Redemption Day Star Ernie Hudson Heads Into the New Year Looking for a Do-Over

From movies like Ghostbusters and The Crow to TV shows like Oz and Grace and Frankie, Ernie Hudson‘s diverse career has seen him become a recognizable name and talent across a wide spectrum of audiences. His star-making talents have deservedly earned him acclaim, though the actor has no trepidation about taking the backseat to emerging stars, embracing supporting roles that empower other talents to make a name for themselves. With his latest film, Redemption Day, Hudson might only have a handful of scenes, yet he was happy to serve in support of star Gary Dourdan, as they have previously collaborated together. Redemption Day hits theaters on January 8th and lands on Digital HD and On Demand on January 12th.

Having just returned home, decorated U.S. Marine Captain Brad Paxton’s (Dourdan) wife, Kate, is kidnapped by a terrorist group while working in Morocco. He is forced back into action for a daring and deadly operation to save the woman he loves.

ComicBook.com recently caught up with Hudson to talk heading into 2021 with a new mindset, filming in Morocco, and wanting to reprise his role as Monroe Kelly from Congo.

ComicBook.com: We’re in the first week of 2021 and with your new film tackling themes of redemption and making up for the past, are you the type to make new year’s resolutions?

Ernie Hudson: Well, for me, I’m a little older now. I used to make new year’s resolutions. Every year I’d sit down and look back and think about what I want to go into. Now, I guess I’ve gotten to the point where I look at the new year as an opportunity to reboot. I feel like I’m going into this coming year knowing a little bit more than I knew the year before, and so this is an opportunity for a do-over, I should say, more than a reboot. I get a chance to do it over, to get a chance to be the best parts of me, not necessarily doing anything different, but just doing it better, doing it smarter.

We go into a new year with diminished, certain qualities, but then we have other qualities that we’ve grown and we’ve enhanced. As you get older, the physical [aspect], you lose a little bit, but you’re a little bit smarter, too, or you should be.

This is Ernie Hudson-point-2021 as opposed to point-2020. And if I haven’t learned anything from 2020, I’m in bad shape. Actually, when we started this whole lockdown or whatever you call it, I kept hearing about people who have immune deficiencies, and I thought, “You know what? If I’m ever going to pull things together…” So I dropped 35 pounds, and I thought, “Let me get healthy. Let me just start eating better. Let me just use this time,” because anything happens. I want to at least know I got my best chance of … nothing’s guaranteed.”

So, for me, it’s a do-over. As I was telling my wife years ago, I go, “We’ve gone through all the changes, and you come away with different attitudes and you’re differing positions. Maybe this is a chance that we can actually just get it right and just have a great life. And why not? We don’t have to be afraid anymore of being out there. What if we can just have the best life we can have?” So this is a chance to do it over.

And with 2020, you see people who are accomplishing great things, like you with losing weight or various creative accomplishments, but with how tough the year was, even being able to make it through the year is also an accomplishment.

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. That’s great. You’re still here and intact, and it’s a lot of things going on around you, but, like I said, you’re a little bit smarter now, we definitely know more than we knew. I mean, some things we just took for granted and, boy, 2020 showed us that things aren’t exactly, necessarily the way we think they are or the way they ought to be. So as we rebuild and come out of this, we really should be building towards something better, not just getting back to … it’s not a time to be stupid, and that’s why I’m amazed at some of the things, that I go, “Why are you doing that? I mean, really?” Just people refusing to wear a mask. I’m like, “Why? No matter what you think, real, unreal, whatever, put the mask on for God’s sake.”

Speaking to Redemption Day, this film has a great ensemble, from you to Andy Garcia to Martin Donovan, even the roles with less screen time have these great performers. What was it about this project that made you want to get involved, even if you didn’t have a ton of scenes?

Well, okay, there’s the things you say in an interview, and I’ll say those things first; I really loved the script. And then there’s the real things, okay? Well, I had never been to Morocco, and ever since seeing Casablanca years ago, it’s like, “Oh, it’d be cool.” So there was always that part of me, and then my wife heard it was shooting in Morocco, and she definitely wanted to go. So my wife prompted me, “We’re going to Morocco, okay? We’re going to ride a camel. I’m sorry, we got to go. And we got to go to Marrakesh. We got to buy a rug.” So that was a big part of it.

But, also, I was curious. I was fascinated a little bit about some of the things going on in the world, the misunderstandings, even what we’re going through now with Iran and how one administration can totally change the dynamic and suddenly we’re in a whole other threatening position. So all of that in the script was interesting.

There was also a thing about when someone you love, like, in this case, the wife [in Redemption Day] is threatened, my daughter-in-law is in a situation, and you have to go into that not knowing what the outcome is going to be, that there is a safe place, there’s someone holding down the fort, there is a safe place to get back to. I was fascinated about what that character does, how is he there? He’s the place to get back to. He’s a place where normalcy exists. And so it wasn’t a lot of scenes, it wasn’t a lot to do, but I just thought it was important.

