‘Accused’: Nick Cannon On Returning To A Dramatic Role To Lead A Story About The Unintended Consequences Of AI
SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Tuesday night’s episode Fox’s Accused Season 2.
Nick Cannon plays a man on the verge of unfathomable success when his life is completely turned upside down, more than once, in the latest episode of Accused.
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Things couldn’t be going better for Marcus (Cannon) and his business partner Pete (Patrick J. Adams), who are about to become billionaires after they sell the AI-powered facial recognition software they’ve developed to Google. Their euphoria over the pending sale is short-lived, though, after an anonymous caller demands millions to stay quiet about a discrepancy in the software’s accuracy, which shows greater likelihood that the software will misidentify people of color.
The kicker? Marcus never knew about such a discrepancy at all. Pete swears it’s been addressed, and suggests the men pay the money and move on. After all, it’s a fraction of what they stand to make from the sale. But, Marcus can’t seem to move past the ethical qualm, especially after police recently misidentified a suspect using the software, killing an innocent Black man in the process. While there was a certain amount of human error involved in that tragedy, and by all accounts their software was already fixed by that point, Marcus still thinks they should disclose the information, even if it puts the sale in jeopardy.
At the end of the episode, viewers find out that Marcus is on trial not for anything related to the software discrepancy. Instead, he’s facing murder charges after an argument with Pete about how to handle the blackmailer turns physical. Marcus shoves Pete into the railing of a stairwell, accidentally sending him tumbling to his death.
And while he’s ultimately found not guilty, the deaths of both men are likely to haunt him for the rest of his life.
In the interview below, Cannon spoke with Deadline about returning to a dramatic role for the first time in more than a decade for Accused, diving into Marcus’ fraught story, grappling with the impacts of artificial intelligence, and more.
DEADLINE: You’ve been almost exclusively hosting for some time now. What made you want to take this role?
NICK CANNON: I mean, obviously I was a fan of the show, and my Fox family has always looked out for me. My passion, obviously, is acting. Hosting is something that I kind of just do for fun. My craft is being an actor. … When I saw the role, specifically, of Marcus, and the fact that he had the opportunity to almost experience every single emotion in one hour, and I could embody a character that’s nothing like me in a world that Nick Cannon just doesn’t exist in, I was really intrigued by all of that.
DEADLINE: So you’d seen the show and were interested in being part of it before this specific role came along?
CANNON: Yeah, I mean, it’s just great, great work. I love the fact that it’s an anthology series, where every episode is like its own mini movie. I saw a few episodes — the one with Michael Chiklis with his son … then I also saw the one with Malcolm Jamal Warner as well. I ended up watching them all. Those are the two that jumped out at me. I was like, ‘Wow, these are really cool’ … just the way that it takes the audience on a ride. You’re figuring out what’s going on and who’s on trial, what happened, and then there’s always a big reveal at the end. So it’s like, ‘Oh, man, this is really dope.’ So like I said, when I heard that there was this role of a character by the name of Marcus who is on the verge of being a billionaire, but things go wrong, and you’re trying to figure out what happens, I just fell right into it.
DEADLINE: What did you make of Marcus’ initial dilemma about the facial recognition software falsely identifying a Black man, and having to grapple with that discrepancy in false recognition that he wasn’t previously aware of?
CANNON: I think it was, for me, this interesting dichotomy of just a guy who was just really looking to provide for his family and had a great trajectory, and the things that may have been going on in the outside world had never really affected him all his life. He was a smart guy who didn’t have to deal with issues of of race or prejudice or any of that stuff, because his business acumen and his intelligence and all of these things always protected him from the real world, until they no longer did, until he actually had to be the one faced with the dilemma.
I thought that was always really intriguing and interesting to play … it was a lot of self reflection that he had to really deal with. Even when his partner, Pete, was like, ‘Look, man, this isn’t about race.’ And in his mind, he’s like ‘Alright, well, is it or is it not?’ It was those things that he was really having to struggle with all while on the verge of life changing money. So I found that to be really intriguing.
DEADLINE: Did it change your own idea about the use of AI or make you reflect differently on the technology?
CANNON: Definitely, it made me think about it. It’s one of those things where we can’t escape it. It’s here, it’s among us … you just got to figure out how to perfect it and make sure that it works for you, and that it doesn’t skew, where it goes to a space where it ends up mismanaging or even ultimately causing someone to lose their life. So it makes you have to zone in and pay even more attention to all that’s going on in the world.
DEADLINE: So, then there’s this twist at the end of the episode, that Marcus is actually on trial for killing Pete accidentally. I really loved that and wasn’t expecting it at all. What was your reaction to that?
CANNON: The twist is the one of the coolest parts of the entire script. Patrick was great. I mean, just to be able to to bounce off of somebody, mentally and physically, that is taking it just as deep and sincere as I was … there was a lot of passion on the set, to say to least. The fact that we were supposed to be best friends, but really [there was] this turning point where it ultimately caused him to lose his life, it was intense.
DEADLINE: How did you lock in to prepare for that monologue at the end, where Marcus addresses the court? Are you glad he got to do that?
CANNON: It’s funny, because there were a few different drafts of the script, where it was there, then they took it away and it wasn’t there, and then they brought it back. I was always wondering, like, should he get an opportunity to speak his piece? And what is that? How heavy do I go? I was toying with that the entire time. When we got a chance to shoot it, I mean, the courtroom was silent. I felt like I did it justice. I mean, it’s a lot of emotion, being that final moment where Marcus had the opportunity to let it all out. He’s dealing with the loss of a best friend. He’s dealing with the fact that he was a part of it. He’s dealing with the fact that, ultimately, as a man, his character is being challenged. So he’s letting all of that out while not knowing what his actual fate is going to be. Because, again, we don’t even know what the sentence [would be]. We just know he’s not guilty. So to be able to experience all of those emotions at once was was really a journey for me. So I’m glad I got an opportunity to.
DEADLINE: Overall, what would you say was the most challenging part of the episode?
CANNON: I would say he has a lot of anxiety and stress. I’m not really that type of person. So really just having to dive into that space of anguish … drinking his sorrows away and dealing with his child in a manner that, he’s kind of lashing out on him. I would never do anything like that, personally. Just having that weight was so heavy. I would say those were interesting challenges for me, because as Nick Cannon, I would never handle things that way, but I can understand the pressure that Marcus was going through.
DEADLINE: Any more dramatic roles in your near future?
CANNON: From your mouth to God’s ears. I love it. I love this space of being able to strip myself down and dive into a character. It was a lot of fun of just being someone else for a certain amount of time.
DEADLINE: How do you choose what’s next?
CANNON: I am at a point in my career where I don’t have to do things for money, so they’re never jobs. These are experiences. And it’s like, do I want to go on this journey? Do I want to take this experience? I value that. I did quite a bit of work in my early 30s, and even a little bit in my late 20s, where I got to experience independent film. I was at Sundance, at Cannes every year. Those are experiences. You’re doing it for the love and for the craft. I fell in love with that. Being a leading man in a box office draw, all of that stuff is cool. But, if you really love the craft of acting, when you’re doing it, just to be like, ‘Oh, I want to experience this role. I want to go on this journey.’ I feel like, if I get to do that still, hopefully, until I’m no longer here, that’s such a blessing to just be able to pick roles and be a part of projects because of the passion and because of the material. I’m blessed to be able to be in that position. So you’ll see a lot of the decisions that I make will be based off of, hopefully, just great material.
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