Robert Ri’chard prefers to leave his acting work for the fans to enjoy.
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE at the 16th Annual African-American Film Critics Awards in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Feb. 19, the 42-year-old actor revealed that he has never watched any of the TV shows or movies he starred in back in the day.
“I’ve never seen anything that I’ve done,” he admits. “I’ve never seen Coach Carter, not Cousin Skeeter, not One on One.”
Explaining why, he says: “I’m just in it for the love. Yeah. The face that I get from people saying, ‘I watch your show. Popcorn, the theater, chocolate, the television, the lights off.’ I just love the fact that people enjoy my work.”
Reflecting on his time on the sitcom One on One — which aired from 2001 to 2006 on UPN and also starred Kyla Pratt and Mark “Flex” Washington — Ri’chard notes, “It’s a classic.”
“Kyla Pratt and I had an amazing run. We did five seasons of that show,” he adds. “We really had a little bit of a Desi Arnaz, I Love Lucy duo [dynamic].”
In One on One, Washington, 54, played a single sportscaster who suddenly becomes a full-time father when his ex-wife takes an overseas job and his teenage daughter Breanna (Pratt) moves in with him. Ri’chard portrayed Arnaz, Breanna’s best friend-turned-boyfriend.
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Later this year, Ri’chard will appear in the new crime drama D.O.P.E. Unit alongside Erica Peeples and Terayle Hill. “It’s awesome,” he tells PEOPLE of the project. “It’s under the AMC banner. It’s fantastic. I play a bad boy, a ganster, so I got my hair cut and everything. It’s good work.”
“I play Zeke Williams and he kills everybody,” he adds, joking that he’s in his “villain era” right now. “Yeah, the last four movies, I’ve killed almost 100 people.”
Ri’chard previously opened up about the evolution of his career in an August 2024 interview with local Louisiana outlet KPXJ.
“I’ve been in the industry for 29 years now. The things that I think you would probably associate [me with] quickly are My Cousin Skeeter and One on One. I’ve worked with Usher, Forest Whitaker and Samuel L. Jackson and all of these great, lovely actors,” he said. “And now I’m in this sort of time period where I’m the leading man and carrying the projects. It’s getting bigger and better, and I’m really here for it.”
He also noted that he loves the versatility of being an actor, considering the many genres available.
“You got to entertain folks at home. So you’ve got action movies, rom-coms and dramas and thrillers, suspense. And obviously the worst, the horrors,” he said, referring to the movie he was filming at the time, A Demon’s Revenge.
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