And, also, Gary Dourdan, who plays the lead in it, he played my nephew on a show I do called Family Business on BET, and I’ve known him for a while, and I really like him, I liked his work. He was on that show supporting my character, so it was a chance for me to be in his world and his movie. It was all of that. But I did like the idea of just the chaos and not even just the misunderstandings between two sides, our side of it and the other side of the conflict, but also the intentions of people who really know better. So the story had parts of it that I really liked, as well.

Well, don’t worry, you’re not the first person to have said shooting in Morocco was a big draw.

Even though it didn’t turn out to be quite as romantic as I thought, but it was fine. It was an experience.

Shooting in Morocco and with this being director Hicham Hajji’s feature-film debut, did you perceive any major differences to the filmmaking experience or did it feel like a typical American production, you just have different food on set?

Well, ther’re all the same industry. We got the camera, we got the DP. Those things are basic, those things are there, different food on the set. And the terrain, you could probably create it in the Southwest to make it look like that, but there was still something about the culture. It’s just a different culture. The feel, the attitudes, it was very, very different. It’s a very masculine country, at least that’s how I found it. I was almost surprised by that, things that we take for granted. At night, you didn’t see … well, I mean, I didn’t see, I should say. I don’t know about anybody else. I didn’t see women out. It was very male and just different reactions and not really understanding necessarily the culture or the language. Things were taken certain ways that I didn’t quite know how to interpret or whatever.

And not to say that people weren’t nice, but my wife and I, we went to the restaurant from the movie Casablanca, and I sat down at the piano there. But when we got ready to leave the restaurant, there was a huge fight between the driver of the taxi that we were trying to get another driver, and it was a major conflict. I didn’t know what the heck was going on. And so the guy who finally took us to the hotel didn’t take us all the way to the hotel and basically ordered us out of the car. Now, that might’ve been just an individual, I don’t know. It was just weird, you know what I mean? You’re in a country, and you’re going to go, “This is strange.” And, normally, if I was in the States, I’d say something, but I’m in another country. So I told my wife, “We’ll just walk the block that it takes to get there.”

So it was just different. It was different. But very, very masculine. Now, when we went to Marrakesh and we were shooting around there and I went up to the market, we stayed there, it was a very different vibe because it was very touristy and very commercial. But it was definitely different.

Now, I’ve shot in Yugoslavia, I’ve shot in Australia, in South Africa. I shot in different countries, but those places, in a lot of ways, I could interpret the culture better, but this was an Arab country, and it was definitely different to me. I didn’t hate it. It was different. And trying to adjust to that and being able to feel safe to go out and explore without someone accompanying you, it was a little bit different than what I felt used to.

But when you got on the set, you’re within that safe, confined environment, things were pretty much like shooting anywhere else.

You’ve starred in so many great franchises that people continue to revive with sequels or reboots, like Ghostbusters or The Crow, but, personally, I love your work in Congo. I know that Robert Pattinson also shared in an interview that he thought the movie was a “masterpiece” when he saw it, as a kid. All your fans want to see more of you in sequels or reboots, but is there a movie of yours you would like to see revived with either a reboot or a new installment?

Well, the character in Congo, I just had a lot of fun with the character, and, unfortunately, the studio … I don’t know. It did well at the box office, but I’d love to do that character … it probably won’t happen, but I’d love to recreate that character or revisit that character, revisit that scenario, once again, in a different part of the world, but more of an adventure. I’d like to do an adventure film, so that character I’d love to see again.

And The Crow was … it’s hard to even think about revisiting that after what happened [to Brandon Lee]. But, yeah, probably Congo would be the one that I’d love to do, certainly not just substitute. There are a few that I don’t think I’d want to revisit, but Congo, I think I would.

Well, last year was the 25th anniversary and I know people took time to look back and appreciate it. Plus, Misty Rosas, one of the Amy the Gorilla performers, has had a few parts in The Mandalorian, so she’s still actively performing.

Oh, really? Oh, great. Well, it’s funny because Tito Jackson — oh, no, Jermaine Jackson, they’re both friends, but Jermaine took me to some Bikram Yoga studio, it was yoga with heat. Anyway, we went there, and when I first went, she was the girl who played Amy, but she was the yoga teacher and I hadn’t seen her in years. So I’m really happy to hear that she’s back in the industry working now as opposed to only teaching yoga. It’s funny how lives go in so many different directions.

I probably had more fun with that character than I’ve had with a lot of them. The Crow was definitely … I loved the character and I loved working with Brandon, but, on the other hand, it was a lot of things that weren’t so much fun. But with Congo, yeah, it was just a fun character to do.

It’s funny, it was one of the first things my wife and I did when we started dating, was watching that movie, so it was referenced by our wedding officiant, so we’re probably the only people to have Congo referenced during their wedding.

Now I do these Cameo things, which is a lot of fun, and, really, during this quarantine, it connected me to the audience, and surprisingly, a lot of people will ask you, “Can you do it as Monroe Kelly?” A lot of different movies come up, but Congo is one that people will say is their favorite movie. It’s certainly in the minds of people, so that’s good.

*****

Redemption Day hits theaters on January 8th and lands on Digital HD and On Demand on January 12th.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter.