Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about.The actor: Blair Underwood started his career in the theater before managing to score his first on-camera gig immediately after leaving college and moving to New York, and given that the gig in question was a role on The Cosby Show when the sitcom was at the height of its popularity, it’s no wonder that it set him on the path to success. In short order, Underwood secured his first leading role in a film (Krush Groove), which was followed by his first series-regular role (Downtown), and while the latter didn’t last terribly long, it was a stepping stone to the series that would cement him firmly in the public eye: L.A. Law.After spending seven years playing Los Angeles attorney Jonathan Rollins, Underwood went straight into a major motion picture with one of the world’s most famous actors—Just Cause, starring Sean Connery—and he’s rarely stepped away from the camera since... except for 2014, but we’ll get to that. What’s important is that Underwood is currently starring in one of the summer’s biggest hits (Longlegs), and he’s got a new series coming out in the fall (Three Women), so combining those two projects with a 40-year back catalog, he had plenty to discuss with The A.V. Club during the course of a lengthy, freewheeling interview.Longlegs (2024)—“Agent Carter”The A.V. Club: I wish I'd been able to see Longlegs before we talked, because the trailer looks absolutely terrifying.Blair Underwood: Oh, you haven't seen it yet! Well, it's a good one. It's scary! AVC: How did you find your way into the film? Did they reach out to you?BU: Yeah! Well, my agent just set up a Zoom call with Oz Perkins, the director, so we had a great conversation, just hit it off from the very beginning. They told me all about the character and the role and the story. And at the time, the final scene wasn't written. You haven't seen it yet, so I won't give it away, but it gave me something more to play with and sink my teeth into, which was a lot of fun to do. But I've got to tell you, I'm so excited about this role because I've never really done a horror film! I mean, I've done psychological thrillers. There was Just Cause with Sean Connery, and Asunder, but this is a different, darker genre, which was fun to be a part of.AVC: What can you tell me—that isn't a spoiler—about Agent Carter?BU: So Agent Carter is kind of a by-the-books FBI agent. He's the boss of the protagonist, who is played by Maika Monroe and who's not unlike Jodie Foster's character in Silence Of The Lambs. So I'm her boss, and... he's a loving family man and trying to take care of his family and find the serial killer, played by Nicolas Cage.AVC: The way that they pointedly avoid showing Nicolas Cage in the trailer is impressive restraint.BU: Yeah, none of the trailers show him. Which is great! I don't know if you've heard this, but they now have a billboard up in L.A. that's just a phone number and Nicolas Cage's eye and the date it opens, 7/12. And if you call that phone number, you hear his voice... and it's eerie as hell!The Cosby Show (1985)—“Denise’s Friend” (uncredited) / “Mark”AVC: We try to go as far back in an actor's on-camera career as possible, and with yours, I can't tell which you would've filmed first, but it's got to be either The Cosby Show or Krush Groove.BU: Oh, it was Cosby. The Cosby Show was my second day in New York.AVC: Wow.BU: Yeah. [Laughs.] Man, y'know, how did that come about? I was moving to New York... This was in December of '84. I couldn't afford to stay in college—I was at Carnegie-Mellon—and I knew I couldn't go back, so I moved to New York in January of '85, and my dance teacher at Carnegie-Mellon, Billy Wilson, turned me on to his agent when I got to New York. I went downtown to meet his agent, Perri Kipperman, and she said, "By the way, they're casting for The Cosby Show, I'll send you down right now!" So she sent me down, I met the casting director, and... it was just a walk-on part, the first one, but I remember meeting with Cosby, and he said, "You look like a young Sidney Poitier," which was funny, because he became a mentor to me later on. But he cast me. I was already planning to move the next week, but the casting kind of coincided with me moving, and literally it was, like, my first day in New York. I threw my bags down, and the second day I was on The Cosby Show. Which was crazy.AVC: And as you intimated, you also ended up on the show a second time later in the season.BU: That's right! With Robin Givens. I played Robin Given's boyfriend in that episode. Krush Groove (1985)—“Russell Walker”AVC: So how did you find your way into Krush Groove, then? Because that wasn't much later, and it was a pretty substantial role.BU: Yes! Pat Golden was casting that, and she was the same casting director who did The Cosby Show, so she told them, "There's this kid who just came here from Carnegie-Mellon, he's new to