Anthony Anderson Interview: ‘Black-ish’
Anthony Anderson just scored his sixth consecutive Emmy nomination in Best Comedy Actor for playing Andre Johnson on ABC’s “Black-ish.” He now has nine nominations in total when factoring in his three bids as a producer for Best Comedy Series. His co-star Tracee Ellis Ross is also nominated this year, and Anderson credits her and the rest of the cast for raising the bar for him to keep getting that recognition from the TV academy. “I’m only as good as my cast allows me to do be, so a nomination for me is a nomination for us,” says Anderson in an exclusive new interview for Gold Derby. “It’s never a dull moment and it’s never easy work to do what it is that we all do, even though everyone makes it look easy.” Watch the video interview above.
Anderson is submitting “Love, Boat” for consideration to Emmy voters, which is the Season 6 finale where Dre catches his separated parents getting together again. We watch Dre try to navigate the implications of this revelation, especially having the childhood trauma of their separation in the back of his mind. “The journey that Dre goes on in terms of dealing with this new love affair between his parents I thought was an interesting angle and a great episode to submit,” admits Anderson. “If this plays out the way that we all want it to, Dre will finally get that family unit that he’s been longing for from his mom and his dad.”
One of the more fascinating relationships to watch evolve over six seasons of “Black-ish” is Dre and his son, Junior (Marcus Scribner). Dre often has a tough-love approach toward his son, though he has gradually come to recognize and accept Junior finding his way into becoming his own man. In other words, there has been a “maturation of Dre” through this sixth season. “There’s always gonna be contention there because he’s my namesake, I’m his father, he’s my son, but the maturation process of Andre Sr. is evident in his acceptance of how his son is and what he’s becoming, the young man he’s becoming.”
Anderson and company are getting back to work on Season 7 of “Black-ish,” months after the reckoning of the Black Lives Matter movement. He suggests that the show could be finding new ways to approach topics like systemic racism and police brutality following the events of the protests and the movement. “There’s so many different colors that you can paint that collage with, that, yeah, there’s always going to be something to say and a place to say it from.”
