Robbie Jones will not only appear on the second season of DC’s Titans, but he also co-stars along with Jim Gaffigan in the upcoming american crime film American Dreamer. Today, I got to sit down with Robbie Jones to talk about the film along with his love for Spiderman, his memories in college, and much more in this exclusive interview.
If you were to look back on yourself 10 years ago or a little more, what would you tell yourself if acting was not the path you would take?
Robbie: 10 years ago I was still acting. But before then, I was playing basketball professionally and I always thought that was something that I was going to be doing. I thought I expected to be in the NBA one day, So That was pretty much my plan. And then, the Lord blessed me with this career and I’ve just been doing this ever since. So I I’m just grateful to be a part of this this whole world of acting.
Do you have any brothers or sisters? and what are your fondest memories when you were in the University of California?
Robbie: I have a half sister and she lives in Virginia. And as far as UOC goes, I feel like it was just the people that I met and the people that I was able to interact with along with the friends that I made. I had a great time there. It is a beautiful campus and basketball of course, was great. But I feel like the relationships that I built while I was there and the things that I learned were you know, priceless.
You also appear on the second season of Titans. On the trailer, You are the one to take out Starfire. Tell me how did that come to be?
Robbie: There was a lot of fun. We went out there and we filmed in Toronto and my character’s name is Tamaranean. he’s a past love interest of Starfire who’s basically trying to get her to come back and take her back. She’s not willing to come back that easily. Believe me. I really liked all the interactions that I had with Starfire. She’s played by Anna Diop. And she is she’s fantastic and I had a great experience with her and I feel like we have some really good chemistry so I don’t want to give too much away, but I just had a great time with her.
What comic books did you like reading when you were growing up?
Robbie: I actually was really into Spider-Man and the Marvel Universe when I was growing up. I like to draw and you know, do things like that so I was really big on Spider-Man and Venom. I really like it like that. But yeah those are my main because they had this really crazy dynamic between Spider-Man and Venom and I just loved that whole storyline and I used to like to draw both. So it was fun to draw those characters because they were so awesome and relatable. You know, it was fun and I think that is missing in today’s world of comics from the big publishers.
I have watched you play villians on different movies and television shows and one of them was Confessions of a Marriage Counselor. Do you like playing as a antagonist than the protagionist more? and your memories working with Tyler Perry?
Robbie: Being a villain is always really fun because they do stuff that I would never do in real life. So I get a chance to say that crazy stuff I would never say or do mean awful things to people that I would never do in real life. So it’s fun to play act. I mean, I’m never really play acting, but it’s fun to live out those kind of fantasies of like doing like the bad stuff. But I really enjoy both honestly being a good guy is always fun too. I wish I had more funnier stories, but we had such an intense shoot. We shot the whole movie in sixteen days and we were working kind of like Fast and Furious. So it wasn’t a whole lot of time for too much craziness. But he (Tyler Perry) would come to the set every now and then in full Madea like voice and be directing us with the video voice. He would dress up and he would be in character with the whole voice trying to get us ready to go. He’s a great guy.
You are starring in American Dreamer. What will be your role on the film? Also, there are horrible situations that happen when it comes to lyft and Uber drivers in real life. Once you got the call to play your character, Did you research any of those recent horrifying situations? And How did the shooting of the film go for you?
Robbie: No I really didn’t. I really just tried to take this situation as a real situation that was just kind of happening in the moment as opposed to like “how could this really happen if this happened in real life?”. I kind of like the the way we shot it. We just met everyone the day before we started shooting, and then we just started shooting the very next day. So I was just like when everyone in the fire at the same time so I think we were able to have some real organic moments because everyone was really interacting on a very fresh basis. And my character’s name is Max and he is a low level drug dealer who has a girlfriend and a son that he would do anything in the world for the support. And he’s just really determined father trying to make a living for his family. But the good part about this character and way it was written, is that you see he’s not just a stereotype and he’s not just a cookie cutter type of character. There’s a lot more to him and you can really see that he’s a bit. I want to set I want to say a product of his environment but he’s he’s kind of been dealt this hand and he’s trying to do the best that he can and this temporary situation just to get his family out of this situation. And it’s kind of a motivation behind everything he’s doing. But he doesn’t really want to be doing what he’s doing. It was right in the fire all day.
How was it like working with Jim and having him drive for most of the film?
Robbie: Jim it is a great guy and I joked that he was a terrible driver (Laughs) he was trying to hurt us. Then, he’ll tell you himself he doesn’t even drive here in New York. But he’s from New York. So he never drives and then, he wears glasses in real life. And his character in the movie does not so he could barely see. It was terrifying but also very fun.
Since this film is based around the current scene of Uber and Lyft, do you have any cab stories?
Robbie: I feel like some drivers tried to kill me lately just the other day around really. I’m dead serious! It was earlier this week and I was coming from a meeting and the driver was trying to keep trying to strike up a conversation and I was clearly busy and I was being cordial and nice and giving short answers, but she was upset that I didn’t want to talk to her. So she said “Fine, you got to talk” and turned up the radio super loud and floored it did like 90 miles per hour for the whole rest of the ride. No clinging on for dear life in the backseat. And I don’t want to further upset this person. I don’t say anything and I’m just like one star review.
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