- Who's that?
- Well, that was the head coach at UCLA.
He just unofficially offered me a whole ride.
- I want you to see things, see the world, get outta here.
Scholarship can do that for you.
- I can get a scholarship for computer science.
- Bro what?
- Los Angeles regulations.
- They shuttin' down all basketball courts
to stop the spread of the virus.
- Man what? How are we supposed to hoop?
I gotta get that scholarship for my grandma, man.
- What's up?
- I wanna run something by you.
- Be bigger than ball, Clinton.
(police sirens)
- Get off, bro.
- I just, I don't get it son.
I, I can't believe you did this.
Hard work.
Failure.
Persistence.
- Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome.
Hey, Why Not the film on B E T.
- Yes, sir.
- Great to see you all.
Glad you all are back.
Let's start by all of you introducing yourself
to the audience as well
as the character you played in the film.
- Okay.
- Well I'm Julian Ferris, you know, cam lab direct with it.
I play Zari.
What's up y'all
I'm to Sean Rowland.
I played the role Cute Quentin
- In the film.
What's going on.
My name is Jacobi Dempsey.
The role of Yaku.
- Hello, my name is Varrien Harris
and I play the role at Marcus.
My name is Jaylen Fran.
I play the role of Deandre.
- Hi, my name is Elani Ford and I'm one
of the producers on the film from incubation lab.
I'm drawn Smith.
Another producer on the film from the incubation lab.
What was the growth like
from the beginning of the film to the end?
- I would say the growth was like very
I'd say like, its very humbling though.
Yeah. For, for me it was, it was like, for me, this
this film was like a big family thing and it, it
it was one I've been, I've been acting a long time.
And for me, this was one
of the first experiences I had where I really felt
like this was a real brotherhood.
Like these things is my real role.
And like, I don't know, like it
it just kind of teaches you like, this is bigger than a job.
Absolutely. This is bigger.
This is bigger than even a career.
Like this is like, this is like all of our lives.
Everybody here is, was 100% in from the very beginning.
And that was, that was refreshing to see
you know what I'm saying?
Especially during the pandemic
like the whole thing that was going on
this was like a wake up call.
Like, no, this is, this is a real thing.
Like from the very beginning, everybody knew
that how real this was gonna be
and nobody ever gave up on that.
- Towards Sean
Alani and I were in the editing bay
watching early cuts of the film.
And there's a scene where you are hugging a law
enforcement officer and the emotion
that comes outta you is
it was pretty profound.
Just tell me about that scene as an actor
and how you kind of got into mode to kind of bring that type
of emotion out in that scene
- Man, man, that scene definitely.
It was, it was,
it was a lot of energy into that scene
you know, know cuz you to bring out that type of emotion
you gotta truly live in that moment.
You know what I'm saying?
And I've had situations similar to that
that I could relate to.
And just by the support, like, like you said
as a family to cast, like
just supporting really
capturing that moment, you know, it, it was a challenge
in the beginning.
I'm not gonna lie.
It was a challenge definitely in the beginning
but even with Tav you know, Tav in my ear, like,
wow you know what I'm saying?
Like, let's go, let's go.
Yeah man, I, man, I feel like we got that moment.
- And I wanted to know how did all of you guys get
into your character?
Like what was the preparation?
- Oh
- Man. Well, for me, Kevin literally told me he was like
the reason you on this set is just because
cause my character is kind of the goofy
like clown, like talking trash, like making a joke.
- Actually Jacobi, you auditioned for another character.
- I did.
- Is that right?
- And he was like, nah, no, nah, none of that.
He was like, nah, I know you're y'all cool.
You're y'all cool.
- Wow.
- Like he just told me to be me.
Like, don't come over here.
Don't don't don't act, don't be phony.
Like literally I needed to bring the energy that you can
that you just naturally bring, just bring that to the set
bring that to the character.
So like honestly this role for me was there really
it wasn't too much of a, like a perpetration process.
Like I really just got to lock in and just say
I'm gonna find out all the best and worst qualities
of myself and bring them to this character.
Like for better or worse.
Like whether or not you like me or not.
I might be kind of a, you know, that, that kid who's like
oh my goodness, this kid won't shut up.
It's like, Hey that I that's what I'm here
for. So I, I was happy to play that role
- Now. Is it true?
You guys all hoop?
Are you guys all real ballers?
- Oh, we hoopers.
- Come on.
Tell 'em the truth.
I keep jumping.
I'm trying to get these dudes out here to hoop man.
Well look
- They don't want hit.
- The tail was like y'all hoop.
I was like, no, but I can dance.
Y'all looked at me funny, but I mean, I can't hoop not
y'all love it.
I had to before I hopped fun to stay it with y'all but
- Wow. You had a train in basketball?
- Yes. Ma'am still didn't do good.
But
- You was locked in bro.
I was.
