Blake Anderson, as Blake Henderson, as most would be aware, is one third of the hilarious trio at the core of hugely popular Comedy Central TV series Workaholics. Now, the man beneath the frizzy hair is moving into whole new areas and specifically feature films.
"I just kinda did the standard Hollywood stuff," Anderson chuckles in answer to the question of how he scored a role in new feature film, Dope. "I had a meeting with [director Rick Famuyiwa] and we ate some, like, egg McMuffin things together and discussed the project and we clicked."
"I've always been a big fan of hip hop and it's very dear to my heart."
Dope follows three high school geeks who find themselves unwillingly involved in a massive drug operation. Anderson steals his scenes as stoner/computer hacker Will Sherwood, who agrees to help the trio carry out the operation. Anderson is considered one of the more notable names in the film, which also includes Zoe Kravitz and A$AP Rocky, as well as narration by Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker, who produced the film alongside rapper Sean Combs.
Dope's central characters, played by the incredibly talented Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori and Kiersey Clemons, are also obsessed with hip hop and the film fittingly pays homage to the old-school genre, with rap mogul Pharrell Williams serving as curator of music for the film. Anderson himself is a massive hip hop fan.
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"I think that had a large part in my decision-making," the 31-year-old admits of the music's influence on the film. "I've always been a big fan of hip hop and it's very dear to my heart."
The movie premiered at the Sundance film festival January this year and by the time fans and critics were able to watch a screening, Dope had already received at least six offers from film companies.
"It was crazy, we went in there not really knowing what was gonna happen because it almost seemed like they rushed to get it done — we hadn't wrapped the movie that long before it was ready to go at Sundance. We got out of the movie and they were talking about all these bidding wars and everything and it was like, 'Dang, this is awesome. Sundance rules!'"
Anderson says that while Workaholics will always be his biggest priority, getting to work on new projects is always refreshing. "It always is nice to work on other things on both sides of the spectrum. It really makes me love Workaholics; me and the dudes [Adam DeVine and Anders Holm] have such a good rapport and it's such a family environment at this point… With that said, it's also fun to go on sets and do improv with new people and the cast was really good."
With its fifth season having just wrapped this past April, the series about three slacker telemarketer friends has recently had its contract renewed for a sixth and seventh season, a feat not lost on Anderson.
"We definitely are ready to start expanding our horizons and getting into the movie world."
"I'm pretty proud of us. If you would have told me we were gonna do seven seasons of this crazy show I'd be pretty shocked but, yeah man, we're still having a lot of fun doing it and that's just kinda what it's about." He recalls meeting up with friends DeVine and Holm on weekends some years ago to film YouTube sketches of what would eventually become the core plot of Workaholics while balancing their day jobs. While the three comedians did it more for fun, an eventual five-part mini series, which they created, caught the eye of Comedy Central executives and they were asked in for a meeting. "We were kinda ignorant to the fact 'cause we'd never done anything, so I kinda think we went in [the meeting] swinging big balls without really knowing that not everybody gets this shot."
As for the trio's future plan, Anderson hinted that a Workaholics film is on his wish list as all three have now dabbled in film, most notably DeVine in his recurring roles in the musical comedies, Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2. "I think we'll do these next two seasons of Workaholics and then see where we're at, but I think we definitely are ready to start expanding our horizons and getting into the movie world. I know that at least my main goal would be to make a movie with these dudes because I really like everything we always do together so that would be the dream."
So who would Anderson want to work with on a feature film? "I'll always throw Kurt Russell out there," he quips. "Wesley Snipes I wouldn't mind. I'm not hard to please. If you've done any movies at all, I'm pretty much gonna geek out on you!" Well, if Blade 4 ever eventuates, that would need a pretty kick-arse villain, right? "Right?" Anderson bursts into laughter. "That would be awesome!"
