Barry Floyd: 'The Game' Star Talks Show's Return

Barry Floyd is best known as Tee Tee, Malik's right-hand man on the former CW Network sitcom 'The Game.'

A Philadelphia native, Floyd worked as a production and writing assistant on 'Cuts' and 'Girlfriends' until a chance opportunity landed him an acting role on the Mara Brock Akil spin-off.

The 30-minute sitcom, based on the lives of characters associated with the fictitious football team the San Diego Sabers, was canceled by the CW Network in May 2009 after three seasons.

Fan outcry and the huge rerun ratings on BET convinced the network to acquire the sitcom and relaunch it after nearly 19 months after it was axed.

In anticipation of the show's big return on Jan. 11, BlackVoices.com caught up with Floyd at the popular Urth Caffé in Beverly Hills, Calif., to talk about 'The Game.'

Explain to me how you went from working behind the scenes to landing an acting role on 'The Game.'

I was the set [production assistant] on 'Girlfriends,' created by Mara Brock Akil, who also created 'The Game.' A stand-in is a person who stands in for an actor when the actors are rehearsing scenes and getting their makeup and stuff on. One day one of the stand-ins didn't show up and they needed an extra, so they asked me to do it. Everybody thought I was funny so then they asked me to do the network run-through, which is when you rehearse the episode in front of the network people so they know what changes they want to make to it before you actually shoot it. I got to perform in front of all the network people, and they loved me so they asked me to audition for the part in 'The Game.'

What type of scene on 'Girlfriends' were you standing in for?

There was a scene where William was sitting across from an evil version of himself and because he can't be in two places at once; they needed a stand-in for him.

Was it challenging switching into the role of an actor?

The hardest part for me is that acting is not a nine-to-five, where I get up in the morning and go to work and come back to the same job Monday through Friday. Since I'm a recurring character, I work when they call me. There was a lot more down time than I was used to, which was kind of scary for me because even though you don't make a lot of money as a PA, it's a somewhat reliable job that's there for a certain period

of time. As an actor that reliability is gone so I was really nervous. For a while I was still PA'ing and acting at the same time. Eventually acting was taking me away from being a PA so much that I had to leave the PA job. I was scared to leave because I was like, "Man what if my money runs out before they call me in again?" That was a hard adjustment to make because from the time I was in high school until I became an actor I always had a nine-to-five job that I went to every day. The second part that was weird was people recognizing me in the street. It's cool, but it was weird because somebody will come up to you and they don't know you as a person but they know your character. I would be sitting with a friend having dinner and somebody will come up to me and say, "I love you on the show." It's really cool, but it's really weird because it catches you off guard at first. You start to get used to it though.

Were you happy when you heard BET had acquired 'The Game'?

I was happy because I had a job and the deal had been in the works for months, so by the time it became official I was already fairly secure that it was going to happen; it was just a matter of when. I had most of my doubts when the rumors first started because jumping networks is a rare thing that I didn't believe would happen. I think it took about a year from when the rumors started to when it actually happened. When I first started hearing the rumors I was like it's great if it happens, but in the meantime I did a commercial and I was still auditioning and writing my own projects. I was not depending on this to come back, but I'm extremely happy that it did.

In addition to the show moving networks, the production of the show moved from Los Angeles to Atlanta. What's that been like?

Atlanta was cool. Being from the East Coast, I was more prepared for Atlanta than I was for L.A. It's the South so it's a little slower than it is up North, so I wasn't used to things closing as early as they did. The fan base is so much bigger down there than it is here so we were recognized so much more when we were walking around, and that was the biggest thing for me. We went to a club because LeBron James and the Miami Heat were there playing the Hawks and he hosted a party that we went to. When they announced that the cast of 'The Game' just walked in the building, every head in the club just turned. We went up to VIP and it was like a fishbowl because everybody was just staring. That has never happened to me in L.A. so that was pretty wild.

How many episodes have you all shot and what can we expect from this new season?

We've finished the first season of 13 episodes. I feel like it's a lot more drama. The comedy is still there, but I felt like it was more lighthearted before. My character being the comic relief, I found myself doing a lot less comedy and a lot more drama. It was cool because I got to show a different side of myself and my range as an actor so I really appreciated that.

Does Malik have a cool penthouse for you to hang out in this new season?

We actually shot Malik in a lot of scenes in Evander Holyfield's mansion. I will say visually it's going to look a lot better because we shot it like a movie. We shot a lot of things on location as opposed to shooting on set. We were already a pretty heavy location show but now being in Atlanta, with the tax breaks, we were able to open up the world a lot more.

There are some pretty cool costars

lined up for this season I hear.

Meagan Good, Tika Sumpter, Mario Van Peebles and Michael Beech are all going to be guest stars. Those are the only guest stars that I know off the top of my head because I'm not on every episode so I haven't seen every script. I know there are more beyond the people I named. We used Evander's house, but we didn't get him in any of the episodes. That would have been really cool. That was actually a big moment for me, getting to meet Evander Holyfield.

Now that you are an actor, what other type of work would you like to do beyond 'The Game?'

I want to do a feature and be in a movie. I read for a few, but at the moment I'm mostly getting called in for commercials. I feel like with 'The Game' coming back and me doing more interviews like this, the TV and movie side will open up a lot more for me. I'm a big sci-fi fan so I would love to be in 'Star Trek' or 'The Lord of the Rings.'

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