You was locked in bro.
Was a defensive specialist.
What about Jaylen?
No.
- Yeah. I hoped before this for sure.
I played AAU high school, all that.
- This guy.
Where'd you play in high school?
- I went to Laces and Westchester.
- Julian
You truly don't hoop.
- No, no.
- I mean I did.
I do it probably for fun, but no, just as Ja card
we say it's not my thing.
- Tell me what the audience that views, this film is
going to get out of it.
- I really do want them to be able to like look
at this film and be like, yo, I can relate so much
to them to the point where it's like, you know what?
I can actually fit and do the same thing.
Cause I feel like when you're growing up
you see all the other movies, all the art for me
when you try to watch a black film
it's all other things where it's like, okay, I could grow
up and be the best rapper best, you know, drug dealer
or whatever the America tries to make us look like.
You know?
But in this it's like, you know what?
There actually is a way that you can go
to college and become a scientist and become smart.
Or you could have the option to go
to college and play basketball.
But as a black man, you're not just set at just
those few things that the world thinks we should have to do
- You know?
Yeah. To me, this is timeless.
Like I feel like you could plug this in at any time, like
within the last like 50 years and even 50 years from now.
And like, and that, that was the number one thing.
Like to me, that's what we gonna get
from this is like that timeless factor
and the relatability, like you said
- No, no, I agree with you bro.
The, the authenticity of it.
Yeah. You know, it's so real.
We, we went back and forth plenty of times.
Like we need it real.
Yeah. We need to do this real.
So people could feel it.
You know what I'm saying? Feel the message.
And another thing, I think that the, the message that we
want to give out to people that watch this film is to
change the narrative.
Yeah. You know, definitely change the narrative.
It's always, you know, some people get categorized
into one thing that they gotta do or people think that this
is the only way to be successful when you can do
a lot of things, you know, you don't have to necessarily
go with what everyone else wanna do.
You don't gotta rap or act or play basketball.
You can change,
you can change actual lives.
You know what I'm saying?
In different types of ways that necessarily isn't
the route that everybody, you know,
would prefer to take outside
- Yeah.
I feel like it would inspire the people that don't
have a voice, the people that want to do other things
besides what their stereotype to do.
Like for instance, like a lot of my family all love to hoop.
They like, oh wow.
You know, Rachel's son he's so tall.
Got another one.
How tall are you?
I'm 6'4 . Yeah.
And they're like, oh, you know, we got another one.
a tall duh duh duh. Oh, he didn't wanna play basketball.
What?! Long story short I'm trying to say is
that Ja car's story is what so many kids go through today
but nobody really knows about it.
And then when they see it and they watch it, they like
wow. Okay.
And it gives him motivation in a way.
- What's your favorite scene in the movie?
- My favorite scene in the movie, I think I'm gonna
get a little bit like real here.
So for me, my favorite scene was the scene where
the kids were outside and y'all came out and the, and the
the glasses work.
Cause for me that, that was like the scene where it went
from, like, yeah, we get it.
Like you smart, you got it going on.
Like me and him even know was bagging on you.
Like, we, we knew like a lot of that is just
like inherent jealousy.
Like this dude doing something that I would never think of.
But like, when we really see that to me, that was like
that's the scene where it's like, no, these dudes really
like superheroes, you know what I'm saying?
Like they really hood superheroes.
Yeah. This like, what is this?
Like, bro, really out here and inventing stuff.
So like, that was my favorite moment in the movie.
Like cuz it all came like full circle for me.
- I would definitely say my favorite scene is
when me Sean and Jacobi
uh
bust into to the uh..
- What was is?
- The gym.
Yeah. That, yeah.
- My favorite scene, because I can relate to that
in so many ways.
When I was little, we were always trying to
find a place to hoop.
So like, we'll go to like the church we'll stay
after church just to hoop.
Like we were so desperate to hoop and for us to go
through that scene really like get an impact on my life.
So definitely say that part.
- What about you Jaylen?
- Umm
- I feel like I say this all the time.
Julian knows um
it was probably when I think it was
these two right here.
Yeah. They uh
it's more so funny to me,
but it's like, they were
like bullying him and they were like, give your glasses
give me your glasses.
And they like, it brings back all the memories
to when we were like doing the, of scene read overs
and they were like talking to Teve on like what
they can say.
Just how mean they can be to him.
Yeah. And then like, I think that was the first
time I really saw Julian like do that whole fake cry
that he does and he goes,
stop, give me back my glasses, whatever.
So like whenever I think about
I always think about like that when I it's funny.
- So how real was the process of filming?
How authentic was this?
- Oh man,
- Give us the real.
It was, it was very, very authentic.
We shot in Crenshaw in the heart of Crenshaw.
So everything that, that film is showing we was there.
It was, it was very authentic.
That's a wrap.
- Check out Why not? On BET February 4th.