Jay Ellis on Texting Tom Cruise for Motion Recommendation for ‘Freaky Tales’ and How ‘Working Level’ Helped Him Say Goodbye to Basketball

College drop-off was in all probability the final place Jay Ellis anticipated to land a task. The actor was strolling out of his daughter’s classroom after getting her located when he noticed Mindy Kaling coming down the hallway. 

“She goes, ‘are you going to be my coach or what? Are you going to be my coach, Jay? Inform me now,’” Ellis remembers. “And I used to be like, ‘yeah, Mindy, I wish to do it. I really like you. You’re the funniest individual on the planet.’ That was my means in. I’ve by no means gotten a job in school drop-off earlier than this.” 

Netflix can thank a well-timed college run-in then for bringing Ellis to “Working Level,” the brand new Kaling-produced sequence on Netflix starring Kate Hudson as a Jeanie Buss-inspired proprietor of a Los Angeles skilled basketball crew. After premiering on the finish of February, the sequence was simply renewed for a second season.

The venture is the primary of two that Ellis has coming this spring: on April 4 he’ll be seen within the Lionsgate film “Freaky Tales,” which opened the Sundance Movie Pageant in 2024 and brought on a lot buzz that a whole bunch of ticket holders have been turned away on the door. 

The roles are a step into the subsequent stage of Ellis’ profession. The 43-year-old turned a breakout star together with his position as Lawrence in “Insecure,” which ran from 2016 to 2021, and since then has been seen in “Prime Gun: Maverick” and Dave Franco’s “Any person That I Used to Know.” A former basketball participant himself, Ellis can’t assist however be drawn to sports activities roles — but “Working Level” sees him making the shift from portraying a participant to now a coach, and “Freaky Tales” required intense martial arts coaching. 

“I really like motion and I get referred to as for a factor, and it isn’t motion,” Ellis says, alluding to the various heartthrob roles he’s achieved. Whereas “Freaky Tales” was the place he leaned into motion, “Working Level” was his second to say goodbye to basketball in his profession. He performs the crew’s coach, tapping straight into his basketball historical past, which included enjoying in faculty and interning for the Portland Trailblazers. 

“I’ll say, I feel I pissed off our total crew as a result of once we have been eradicating cameras, I used to be all the time enjoying basketball. So I’m sweating, my make-up is dripping, I’ve pit stains on my shirt, I’ve kicked my footwear off and so they’ve obtained scuff marks throughout them. I cut up my pants at one level,” Ellis says. “However ‘Working Level’ is fascinating as a result of it additionally in some methods is letting me shut my very own chapter on basketball. I bear in mind the primary time after I heard it was the coach position I bear in mind going, ‘rattling, I’m a coach now. OK. I suppose I’m there now.’ I’ll nonetheless attempt to be on the market, but it surely undoubtedly is a enjoyable factor to let that solar set and a brand new solar will rise.”

His character in “Freaky Tales” — an journey comedy set in Nineteen Eighties Oakland following a real-life forged of characters whose storylines all cross in unusual methods — can be an NBA participant, although it was the bodily motion a part of the position that intrigued Ellis. Fortunately, his “Prime Gun” costar Tom Cruise was only a textual content away.

“I referred to as him and I used to be like, ‘Hey, man, that is what we’re speculated to do. Do you’ve any concepts of what I ought to be doing or how I ought to assault this?’ And he despatched me this textual content message that in case you printed it, it could in all probability be three pages lengthy,’” Ellis says. “And so it was nice although as a result of he actually talked in regards to the coaching facet of it, however actually the way you apply that to filming it.”

He educated in martial arts for 5 weeks earlier than taking pictures started, even flying himself out to Oakland as a lot as he may to work with the stunt crew. 

“It was a small finances, so we didn’t actually have it within the schedule for me to be there the entire time. And I used to be like, ‘Movie lasts eternally. Y’all not going to have me out right here wanting loopy. No, thanks,’” he says. “But it surely was a problem. I actually go to push myself and be like, ‘oh yeah, I’m actually f–king good at this. I can do that.’ And I’m very excited to go do that, and I’m going to go present individuals — I’m going to point out myself extra importantly — that I can do that and have a very good time with it, and hopefully create a personality that may stand the check of time and that individuals will fall in love with similar to they’ve a few of these different motion characters.”

Forward, Ellis plans to maintain increasing into new challenges, basketball apart — though he’s having a little bit of a tough time totally letting go.

“I’m attempting to do a doc on Patrick Ewing proper now. I’ve been chasing him for 2 or three years to do that documentary, and I feel we’re assembly once more subsequent week. My crew is like, ‘No extra basketball,’” he says.