New York, he just walked in and got a part on The Cosby Show, but you should meet him." And I almost didn't get the part because they thought I looked too... militaristic. Too military. In fact, the producer at the time said, "He looks almost like one of those A Soldier's Story guys." Because A Soldier's Story was in theaters at the time. So it's ironic that, all these years later, I get nominated [for a Tony] for doing A Soldier's Play on Broadway!AVC: When I posted on social media that I was going to be talking to you, someone suggested Krush Groove and observed, "I love the way that Rick Rubin plays himself but apparently Russell Simmons looked in the mirror and saw Blair Underwood."BU: [Bursts out laughing.] Oh, that's hilarious! That's funny, because everyone else plays themselves. I don't know if that was Russell's decision or the producers' decision, but I'm glad they made that decision! AVC: So how in-depth into the rap scene were you at the time? Were you familiar with the artists you were working with?BU: Oh, yeah. No, I was really attracted to and enjoyed the music, so for me, it was just... I was over the top to be in a movie with Run-DMC and Kurtis Blow. Because, you know, he'd started his game seven years earlier. So he was kind of like a veteran, seven years into the game. So, yeah, I was very excited to be a part of that.Deep Impact (1998)—“Mark Simon”BU: Oh, man! You know, it's so funny... My wife and I and my kids—my young-adult kids—were on vacation in Vietnam last week, and I get on the plane—we're in Hong Kong, flying from Los Angeles—and the flight attendant sits down next to me and says, "I'm sorry, Mr. Underwood, but I'm such a big fan of Deep Impact, and I have it on my phone. I'll show you!" And he showed me! [Laughs.] He said, "I watch it all the time!" And he started quoting my lines. There's that one line at the end where we're about to go into the meteor, and I said to my wife, "He knows the line better than I do!" It's something about, "I'll come back and haunt you if you don't remember me." Something like that, anyway.That was a big deal for me at the time, because it was a major studio film. Steven Spielberg had hand-picked Mimi Leder, who directed the film. That was a huge development, because a female had a chance to direct a $100 million huge-budget studio film. That still doesn't happen enough today even, and it never happened back then! And then for me to work with Robert Duvall. And then just to play an astronaut! We shot that on Soundstage 15 at Paramount, and just to be an astronaut... Come on, man. I was a kid who always wanted to be an actor. I was always playing cowboys and Indians and astronauts, cops and robbers, and all that stuff. So, really, just to be suspended from the ceiling, all that stuff we shot on the surface of the meteor... We shot for weeks on that Soundstage 15, which is their largest soundstage at Paramount. It was just like a kid's dream come true, to go to Hollywood and work in movies. It wasn't a huge role, but just to be a part of that journey was amazing.Full Frontal (2002)—“Calvin / Nicholas”BU: Wow. [Laughs.] Again, this was another highlight, and kind of an inflection point in my career, because Julia Roberts had just won an Academy Award, Steven Soderbergh had just won an Academy Award—him for Traffic, her for Erin Brockovich—and [David] Fincher did a cameo and Brad Pitt did a cameo. So all the biggest stars in Hollywood were in this film! So for him to ask me to be in it was amazing to me. I don't even remember... I mean, I know I didn't audition. Soderbergh just wanted to meet. I remember that we had lunch together and talked about the role, and it was just great fun.And at that time it was special because, well, you know, Steven Soderbergh was just the epitome of an auteur and filmmaker, and he just really wanted to get away from the whole Hollywood machinery, and he said, "This movie's got a small budget, there are no hair and makeup trailers, no wardrobe... You guys bring your own wardrobe! We're gonna park the cars, we're gonna shoot it, running and gunning it..." And everybody was up for it, so we did it! And that was just great fun. I really loved that experience.I Will Follow (2010)—“Evan”BU: Oh, incredible. You know, Ava DuVernay is a very dear friend, and I met her when I did a series called City Of Angels. Steven Bochco's City Of Angels. She was the publicist on that show. And when she did I Will Follow... This was her first movie. And it's so funny, because she said, "I'm gonna put you in everything I do!" And she'll call almost every time. And sometimes either I'm busy for some reason or already doing other stuff. But I was so glad to do When They See Us and, more recently, Origin. So whenever she calls, I'm there. But that particular role was her first movie. And I had just directed my first feature film, and she called me and said, "I know you just finished direc
