The weirder side of Lance Reddick

Take “Toys R Me,” a 2012 Funny or Die sketch that portrayed Reddick as a dictator. Manager of a mom and pop toy store. After giving a drill sergeant-like briefing, Reddick’s character walks the store looking for any imperfections.

“they know [expletive] Toys and show them something. [expletive] Respect!” he roars at an employee before shoving an unsatisfied Bakugan. Show on the ground. When an employee explains her long bathroom break by saying she’s on her period, Reddick’s manager sniffs the air, narrows his eyes and replies menacingly: “No you don’t.” be.”

“Lance Reddick is not afraid of nonsense,” said Luke Barnett, who stars with Reddick in the 2020 comedy “Faith Based.” Actor and screenwriter even Written with Reddick’s character in mind after watching “Toys R Me”.

“He’s committed to whatever he’s doing,” she said.

Reddick tended to stay true to form, playing serious characters in silly scenarios, dabbling in comedy. In the 2012 college comedy sketch “Nice Try, IHOP,” he portrayed what might be a parody of his stone-faced cop from “The Wire” Cedric Daniels. Hell for failing businesses that move into former IHOP restaurants.

“I’m here to expose the crooks behind it, one IHOP at a time,” he says with righteous indignation, sporting suspenders and rolled-up sleeves. Speaking to a business owner in a dim interrogation room, he asks: “When you wake up in the middle of the night, alone with your guilt, do you hear the screams of people who are hungry for glorious blintzes? are?”

Last year, he guest-starred in the Season 3 finale of HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show” as a father who hates two tarantulas in the dining room when his gay daughter comes out. Hate understood. In one Instagram post Friday, “A Black Lady Sketch Show” Creator and star Robin Thieda. wrote that Reddick “made me laugh every time we spoke.”

Reddick wasn’t really above dabbling in the ridiculous. When he appeared on an episode of “The Eric Andre Show” in 2013, a satirical adult swim talk show known for peppering its guests with nonsensical and insulting questions, Reddick wholeheartedly spoke about it. Committed to

First, he punches a hole in Andre’s desk – deadpanning, “You need a new desk” – and storms offstage. Moments later, he returned as a combination of LeVar Burton’s roles as a slave man in “Roots” and a space engineer in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” with With shackles on his wrists, a visor over his eyes and a star-fleet insignia on his bare chest, Reddick launched into a mocking, profanity-laced chant.

“The slam the desk thing was just spontaneous,” Reddick said on SiriusXM “The Jim and Sam Show” In 2019 “I’m a bit of a clown, so I like that sort of thing. My background is traditional theatre, not sketch comedy, so I’m always a bit nervous about being asked to improvise. But Usually … if part of me just says, ‘F— this’ and just kind of jumps in, I’m fine.

In “Faith Based,” Reddick portrays a pastor whose adopted son (played by screenwriter Barnett) creates a get-rich-quick Christian sci-fi movie. On the second day of shooting, Barnett recalled, he and his colleagues came up with the idea for several actors — including Reddick — to wear skin-tight green screen suits.

Barnett said Hiding from Reddick “for fear of his reaction”. But five minutes later, she heard Reddick laughing from the other room before emerging happily in her robes.

“He committed to playing an idiot priest in a green-screen suit, just as he would commit to Shakespeare,” Barnett said. “So it was really fun to write silly, funny lines and scenarios that he could be in, knowing that he would treat them as if it were a prestige drama.”

Reddick’s comedic sensibility was one of the many qualities that didn’t always come through in his big roles. Dedicated to her modest Instagram fanbase, the Baltimore native The mug in front of the camera while his many dogs howled in the background, or play A piano piece from his album, “Reflections and Memories” In a ___ Post last summerHe lay down on the couch. Playing “Destiny 2”. A massively multiplayer game in which he voices Commander Zavala. Since Reddick’s death, Destiny players have been monitoring the game by gathering their avatars around the actor’s character. To bow in reverence.

“He was just the most down-to-earth guy,” Barnett said. “He was the best.”