Image via: Amani Tafari

By: Hunter Bonaparte, Arts & Entertainment Coordinator 

No matter the goal, everyone must overcome odds to achieve their dreams. This is the main theme behind the new sports comedy, “The Underdoggs”.

Tika Sumpter spoke with the Maroon Tiger and several other HBCU publications in a virtual round table discussion on the film on Jan. 21. She spoke on about her approach to acting and accomplishing the end of the film.

“The Underdoggs” is a feel-good comedy starring Snoop Dogg, Mike Epps, and Sumpter. The film is centered around a dysfunctional children’s football team that’s trying to turn into a championship contender.Sumpter plays an old flame of Snoop Dogg’s retired football star lead character.

Out of Sumpter’s many credits, one of her best-known role is the star of “The Haves and the Have Nots”, the long-running drama series on “OWN”. The intensity of the show is in stark contrast to the comedic tone of “The Underdoggs”. Sumpter talked about her way of transitioning between different types of roles.

“I’ve gotten the best of both worlds. I think drama,you’re just more – you more sit in the role, it’s not like joking around the whole time, it’s not…it’s not so loose, right,” Sumpter said. “In comedy you want it to be loose, you want it to feel – cause you’ve got to play off people and the time, you have to, you have to allow the words to land.” 

She went on to talk about the importance of self-belief in an arena as volatile as the entertainment industry. Being an actress, Sumpter experienced her fair share of rejection, but she emphasizes a certain healthy naivete as the key to her early perseverance.

In this way, Sumpter’s career perfectly intertwines with the theme of her new film.

Art serves to expose and legitimize human behavior, film is no exception. The allegorical traits of “The Underdoggs” story are present throughout life. Whether you’re nervous for a job interview or studying for a big test, we are all the stressed out coach trying to wrangle and organize the wily forces banging around the inside of our heads.

 “The Underdoggs” is out on streaming platforms now.

Copy Edited by: Bradley Morrison, Staff Writer & Auzzy Byrdsell, Editor-in-Chief