BET+ aired the first episode of its show Average Joe on Monday. According to IMDB, the show stars Deon Cole (Black-ish, The Harder They Fall) as “Joe, a blue-collar plumber” who “learns his recently deceased father lived a secret life and stole millions of dollars from dangerous people. Now those people think Joe has the money. Joe must race against time to find the truth and the money.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cole had to make a serious life change when he accepted the role of a leading man.
“It was extremely difficult because I’ve never been a lead,” he said. “I’m used to just coming in, doing my part, jumping in my car and taking off, and going to go do stand-up. That was my routine with everything I’ve ever done. They wouldn’t let me get in my car on this show. They were like, ‘No, you sit your ass down.’”
Cole also had to set aside his other projects. “Seeing the dedication that the cast had, for me not to have that same dedication would be weird and I couldn’t do that,” he said. “I learned to put everything aside. Every project I was doing I put aside, and I buckled down and I followed their lead.”
Tammy Townsend (K.C. Undercover, Sherri), who stars as Joe’s wife Angela, also had to deal with changes to her life as a result of filming.
“I took Angela home with me and I’ve never done that before with any character I’ve ever played,” she said. “When I came back home, I had to decompress. Angela’s under an insurmountable amount of stress, anxiety, and insecurity, and I was feeling all of that when I got home. I really had to find the tools to be able to come back to me and it took me a long time to do that.”
Average Joe is available to watch on BET+.