Martin Lawrence and Cedric the Entertainer in Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins David Lee/Courtesy of Universal

How was it working with the rest of the cast?
This is one of the reasons why this movie was very attractive to anybody that wanted to be involved in it. Mo'Nique — goddamn it — she's just always an extremely big comedic talent, but she also brings so much heart to her characters by making the person feel like they are real to a certain degree, or their pain that kind of comes with them. It's amazing just to be onscreen with someone as legendary as James Earl Jones — and Margaret Avery as well, for that matter. And Michael Clark Duncan — big energy, big powerful personality. Mike Epps — all the comedians, really. It was just fun to be in there. Mike Epps, Mo'Nique, me, Martin —just making each other laugh and trying to take the comedy to the next level. It just made this movie fun to be a part of on and off the screen. We had some rain days where we didn't have to work so we'd be all, like, fiending to see each other. So we'd be like, "Alright, let's meet up." We had a couple of little places where we'd go and hang out and shoot pool and laugh and talk with each other. We were all down in Shreveport together and we became a very close-knit little family.

What did you think of Louisiana?
It was a good time. Shreveport is definitely growing a lot and they're taking advantage of all the people that are coming in to shoot the movies. I'm from a little small town in Missouri so I already knew what it was going to be like in so many ways. You know, they have gambling there if that's your thing. So you can go to the casino. They have cool little restaurants. It's a two and a half hour drive to Dallas. We would do that often. Just get in the car and roll up to Dallas and kick it if ever we needed the metropolitan life.

There's was a guy who taught me how to bass fish. There was a lot of real cool stuff down there that you can do.

Cedric the Entertainer and Mo'Nique in Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins David Lee/Courtesy of Universal

You took up bass fishing?
I only did it one time and it was yucky. I don't go fishing [regularly], but I'd been watching the shows and they had this big Bass Pro shop there that make you at least want to go buy the boots. Like, half the time you do stuff like golf--I play golf because I like the golf clothes. So you bass fish because you're like, "Oh, they got these big cool rubber boots." You're like, "Oh, that looks hot. I want some of them."

Plus there's the 'man' factor.
Yeah, you got your waders on. You're out there in a boat. '"Got my tackle box." All that sounds real manly. "My tackle box." Then you got to catch a fish and it's moving and you're [makes freak-out noise] It's alive! Wait a minute. I'm used to fish that's served next to some risotto.

Did the bait pose a problem?
Some live stuff, some worms and you gush them on there. There were crickets. "Just reach in the bucket and grab a cricket!" and I'm like, "Really?" I'm not a big fan of bugs, so I actually kind of dug jabbing the crickets. Now the worms are gushy and they're kind of slimy and gross and I really didn't dig that, but a cricket to the head with a hook, I'm sorry, but I love it.