Ross Enjoys Playing the Straight Man

[Brett Ferino]

LOS ANGELES - Sometimes in sports, the star player isn't the one who makes all the shots, but who sets up their teammates to score. That's how Tracee Ellis Ross (news) sees her role on "Girlfriends."

She's one of stars of the show but she says what she enjoys most is being the straight man for the other people in the cast. "That's the fun part of being, if you can call it, the central character on the show. Because I end up being the straight man. On a sitcom there's a general formula and there's usually a central character that plays the straight man. So I usually end up being the setup for the jokes and I don't always get the laughs," Ross told AP Radio.

Ross says it's more fun for her being the straight person than the jokester on the show. "The beauty of that is that I get to use my range as an actor because I'm sort of driving the story as opposed to being the funny and that's the most fun thing," Ross told AP Radio.