Comedy

Hollywood Finally Catches Up to Sam Richardson

THE LAST LAUGH
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Apple TV+

The breakout star of “Veep” talks to “The Last Laugh” podcast about his relentless rise to mainstream comedy success, culminating with the new Apple TV+ series “The Afterparty.”

Sam Richardson’s first two professional acting gigs were almost 10 years ago on Arrested Development and The Office. And he hasn’t stopped rising the ranks of the comedy world ever since, from what was supposed to be a one-episode guest spot as Richard Splett on Veep to his first real romantic leading role on Apple TV+’s new murder mystery comedy, The Afterparty.

In this week’s episode of The Last Laugh podcast, Richardson talks about collaborating with his former improv teacher Tim Robinson on the brilliantly funny Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave, how he ended up channeling his Ghanaian heritage on Ted Lasso, and how it felt to be called “his generation’s Tom Hanks” by one of the most successful filmmakers in Hollywood.

“It’s really, truly the nicest thing anybody has ever said to or about me,” Richardson says of that bit of high praise from The Afterparty creator Chris Miller, who, along with his production partner Phil Lord, also made The Lego Movie, the 21 Jump Street reboots, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. “Because I love Tom Hanks so very much. I think he’s just such a beloved figure as a person, and as a zero-scandal human, you know? And his performances are always so true. I’ve never seen Tom Hanks faking it.”

Richardson is similarly fully committed to everything he does on screen, whether it’s naively “failing upwards” through five seasons of Veep or drawing on his family’s roots for his hilarious performance as Ghanaian billionaire Edwin Akufo on the second season of Ted Lasso.

Now, Richardson is taking on his highest profile leading man role to date in The Afterparty. Each episode of the unique series–which premiered on Apple TV+ last month and features an ensemble of comedy stars including Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz, Ilana Glazer, and Ben Schwartz–is told from a different character’s perspective using a distinct movie genre. Richardson’s Aniq kicks things off by going all in on the romantic comedy. “I love me a rom-com,” he unabashedly tells me.

The Afterparty was filmed mostly in one location during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, so when Richardson and the other cast members weren’t acting in scenes, they were incredibly isolated from one another, and the outside world.

“So then to go on set and all of a sudden be like, ‘Oh my god, friends and people!’—it was such a welcome feeling,” he says. “It was so much fun to get to hug and have our masks off and be like, ‘I’m interacting in a real, meaningful way!’ It made it feel like an actual reunion because it was like a reunion of life.”

The Afterparty is just the latest in a string of leveling-up moves for Richardson, including his starring role in the indie horror-comedy Werewolves Within, his action movie debut opposite Chris Pratt in The Tomorrow War, and a major part in the long-awaited Hocus Pocus sequel coming out this fall.

But he still holds a very special place in his heart for Detroiters, the underappreciated comedy series he co-created and co-starred in with his real-life best friend—and former Second City improv teacher—Tim Robinson.

“We all hone our personas and our skills as we get older, but Tim was Tim” from the start, Richardson says. “He was always the funniest improviser.”

When Detroiters premiered five years ago, Comedy Central had no platform to stream the series. So when fans failed to watch it in high enough numbers on cable, the network abruptly canceled it after two seasons.

“Our numbers were steady and they were growing,” Richardson says, the slightest tinge of bitterness in his voice. But without any episodes available on any of the major streaming platforms, comedy fans who may have loved the show had no easy way to discover it.

Richardson also confirms that Comedy Central pressed the duo to play up their racial differences on screen, a note they firmly rejected. “One of their main things was like, ‘What’s different about these two guys? Are they just two of the same guy? Maybe you guys are talking about the fact that this guy’s Black and this guy’s white,’” he recalls. “And we were like, ‘Well, no, the whole point is that Tim and I are friends in real life because we are so similar to each other and we love each other.’”

Cut to two years later, when Robinson got a chance to make his own series for Netflix, and it was a completely different story.

Not only was Robinson allowed to make exactly the show he wanted to make, but also, “you could find it!” Richardson says of the viral sensation I Think You Should Leave, in which he appears in a handful of standout sketches. “It didn't even require advertising. And it was set up for success.”

So does that success—along with Richardson’s newfound leading man status—open the door for more episodes of Detroiters?

“It’s always on my mind. I always want to leave the possibility open for getting to do more Detroiters,” he says. “It seemed like it was going to happen for a while there, but that kind of fizzled. So maybe down the line somewhere. If somebody called me and said, ‘Do it tomorrow,’ I’d say, ‘Well, I can’t do it tomorrow. But maybe the next day.’”

Listen to the episode now and subscribe to “The Last Laugh” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts, and be the first to hear new episodes when they are released every Tuesday.