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Justin Hires knows what you think. If he wasn’t on the show, he might think the same thing. There have already been three Rush Hour movies, so why would there need to be a TV show? But since he’s the star of the new CBS TV version of the Rush Hour movie franchise, Hires has gotta believe that it will work. As he’s has been doing standup for almost the last decade, he’s certainly has an idea how to build an audience, but he admits this is the break his career was looking for.

“I knew if I were to land this role it could do tremendous things for my career,” Hires says. “I knew the appeal of Rush Hour. I knew the brand and I knew it could air internationally. I took into account all those things before I even stepped in the role to audition. I’m a fan of Chris Tucker. He’s literally one of the reason I got into this business after seeing Friday. I understood the magnitude of what this show could be.” 

A Jacksonville, Florida native, Hires graduated from Clark/Atlanta University, although his acting training started in middle school. He was the youngest person and the only African-American in a local Shakespeare In The Park company. He says that early training gave him an advantage.

“When it comes to acting, I think it was essential to get where I am today. When you’ve bend doing standup and you’ve been acting and training, you’ve prepared yourself professionally to do these roles. What Chris and Jackie [Chan] did with those roles, they made those roles iconic.”

Tucker and Chan became even bigger stars after their roles in the Rush Hour movies, which ultimately became a franchise. Hires has been cast with actor John Foo, a British/Chinese actor trained in the martial arts, who is not widely known in the U.S. Like in the movies, Foo is straight man and Hong Kong police officer Lee and Hires is wise-cracking LAPD detective Carter. In real life, Hires says the two actors reflect their casting. Hires is even a black belt in karate.

“[John] was actually already cast I came around later in the process. I was somewhat of a last-minute audition. I give credit to John Foo – he allowed me to improve and play in the scene and really get an idea who Justin Hires was. He’s a natural introvert and I’m a natural extrovert. We have that natural combination of yin and yang. People will experience the same thing when they watch the show.”

Justin Hires Is The New Chris Tucker On The TV Version Of ‘Rush Hour’ [VIDEO]  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com

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