Jeff Foxworthy has been entertaining (or, alternatively, annoying the crap out of) audiences for the better part of two decades with his “redneck” act making fun of his Southern upbringing. Even if you somehow avoided his short-lived TV show in the 90’s or those comedy tour specials that helped launch Larry the Cable Guy into superstardom (yes, it’s his fault), you know his “You Might be a Redneck” act or his stint hosting Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? for Fox. Weirdly enough, despite his many appearances on the small-screen, his only movie work has consisted of a couple of voice roles, one that landed in theaters (2005’s Racing Stripes) and one that went straight-to-video (2006’s The Fox and the Hound 2). In essence, Foxworthy is one of the few comedians to not care about starting a high-profile movie career, and as much as I hate to say it, I respect him for that.
His multiplex drought is about to end as Variety has reported that Foxworthy will be taking a supporting role in the upcoming indie film Crackerjack which started shooting today in Savannah, Georgia. The sports-comedy, about a kid dealing with coming of age issues while trying to catapult his team to the top of a local church league softball league, is a project that the comedian has been touting for awhile as executive producer. But now that it’s finally in motion, he has decided to carve out a role for himself. He’ll be playing the announcer for the softball league, albeit a small role.
Crackerjack is being directed by Bryan Coley, who also wrote the script. He comes from a local theater background and cast most of the film with local theater actors. The lead, Wes Murphy, may be best known as Robert Pattinson‘s stand-in for Twilight, a role that surprisingly garnered him no award love. There’s no word on when Crackerjack will be released, but if you are dying to hear some Foxworthy at the multiplex, he’ll be lending his voice to Handy Smurf in this summer’s The Smurfs, based off the cartoon that we all didn’t actually watch.
Are you as surprised as I was to find out Jeff Foxworthy has never done any big-screen acting work save for voices?