‘Average Joe’ Star Deon Cole Talks Playing ‘Menancing’ Character in BET+ Series (Exclusive)

Deon Cole is known for his comedic work, appearing in Black-ish, the spinoff series Grown-ish and being featured in all three Barbershop movies. But the 51-year-old could gain more recognition for his work in the BET+ series Average Joe. PopCulture.com spoke exclusively to Cole about playing Joe Washington in the new series. 

“Being able to play a character with so many different depths was something that really caught my eye,” Cole exclusively told PopCulture. “This guy is menacing, he’s funny, he’s charismatic, he’s confused, he’s lost, he’s scared, he’s a lot of things, and so to get all of that in one character was something that resonated with me. On top of the characters, the cast. The cast of characters was like, ‘Oh, my God, I just want to be around these people and work with them.’ Just reading it made me be like, ‘Oh, man, this coming to life would be something else.’”

The story centers around Joe (Cole), a plumber who discovers his recently deceased father lived a secret second life and stole millions of dollars from dangerous people before he died. Those people think that Joe knows where the money is, which leads to a dangerous chain of events that forces Joe and his family and friends to do things they have never done before. 

“This being a darkly comedic, intense drama, that’s exactly what it is,” Cole stated. I’ve played serious before or it’s been comedy, but not both together like that. This was challenging because it’s a fine line between dramatic and funny and when to cut it on, when to cut it off, and when to play the fence on it. That was probably the most difficult part.

With an intense series like Average Joe, Cole admitted some days of shooting were more challenging than others. “The best thing about working on this series was seeing it get done, Cole said. “We had some grueling, grueling days and nights. When we finally had finished product, it was like we were elated. Like, ‘Oh, God, we did it. Okay, we finally completed that,’ or whatever, because a lot went into this, man, mentally, physically. Like Mike was saying, we laid it on the line for this. To see it all done and put together is like a labor of love. Seeing it finished was most important.”

The first two episodes of Average Joe are now streaming on BET+. A new episode will premiere on June 29, and it will be followed by another episode debuting every Thursday. Cole stars in the series with Tammy Townsend, Malcolm Barrett, Cynthia Kaye McWilliams, Michael Trucco, Ashley Olivia Fisher, Pasha Lychnikoff and Ashani Perkins.