love Vivica A. Fox. We just did a press tour together. I didn’t get to work with her until after the movie finished. She shot her stuff, and I had to watch it and be like, “This is what she did. How would I respond to this? What can I change about my own performance that would make sense to what she did?” It came out great. You’d never know.

PC: This film is bringing joy that we need in the world. What has it been like getting to see the response to this project with a live audience? Has Tyler Perry had a chance to see it yet?
Kevin: We’ve screened it in three different cities so far, and I love seeing how every audience finds different jokes in the movie funny. It’s been so rewarding to see people are getting it. We’ve been through such a rough time with the pandemic and everything going on. People just want to laugh. This is a spoof. It’s fun. I hope Tyler gets to see it, and I hope he loves it. A dream of mine would be to have Madea and MaDude in a movie together.

PC: If someone made a spoof about your life, outside of yourself, who would you want to play you?
Kevin: Oh, wow. Tituss Burgess. He looks like me. I think he’s really funny.

To keep up Kevin, follow him on X and Instagram. Not Another Church Movie is out in theaters now!

Photo Credit: Aaron Fallon