Football player. Husband. Father. Actor?

You may think you know Hank Baskett from watching him on the reality show Kendra, but now he's an actor in his own right. Ology recently caught up with Hank to discuss his new acting role on the hit web series, Supermoms, and how Kendra helps him improve his acting skills.

OLOGY: You have a new adventure in your life, Supermoms, which is a web series on Facebook. Tell us about your role.

HANK BASKETT: The strange thing about Supermoms, actually, is my role is basically the same role I play in real life. Just a supportive husband, there for the wife and the wife is considered a superhero, a supermom. What I love about Supermoms so much is I, of course, am a very proud, very happy husband, but what a lot of people don’t know is I am a very big mama’s boy too and I think there is a little subliminal message that the creators put into Supermoms as a way to say thank you to all the moms of the world. We all know what they go through everyday with work and the stresses of life in general and women have it hard, but this, right here, lets us know that at the end of the day, they’ll come home and find a way to take care of their family, their loved ones, and that’s why I think they’re to be considered real-life superheroes. And what this show does is it...says thank you and we do appreciate what you do and we do know that you go above and beyond. That you are basically a superhero.

You would say your character, Patrick, is mostly there to support his wife [played by Lourdes Benedicto]?

Yeah that’s what I am. Just there to be the supportive husband to all she does, which is basically what I do in real life with Kendra everyday. Basically what she [Kendra] wants to do, I’m 100 percent behind her. I want her to do whatever she puts her mind to.

How did you come about getting the role since you are a football player?

Well, with not playing last year, it opened up time to try new things and there’s no sense in sitting around saying “Oh well I haven’t been playing this season, I haven’t been picked up,” and my representatives asked me if I felt like taking some auditions and I was like “Sure.” So I took a couple—those didn’t work out—but I guess there was good enough feedback from those that the casting department of Supermoms reached out and said “We have a role for Hank,” and they asked me if I wanted to do it and I was like “Heck yeah, I want to do it.” It’s my first opportunity, of course I’m not going to turn it down.

With this being your first scripted acting job, was it difficult transitioning from having cameras following you around to actually remembering lines and getting the place marks?

You know, it was definitely different, but what made it fun is my role. Like I said, I basically play what I do in real life so that transition was rather simple. And when the director just saw I was a little nervous, he was like, “ You know what, take these lines and say it how you would say it. Don’t read it word-for-word; do what you would do.” And that made it tremendously helpful right there and I had a great cast and a great producer and director and that made it a lot easier.

So is acting something you would like to continue with?

Oh it’s a possibility. If the opportunity came about, of course I would.

How does Kendra feel about your budding acting career?

She’s highly supportive of it. She says “Hey, don’t waste [an] opportunity,” and this is an opportunity to do something. And she likes it. She’s actually my biggest critic. What’s funny is, she comes home and has me read the scripts to her and has me audition to her and actually she tears into me saying like “No, say it again.” I start saying another line and shes’s like “No, say it again,” and I’m like “Man, give me time.” But what’s good is, I’d rather her be hard on me than easy and just approve and say yes to everything I do because then I wouldn’t get any benefit out of it. It is very helpful having Kendra be so supportive of me.

So the show is about moms with superpowers, but if you could have any superpower too what would it be?

Oh man, that’s a hard one. You know what I mean? It changes throughout life. When you’re younger it’s like x-ray vision and to fly and this and that. I think being able to fly would be pretty incredible because, for one, I wouldn’t have to worry about paying for gas and I wouldn’t have to worry about paying for the expensive airline tickets and things like that. But I would just love to be able to, uh this is a hard one, this is a hard one right here. I think fly or the ability to heal others. You know, [there is] so much sickness and disease in the world. In The Green Mile, you know how he could touch people and take their sickness away? That would be pretty awesome to have just because there is so much suffering out there.

Now your character doesn’t seem to know that his wife is a superhero. Will he ever figure it out?

That’s something you’re going to have to tune in to find out. I don’t want to give away too much. You know how it is.

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Be sure to check out Hank Baskett and Supermoms every Tuesday on Facebook.

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