Watched the film the morning - it was good.
I really enjoyed it.
Ah - you'refresh off the film.
Okay? Yeah.
I literally must have finished about 3 hours ago, so I'll.
Yeah. No, I mean, did you.
I mean, you've obviously got a history kind of playing basketball.
I mean, how helpful was that to this role?
Very helpful in that
I had the ability to do all my dunks, all my shots, all my ball handling.
Right.
But it's tricky to focus this because I have a history of playing basketball
and I know how to play doesn't mean that I know how to play in 1950, 1940.
So I'm saying so as the actor I have to put away my tendencies
of what I know to be true in my world, even if it's my abilities.
And I've worked hard in and absorbed a whole new world and even the basketball
ability played a role in that as well to step into that new world.
Yeah.
So is it quite different than the way
they would play back in the fifties and the fifties?
Yeah, absolutely Different.
I mean, it was so much
back then, it was more rigid and guys weren't doing too much.
There wasn't a lot of flair at all. Right.
As you saw as like, no razzle dazzle stuff was none of that type of behavior
that the fans love and people pay their money for and emulate.
The NBA was not that which makes Sweetwater story so pivotal and beautiful
because Sweetwater wasn't the in that Sweetwater Club,
let me correct that wasn't just a regular basketball player.
I mean, he's the first African-American to sign an NBA contract.
All right. So he broke down that barrier.
But then what he brought as an offering to the game had been limitless.
I mean, he brought creativity. FLAIR, how are you?
Finger rolled?
But he brought that flair from the Globetrotters
and they played up in the streets and brought it to the NBA.
And fans loved it.
And a lot of players afterwards now were able to build that game.
White players, black players from all over the world have creativity to this day
that we love to see.
I mean, the game of basketball, beautiful. don't you think?
In a weird way, it kind of helped your overall game
to kind of go back and learn, I guess, kind of the basics in some ways.
I mean, I don't know if it
helped my game because, I mean, I'm like...an actor,
so I don't know if it helped it, but it didn't.
It really like brought awareness to education, like, wow,
this is how the game started.
So probably deep in my love for the game, even more like, Wow,
I see these guys doing these dunks and I see Curry's shooting from half court.
There wasn't even a three point line back then, right? Like, wow.
And seeing so many different things, it it was really eye opening.
So I mean, it's always a beautiful time to get history, get a history lesson
in an entertaining way, though, and just kind of learn things on the fly.
I think the film Martin Guigui has been writing
He was also the director of - 28 years.
I think he did a few awful job of entertaining and inspiring in a non like,
forceful way.
You're going to catch some wisdom.
Just just watch it and realize, Hey, wow, I learned that.
I didn't realize that.
So I think
that was a beautiful thing of me just kind of
going through that journey myself as the actor in that world.
Yeah, I mean, you saw mentioned obviously him being one of one of the first kind
of black athletes to be baseball players to be drafted into the and be.
I mean, how important are people like Nat Sweetwater Clifton in paving the way
for the next generation of
of young black children in America to grow up believing
that basketball was an accessible group sport they could succeed?
I mean, is is paramount, Right?
Is paramount.
But not just for for blacks.
I mean, is paramount because it is a black man, black story of seeing how
going through the racial discrimination, you can literally still surpass
any obstacle life puts against you to make a better living for yourself.
I think that's pivotal for the black story or for the human story.
This is a human story, whether you play sports or not.
Understanding that no matter what systems are put in front of you
that you put on yourself or the world puts around you, no matter
what type of disabilities they try to give you a throw at you.
I mean, there's really no limits to the human spirit.
When you power through, you push through a lot
and you just you're curious about, hey,
can I break down who's can I do more than what life has shown me?
Right?
And especially when you have other humans helping out to push it, right?
Like you saw in the film, you got Jeremy Piven,
Cary Elwes, Richard Dreyfuss, Kevin Pollack.
These are all people that played figures that helped this one man's journey
that eventually changed the whole world so one man could change the world.
So I think that's that's one of the most important things, too.
And I'm just speaking to Cary, and he was saying
he didn't have a kind of huge
I mean, obviously
he's taking a real person as well, but he didn't have a huge amount of
footage to kind of go once.
