Actor Coby Bell Puts Family Before Fame

Actor Coby Bell Puts Family Before Fame


Bell, alongside BET's The Game cast mates Pooch Hall and Tia Mowry Hardrict

 

Switching gears a bit, Burn Notice is getting ready to wrap up the fall season, what’s been the best part about playing a role so different than what fans are used to seeing you as on The Game?

Other than working with Bruce Campbell, who’s become a really good buddy of mine, I think the show kind of has something for everybody. It has action, it has comedy; I think it gives me the chance to do all of that with one character. I love the fact that we go undercover as different characters to trick the bad guy. I get to create these little sub-characters–I love when they give me scenes like that.

That’s quite different from The Game where they always give you beautiful women to play opposite of. How is it working with your latest love interest Brandy in the upcoming season?

Oh, she’s awesome! I’ve really been blown away with how she’s been able to just jump right in, because I know exactly how that feels–I did it on Burn Notice. [The show] had been going for three seasons, and I hopped onto that moving train and figured out who my character was. Brandy just jumped right in out of the gate kickin’ ass! She’s always prepared; she never half-asses; she’s just a real professional. I’m really enjoying working with her.

Last season your song “The Dip & Pitts” became a trending topic. How did you come up with the song and the dance?

Well, I didn’t come up with it by myself. There was a running joke for a couple episodes with me talking to Chris Webber about “The Dip & Pitts” and he’s like, he didn’t know what it was. And I was like, “Come on, man. Don’t act like you don’t know what it is.” It was supposed to be this song that [my character] came out with when he was a rookie… There was an episode that was short and they needed another scene at the end. So Kenny Smith, the executive producer, said, “Alright, we’re going to have you do ‘The Dip & Pitts.’” I was like, “Hell, yeah!” We did it and we made the song and we knew it was funny, but I didn’t think it was going to do what it did. And as far as the dance, I just made that up the night before we shot the scene. I’ve never been a part of anything like that. It’s pretty weird.

Does this mean there’s a budding music career on the horizon for you?

It’s funny you said that. It’s kind of always been in my life. My dad is a singer, so it was always either music or acting with me. All the way up through college I was doing both, and even after college I was in a reggae band. Then the acting really started taking off so the music had to become a hobby. But lately I’ve been putting together this project where the music and the comedy kind of come together. Hopefully within the next couple years I can get that going.

What other projects do you have on the horizon?

I’m actually really excited about hooking up with a couple of writers from The Game and one of the writers from Burn Notice. We’re trying to turn this idea into a movie. The character’s name is Milky Jr. and the name of [his] band is Milky Jr. & The Milky Way. I want to finish that one, and what’s really cool is Brandy and I have been talking about life after The Game, trying to get something together TV wise. So I’m really excited about that, too.


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