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

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Ever since his participation in 2000's stand-up concert film The Original Kings of Comedy — where he reminded us, among other things, that conflicts could be resolved with dance-offs — Cedric the Entertainer (née Cedric Antonio Kyles) has made a name for himself as a go-to funny guy. In Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, the comedian-loaded Mike Lee film, Cedric plays Clyde, the down-home cousin of Martin Lawrence's title character, Roscoe Jenkins, a man returning to his humble Southern hometown after achieving success as the Hollywood talk show host and self-help guru, RJ Stevens. Growing up, Clyde had Roscoe beat in the charm department, easily winning the lion's share of their family's affection and, more importantly, the heart of Roscoe's childhood crush. When they meet again years later, Clyde, now a successful car-dealer who never left his roots behind, still isn't impressed with Roscoe. In an exclusive interview with Premiere, Cedric issues forth on his role in Roscoe, the current state of Hollywood, and — who would have guessed? — what he likes to do with crickets.

PREMIERE: How did you get involved with this film?
CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER: Malcolm Lee, the writer/director, he had been talking to me about this character for a while and so he wanted to… he just thought that I was 'Clyde' for him. He just felt like I was the right dude for the role. So once he got it onboard he sent me a script and I got it right away and I was like, "Okay." Then he told me Martin was the lead and I was like, "Okay." And every time that they would call me and tell me who was involved with the cast it just made it that much more intriguing.

Could you relate to Clyde?
I definitely related to the character in the sense that — it was a lot like just playing the opposite of [Martin's character] because Martin's character is something I've experience where you kind of go to Hollywood and you come home and you think, like, man, everybody else is all proud of you and [they] think you're a big deal and then your family says, basically, "Whatever, you just Roscoe to us." And I loved the idea of being that person that was just always willing to shoot him down. [laughs] Just shoot it right out of the sky right when you think you're doing it big. [Makes explosion sound.] Nothing!

So you've experienced Roscoe's end of the situation too, then?
Oh, yeah. Not so mean-spirited, but I mean, for the most part I say, you know, when you go back home to your home town, literally, you're a star for about an hour and then it's like, "Okay, take the trash out." It's, like, "Well, wait a minute."