US comedian Eddie Griffin, previously seen as Deuce Bigalow's pimp, dons platform shoes and an outrageous Afro to play Undercover Brother, a funky crime fighter whose fashion sense hasn't left the 70s.

What attracted you to "Undercover Brother"?

You get sent a lot of scripts and some of them are fireplace starters. But I was laughing out loud at home reading this script. Then [producer] Brian Grazer asked me if I wanted to play Undercover Brother. After I woke up from fainting I said "Yes!" I'd been a 70s buff for a long time, so to play that character was amazing.

Who inspires you as a comedian?

My inspiration is the one and only godfather of comedy himself, Richard Pryor. He's the greatest. I met him at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. He said, "Boy, you remind me of myself when I was 25." We've got similar backgrounds. He grew up in a brothel. I have a pimp uncle and another uncle who wants to be a porn star - they're the subjects of my next project, "Eddie Griffin: Dys-Funk-tional Family". We had similar war stories as children. I think that's where we connected. And we've been close pals ever since.

Will 70s fashion ever make a comeback?

Life is all about cycles. Kids are getting bored with letting their underwear hang out of the back of their pants. That's become passé. Platform shoes will come back. Pork-chop sideburns have already made a comeback. Bell-bottoms will come back. And Afros.

How much freedom to improvise did you have making the film?

We had a lot of freedom. Malcolm [director Malcolm D Lee] said, "Go!" Some directors want you to go strictly by the script, which always confuses me. Why do you hire a pilot and tell him not to fly? Malcolm pretty much let us fly by the seat of our pants as long as we were keeping the story moving forward.

Did you do any of Undercover Brother's stunts?

I did all my own stunts. Not that I wanted to. But the stunt man they had for me was 50 pounds heavier than me. I didn't want the film to have a skinny man running and a fat man jumping. It just didn't work out.

Does the film have any serious points to make?

The film makes some subtle points without being a drum major and beating people over the head with it. I think comedy is one of the art forms that can truly get away with that. Comedy has a way of dealing with serious issues and finding humour in it.