At 43 years old, Jay Ellis has built a filmography that most would envy. He’s appeared in blockbuster hits like Top Gun: Maverick and Escape Room. He’s also been a mainstay in not one, but two fan-favorite series, Insecure and The Game. However, there’s one thing in particular that he’d like to accomplish in the future: star in a music-leaning biopic.
“I would love to play Teddy Pendergrass or Little Richard or maybe even Marvin Gaye, like I would love to do a big music biopic of one of our great R&B crooners. I ain’t a singer, but I sing, you know what I mean?” Ellis told The Hollywood Reporter. “I love so many things that I don’t know that I could just pick one thing, but I love tiny little small movies that are just about two people in space and who they are and and finding themselves, and I also love a big action film where I can go and use a completely different muscle and push myself.”
Until he gets the call to play Teddy Pendergrass or sing “What’s Going On?” by Marvin Gaye, Ellis still has at least two things to be excited in the present. Currently, his latest film, Freaky Tales, which also stars Pedro Mescal, Tom Hanks and the late Angus Cloud among others, is in theaters. Further down the road, he’s set to appear in the play, Duke & Roya, in New York at the Lucille Lortel in West Village.
“I’ll say one thing I’m super excited about, I’m doing a play this summer in New York called Duke & Roya that’s gonna be at the Lucille Lortel, which is a super prestigious theater in the West Village,” he said. “And to be able to go into that theater and put up a show is something that I’m super proud of.”