He was kind of he had a bit more freedom to find his way into the role.
But of course, if you you've got loads to go on.
Was it a bit overwhelming at times to try and solve the role in
a kind of personal way without
veering into an impression of the man, if that makes sense?
Right, Right.
Because when you play someone you don't want to like him.
You don't want make an impression of the person.
It's about the essence, right?
So but the beautiful thing with that is, I mean, it wasn't beautiful
Sweetwater back then.
It wasn't that much coverage on him.
The NBA wasn't the MLB.
We saw baseball a lot are the NBA was still trying to become a league
that was known.
So it wasn't a lot of footage I could really find.
I mean, it was little stuff on the court, but off the court, living a regular
everyday life, still driving a taxi, still playing Negro League baseball.
I mean, so I had freedom as well in a way, but my freedom
stemmed from specific choices that I learned about his life.
So if that makes sense to you, I was able to find
a beautiful, healthy balance for me to where it wasn't
like I was playing a figure that everyone knew about, right?
So there was some liberty there.
But the creative liberty I took was by truth
that I discovered to the character in his life.
Did you speak to anyone who knew the man himself?
Yeah.
I mean, the beautiful thing about this film, right?
It's authentic, right? Literally.
We have his grandson, Sweetwater.
Grandson is in the film, right?
I mean, and also his daughter to Jataun Robinson-Swopes
such a beautiful spirit
has always been involved in this process with Martin Guigui and was on set as well.
So I'm looking her in her eyes and talking to her
while she's by camera of our filming.
So I had a chance to talk to her father.
His daughter talked to his grandson his granddaughter.
I mean, so his family have been very involved.
So that helped a lot.
What why did you think it took?
I was reading about his son
because obviously that you're mentioning about a kind of education side to this.
I mean, education's always best when it's kind of dressed up
in kind of entertainment.
I mean, I learned so much about him
and that's what I sort of research more as well.
As always, after I watch something but
Why did you think it took so long for him to be inducted into the Hall of Fame?
I couldn't believe how late it was when his it came up in the closing credits.
It's a beautiful question for me.
You know, you don't know why these kind of things happened.
Right.
But what I can say is that's
when you have people that go before you that lay the foundation
of like Sweetwater did for the league that we love to do.
I mean, the league was desperate of just trying to become $1,000,000,000 league.
It wasn't $1,000,000,000 league at this time, right?
They were just trying to make something.
And they built on top of people that helped push this league up.
And when you build on top of people without recognition,
and especially if that person doesn't care about recognition,
like Sweetwater had a beautiful soul, didn't care about the credit,
then they're just going to keep, build and build on top.
You know, I was going to say anything,
but then I think through this film to this filmmaking process, I would like to say
to my team, Guigui doing the work of this beautiful story, I think it shines
a light on the big things that came before us, the trailblazers that came before.
So I think even as we make mistakes, we overlook people.
But truth never has an expiration date, so it's always a good time to go back,
put him in the Hall of Fame, even if it's in 2014, Right.
Years later. But at least he's in there now.
You can never erase that.
So I think no matter what hard work a human does and the impact
they have on people, it will never go away.
Whether they get the accolades or not.
But thankfully so we wanted to get his accolades on this one.
I mean, you're supposed to be able to get because I mean,
I mean, we saw mentioned the beginning.
Obviously, you kind of
you have the kind of the ability to play basketball,
which is so, so obviously something that you're already passionate about.
But it's now it's combined not just a great character and a great film.
I mean, it must have been a
when you when your agent came to you this, you must be like, yes, please.
Is this a dream come true? Right.
This is like, wow, God is good.
I mean, I can't even I couldn't think that I could, especially because I
let basketball go after I was playing pro and after I stopped playing ball.
So to combine both worlds together
and be able to step into that has been a true dream come true.
I'm so grateful I got to tell the story
and just share this awesome with the world.
I mean, there's so many more stories inside of me to tell,
but this one specifically to start off with at home, and it's such a blessing.
Well, on that lovely note, thank you so much for your time today.
It's been a real pleasure speaking to and best of luck
with the release of the movie.
Huge pleasure, man. Thank you so much.