The Devil You Know star Michael Ealy interview

The Devil You Know hit AMC theaters this past weekend. Hidden Remote got to sit down with one of the stars of the film, Michael Ealy.

Ealy has been acting for over twenty years now, and caught his big break as Ricky Nash in Barbershop. Since then, we have seen him in movies like Seven Pounds, Takers and in TV shows like The Following and Secrets and Lies, and more recently in Bel-Air.

Ealy plays a detective in the film The Devil You Know which tells the story of a man (Omar Epps) who has the chance to turn his life around. But as his brother seems to find himself in trouble, he finds himself trending back down a bad path. Ealy was also an Executive Producer on the film.

Hidden Remote had the pleasure of speaking with Michael Ealy about his role in the film, working with Omar Epps, and if he wants to executive produce any more films in the future.

Check out the video version of the interview here.

The Devil You Know star Michael Ealy interview

*Please note: The interview below has been edited for length and clarity

Hidden Remote: What attracted you to the role in this film?

Michael Ealy: So, it was bigger than just the role, like when I read the script. I wanted to be a part of the project. Because I felt like this script was kind of like the films I grew up watching, right. It’s just old-school storytelling and there’s just a lot of human storytelling going on. There’s no capes, you know, there’s no dragons, nothing like that. And it’s just this human story about a family. And I always wondered what it was like to grow up in a bigger family. And what happens when conflict happens between siblings on, you know, like, on a grander scale, because I grew up with just one sister, so we just clash like that. And then we hug in class like that, and then we hug. And but I knew people who came from, you know, families with, you know, four and five, six brothers are six, you know, four brothers and two sisters. And it’s whole different energy. And I always wanted to be a part of that. And so this project was kind of that segway into what it’s like to be a part of a big family, especially a tight-knit family, and what happens when someone’s actions begin to expose all of the cracks? You know, in that foundation, that is the family itself.

HR: What was it like working next to Omar Epps?

Ealy: Working with Omar, for me, it was kind of surreal because you know, I was sitting across the table from Q from Juice. The first time I saw Omar Epps was in Juice. And, you know, that was my childhood, right? So I was a kid around the same age as him, so I could identify what he was going through. And even though I didn’t grow up in New York, you know, I felt like, you know, kids all around could identify with what he was going through peer pressure, you know, an unstable friend, all these things. And so it was like, it was almost like, why haven’t we worked together? Before now, and we talk about it to this day, we were talking about it last night like, it makes no sense why we didn’t work together until now. But now that we have worked together, we already know how we want to, you know, how we want to approach things, what we want to do moving forward. We’re going to do more projects together, for sure.

HR: You were an executive producer on the film, what was that experience like, is this something you want to do more or in the future?

Ealy: Absolutely, if I could executive produce one out of three or two out of three of my projects, that would be great. I like being involved behind the camera, I’m learning the tricks of the trade in terms of producing, I’m learning about independent financing, I’m, I’m absorbing as much as I can, and, you know, being able to spend time on set and not have to shoot is when you really start to understand what producing is about being involved before the cameras start rolling, pre-production and understanding, you know, what that really entails, all of that is, is what I’m kind of taking in.

The Devil You Know is in AMC Theaters now.