Daniel Radcliffe and Tracy Morgan team up as an unlikely duo in the new NBC sitcom, “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins.”
“People say, ‘You guys seem really different, what do you have in common?’ I think we both love our job and we love being there on set,” Radcliffe, 36, exclusively told The Post.
Premiering Monday, Feb. 23 (8 p.m.), “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” follows the title character (Morgan), a disgraced former pro football player trying to launch a comeback. He hires Arthur Tobin (Radcliffe), a filmmaker who also has a tarnished reputation, to make a documentary about him.
“There’s a kind of neurotic perfectionism element to Arthur, which I relate to a little bit,” said Radcliffe.
“But, I like to think I am not as pretentious as this character is. So, I feel like I was mining other people for that.”
Morgan, 57, told The Post that he “knew” the duo would be “great.”
“When they told me Daniel was interested, I said, ‘What! You’ve got to get him! We’re from two different worlds. That’s going to be funny.’ And, it turned out to be funny,” the former “SNL” star said.
Series co-creator Robert Carlock (“30 Rock”) said that he’s “excited” to introduce Radcliffe to the broadcast TV audience “as a comedy actor…because he’s an amazing actor. But he’s also so funny, and so precise with his jokes.”
The show is just the latest twist in Radcliffe’s post-“Harry Potter” career, which has been full of quirky roles and unexpected choices after the hit franchise ended in 2011, such as “Swiss Army Man” where he played a corpse, “Horns” where he played a man with horns, and “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” where he played the offbeat musician.
“I’m in a really fortunate position – I think we both are,” Radcliffe said, referring to himself and Morgan.
“We do things that we love, because we want to do them, and because they seem like they’re going to be fun and good to do,” the Tony-winning Broadway star added. “Very few actors are in that position where they have so much control over what they do. I’m very lucky. And hopefully, I’ll just continue picking them like that.”
Series co-creator Sam Means (“Parks and Recreation”) said that they wanted to use Morgan’s background for the show, too.
“I think a lot of people don’t know this, but he was an All City running back and track star as a youngster,” he said. “He’s got some road miles on him now, but he can embody that former athlete. And I think he just loves leaning into playing in that world.”
The role also marks a continued comeback for Morgan, who was in a coma following a near-fatal car crash in 2014, when a Walmart truck rammed into his chauffeured limousine bus on the New Jersey turnpike, killing his friend, James McNair, and leaving Morgan hospitalized in a coma. The accident involved six vehicles.
Morgan told The Post that he relates to Reggie Dinkins because the character is also a family man with kids. Morgan is a father of four: Gitrid, 39, Malcolm, 38, Tracy Jr. 34, and daughter Maven Sonae, 12.
“I have a son, Tracy Morgan Junior, and I love my boy very hard. I love my daughter because she saved my life [after] the accident. She’s the reason why I came out in my coma,” the former “30 Rock” star said.
He added that his children are “what motivates me.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
