Welcome back to the Pizza Interview, a series from New York Times Cooking where the Q&A has a catch: Our guests have to make pizza.
Tracy Morgan, Daniel Radcliffe and Erika Alexander star in NBC’s new sitcom, “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins,” about a scandal-scarred former football star. To salvage his reputation, Reggie (played by Mr. Morgan) recruits Arthur (Mr. Radcliffe), an award-winning but down-on-his-luck filmmaker, to shoot a comeback documentary. With the help of his former wife and business manager, Monica (Ms. Alexander), Reggie tries to rehabilitate his image.
Watch the full video below (or on YouTube), and read ahead for excerpts from the interview, which have been edited and condensed.
Daniel Radcliffe, Tracy Morgan and Erika Alexander make pizzas in the studio kitchen of The New York Times.
Have you ever made a pizza before?
DANIEL RADCLIFFE No.
ERIKA ALEXANDER No.
RADCLIFFE [To Morgan] Have you made a pizza before?
TRACY MORGAN Yeah.
RADCLIFFE There you go.
MORGAN I got a pizza oven outside. In my first year I moved to my mansion, I made a pizza.
ALEXANDER I live in an apartment.
Do you like to cook?
MORGAN I love to cook. I got a cookbook at Barnes & Noble.
RADCLIFFE Wait, really?
ALEXANDER Yeah, I have it.
RADCLIFFE I don’t cook, and I’m bad at it, and we’ll see what happens today.
ALEXANDER I’m a professional eater.
What’s your favorite pizza place?
MORGAN Ray’s in the Bronx.
RADCLIFFE Two Boots. When I was 21 and doing a play on Broadway, I would have a full Two Boots pizza between the matinee and the evening show in the kind of way you can when you’re 21.
ALEXANDER I don’t usually eat pizza.
MORGAN You don’t? That’s like saying you ain’t never had chicken.
ALEXANDER It’s the dairy.
MORGAN Just use the Imodium!
Growing up, what was your family’s pizza order?
ALEXANDER Pepperoni.
RADCLIFFE Pepperoni from Pizza Express which is like a chain in the U.K.
MORGAN Slice and a Coke. That’s it. Sometimes, I put some mustard on it. Y’all got mustard?
Have you ever had to learn a cooking skill for an acting role?
ALEXANDER I don’t get those wholesome roles. They don’t see me as a domestic. I wish they would.
MORGAN On “The Last O.G.” I did.
RADCLIFFE What’d you do? What’d you cook?
MORGAN I was a cook from prison. I made grilled cheese sandwiches with an iron.
RADCLIFFE I got to eat a sandwich on a job once called a Fool’s Gold sandwich. Which apparently Elvis used to eat, where it was like, a hollowed-out loaf of bread with one half an entire jar of peanut butter and an entire jar of jam and then half a pound of crispy bacon. And it was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten in my life. It was awesome.
If you were to show each other around your hometowns, what’s the first thing you’d eat?
RADCLIFFE In London, I would get them a full English breakfast from somewhere because it’s basically our only contribution to international cuisine.
MORGAN I would take them to the Jamaican spot and get them some oxtails.
ALEXANDER I would take them to — because I am from Arizona — Navajo tacos.
Credit…Taylor Miller for The New York Times
Was there a scene in “Reggie Dinkins” that you couldn’t get through without laughing?
MORGAN No, most of the time we were focused, because the writing is so excellent and you gotta have a G.E.D. to do it. So we struggle at times, but we get through it.
ALEXANDER He’s right, about the concentration because they write very dense and very, you know, intentionally. There’s joke after joke after joke. And so you have a lot to do in a short amount of time.
MORGAN We just stay out of each other’s way, stay out of each other’s space and we get through it. And after the work is done, we hug each other, and we love, and we go home.
ALEXANDER Except when we’re having dance parties because Tracy started them in the morning. Don’t try to act like you the paragon of professional ——
MORGAN What? I brought the music.
ALEXANDER It’s a straight club up in here.
MORGAN You were movin’ when I put on Third World.
ALEXANDER You know it.
MORGAN [singing] “Now that we found love. …” You were moving! I see you.
ALEXANDER I know. He’s really good at making everybody feel good from the minute he comes on. He comes into the studio with music.
If the three of you owned a restaurant, what would everyone’s role be?
MORGAN Oh, I’m counting the money.
ALEXANDER I’m fire marshal.
RADCLIFFE I’ll be out front. I feel like I’d be good, sort of, welcoming people in.
MORGAN And security because we’re gonna serve liquor.
RADCLIFFE Right, you gotta have security there, and I’m a natural fit for that, yeah.
If you were a food dish, what would you be? Can you answer for each other?
MORGAN I’m spaghetti.
ALEXANDER Well, what would I be? You have to answer for each other, right?
MORGAN Oh, she’d be spaghetti. Lotta meat sauce.
ALEXANDER And Daniel now. What would he be?
MORGAN What would you be?
ALEXANDER No, you have to tell him what you would ——
MORGAN Oh. Clams.
ALEXANDER Are you thinking through this stuff?
MORGAN Now, what would I be?
RADCLIFFE Macaroni and cheese but not out of the box.
MORGAN Thank you.
RADCLIFFE Good macaroni and cheese.
MORGAN What would I be?
ALEXANDER Hot sauce.
MORGAN No, you’d better say steak.
ALEXANDER OK, fine. What’s the big ol’ steak with the thing? The tomahawk. And Daniel is Yorkshire pudding.
RADCLIFFE That’s fair, actually. Given the amount this has come up in the last 24 hours.
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