Am I right in thinking, Jamie, that one of the reasons
why this story kind of resonated with you is
because your own father was in the system?
You know, it's personal.
Michael called me up, and I was so humbled and honoured
to be a part of the project, but doing
this project - it's personal.
Being a black man...
..and the perception of us in America
is that we are already guilty of a crime,
and I can personally touch it because my father -
they put my father in jail for
$25 worth of illegal substance.
They put him in jail for seven years. Oh, wow.
This man was an educator in the hood, in the inner cities,
educating kids.
The judge that he would have come to the school
and talk to the kids presided over his case and put him in jail,
and what they didn't understand was that Father
taught me everything - taught me how to throw
a football, basketball,
taught me how to play tennis,
and I was like, "Why am I learning how to play tennis?"
He said, "Because I don't want you to be limited."
So me as a young black kid in Texas, some of my childhood
heroes were Vitas Gerulaitis, Ilie Nastase, Yannick Noah,
Ivan Lendl.
So when they put him in jail, however, what did we do
as a family?
And I don't like visiting jail - I don't like that type
of perception,
so I told my pops,
"I can't come see you,
"because I see you as a king."
But I wrote him a letter.
I said, "Hey, you know, things have gotten good for me.
"When you get out I'll save your life."
And he's been living with me for 20 years now.
Oh, wow. The same house.
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And here's the good part about it -
he loved tennis, so I got a chance to take him to the US Open
when he got out, and we watched Venus and Serena play,
and we sat there and tears ran down our cheeks, but...
..when he got a chance to see this movie he said,
"You tell that young brother Michael B Jordan
"keep doing what he's doing, because this is so important for us."
Yeah.
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