Mac puts his heart into ‘Pride’ role

Moviegoers will probably be surprised with Bernie Mac’s performance in his latest movie, “Pride,” which opens Friday. The uplifting sports drama about the creation of the Philadelphia Department of Recreation’s predominantly African American swim team in 1971 offers the funnyman a rare opportunity to go dramatic.

Mac plays Elston, the custodian of the run-down Marcus Foster Recreation Center in the Nicetown area of Philadelphia, who initially has doubts about plans by swim coach Jim Ellis (Terrence Howard) to start a team. But Elston ends up becoming the coach’s biggest supporter.

That role is a change of pace for a performer whose previous films include “The Original Kings of Comedy,” “Head of State” and “Mr. 3000,” and who starred on television for five years in “The Bernie Mac Show.”

“I have been doing drama, you all just haven’t known about it,” Mac says on the phone from his Chicago home. “I have been doing drama ever since I was in grade school. I have been doing community plays. I introduced myself as a comic and that’s how everybody sees me. They want to stick you one way and in one place.”

But Mac, who says he is retiring from stand-up this year, reports that he learned to keep people guessing from “a wise woman” -- his grandmother.

“She always said, ‘Don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.’ I have been training. I love it when you all walk away and say, ‘I didn’t know he could do that.’ I just laugh because I love being underestimated. I have been underestimated my whole life.”

Mac and his production company have signed a deal with Lionsgate, the company releasing “Pride,” to star in and produce movies. “I am looking for films of substance,” he says. “I am looking to do movies with a heart. I am an entertainer. I am just not one facet.”

Mac is planning to remake the 1974 romantic comedy “Claudine,” for which Diahann Carroll received an Oscar nomination for best actress.

“I am going to modify it,” he says, adding that he thinks it carries a strong message -- “especially now.”

At the end of the day, Mac reflects, he would love people to say about him, “You know what? That Bernie Mac does good. I have never seen him in a bad film. I have never seen him doing anything stupid.”

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-- Susan King