Jon, how you doing?
very well, man, appreciate you talk to me today.
Thank you for your time.
Very big.
Congratulations on the film.
it's wonderful.
I wanted to begin by asking you, obviously we see Serena [Williams] and Venus [Williams] at a certain age
and been inspired by both their mother and their father.
I just wondered when you were their age who inspired you and does that inspiration
still carry you through what you do, what you do now?
Sure.
You know, a number of people, you know, I was an athlete myself,
but but you know, I think, you know, for me, really,
I think I look at my brothers, you know , my brothers are both enormously
successful guys and in very different ways.
I was always quite different than them.
And I felt,
you know, as a young man, I kept kind of walking into walls, all kinds of walls.
But I saw my brothers really flourish in athletics
and business relationships. And,
you know, it always really inspired me.
I was never jealous of them.
I was really proud of them.
And now I think that same sort of pride
carries through with my kids.
There's nobody who inspires me more.
I see such goodness in them and kindness
in them and courage in them, and
I'm enormously proud of them.
But I'm also enormously sort of in all of them and they inspire me.
And you're playing Rick Macci, who is a very obviously well-known
coach and has coached a lot of people.
And I guess when you play a real life person, it's a challenge different
to when you don't play well, that person.
But when that person is still with us
and he's going to watch the film and everything else,
I guess there's even greater pressure, but also responsibility to make sure
that you portray him in the right, the right light.
Did you did you enjoy that challenge of balancing those two things?
Sure.
Look, it is.
It's there is a pressure and you do want to get it right.
I mean, look, Rick Macci is not nearly as well
known as Richard Williams, and certainly not even
even in the same stratosphere as Venus and Serena,
but because the script was so authentic and because of the work
that everybody was doing and the kind of movie that Rei[naldo Marcus Gree, director] was making.
You know, I really think that there's something honorable and bold
about sort of using truth as your guiding light.
And for me, I really wanted to portray the real Rick Macci.
So, you know, really, you know, changing my body.
I lost 30 pounds.
I trained extensively in tennis and had a coach tennis.
I worked coaching tennis with a young junior national player,
but also just getting his voice is his the pitch of his voice
and his unbelievably specific dialect from where he was from.
I really wanted to get that right and ultimately, you know,
he he saw the movie and, you know, he reached out and he was really,
you know, he was really happy with with
with with the performance and how he was portrayed.
And then that really does it, really.
It really meant a lot to me.
Yeah.
And obviously, you know,
Will [Smith] as the as the lead of this of course, but Saniyya [Sidney] and Demi [Singleton], who play Serena and
Venus are just incredible in so many different ways. For you,
watching them as young actors, doing what they were doing
and bringing these people to life in such amazing ways.
I mean, you must have been in awe of them because it's just so, so good.
Yeah, look, absolutely.
They're wise beyond their years.
Unbelievably talented, unbelievably kind.
I love those young women.
I love their families.
I... they've got me forever.
You know, I love making them laugh.
I, you know what I learned about Rick Macci is that
he made things fun and he didn't mind being the butt of the joke.
So just as long as those young women were
laughing, I didn't care whether laughing with me or at me.
It was mostly at me.
But being being sort of counted it up for
them was a lot of fun, and I can't say enough good about them.
Yeah.
And just before I go, I'm sure you got asked this question
about The Punisher so many times.
And of course, with all the talk of maybe Charlie Cox returning in Spider-Man,
all this kind of stuff. But are you?
Are you still hopeful that maybe one day and whatever guys it would be that
you get to come back and play play
Frank Castle again because you have to say he was so, so good in that role.
Thanks, man. I appreciate you saying that.
You know, hopefully, you know, I don't know.
It's it's not something that I... I'm enormously happy
with the things that I'm doing now.
Look, I love that character.
I love Frank Castle. He's in my bones. He's in my heart.
It's not really about something.
It's not something that I pine away and hope to do.
What I the way I feel about
it is simply, if we're going to do it, we just need to do it right.
So it's not worth just doing it.
The character means too much to so many people.
I think it's really all about, you know, can we do it right?
And if there is an opportunity to do it right, I.
Would be all in 100%.
Fingers crossed.
Jon, lovely to talks to you. thanks so much for your time.
Appreciate you, man. Thanks, man.