A busy year for Adam Ratcliffe
This year, if you watch a lot of TV and movies, you might feel as if you’re attending the Adam Ratcliffe Film Festival.
The Abington native, whose credits include “Paterno” with Al Pacino, has been busier than ever, racking up roles in a handful of big projects, including “Manhunt Deadly Games,” an On Demand movie in which the actor plays a supporting role. Shot over the course of two weeks in Pittsburgh, the project kicked off a lucrative year for the actor and helped him earn health insurance through the Screen Actors Guild.
Ratcliffe also pops up as in the HBO Max movie “Flight Attendant,” as well as on the HBO series “Betty,” scheduled to air in late 2020. And he’ll be seen opposite Daniel Kaluuya, Martin Sheen and Jesse Plemmons in an upcoming Warner Bros. movie, currently referred to as “The Untitled Fred Hampton Project.”
“I worked with mostly actors who are younger than me and it was an honor and a privilege,” says Ratcliffe. “This story is about the shooting of the leader of the Black Panther party in 1968, who was killed by the FBI.
“I arrest the undercover FBI agent played by LaKeith Stanfield. It is racially charged and is directed by a young, highly intelligent Black man by the name of Shaka King. Awesome guy! This is the biggest thing
I’ve been a part of, as it will likely get tons of love.”
Finally, there’s “An American Pickle,” the latest comedy from Seth Rogen. In the movie, which is scheduled to arrive on HBO Max on Aug. 6, Rogen plays an immigrant and pickle factory worker named Herschel Greenbaum who is accidentally preserved for 100 years in brine and wakes up in modern-day Brooklyn. Rogen also plays Greenbaum’s great-great-grandson, Simon.
“I play an ICE agent who is hired to remove Hershel Greenbaum,” says Ratcliffe. “The gag is that while looking to remove Hershel from the country, my partner and I export the American [Simon], also played by Seth.”
Rogen encouraged Ratcliffe to improvise during his scenes.
“Seth kind of gave me free reign to apprehend him and grip him up the way I saw fit,” notes Ratcliffe. “It was a cool process and like a few of the projects I landed in 2019, it was produced and directed by a much younger Hollywood [filmmaker] than I am used to being around.”
Ratcliffe has worked with a lot of big names, but he was uniquely impressed by Rogen.
“Meeting Seth gave me a star struck moment I hadn’t anticipated,” says Ratcliffe. “I realized as I met him just how many times he’d made me laugh over the years. He is a comedic genius in my opinion, and he couldn’t have been more kind.
“When I told him thanks for all the laughs, he shook my hand and gave the classic Seth Rogan chuckle that can’t be mistaken, because it’s all his own.”
Amy Longsdorf is a Morning Call contributor.