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Speaker 0 00:00:00 You've definitely heard of Serena and Venus Williams, but maybe not of their father Richard Williams. I was the same way until I was invited by Warner brothers for an advanced screening of king, Richard of film about the origins of the William sisters and the father who pushed them to become the globally recognized super athletes. They are today. King Richard is also a true story training and literal rain or shine in Compton, California. The film shows us obstacle after obstacle that the Williams family face, but more importantly, the initiative that the family took to overcome them will Smith plays the titular king. Richard he's joined by sniper Sydney and Demi Singleton who played Venus and Serena Williams. Respectively. The cast also features ingenue Ellis, Jon Bernthal and Tony Goldwyn. They're directed by Reynaga market screen today. You'll hear them discuss the struggle to create an accurate story, how the acting process changed them and what they hope audiences will take away from king Richard. The movie sits at the nexus of many well-trodden genres, sports, autobiographical, and family drama. Just to name a few director, Rinaldo green speaks on foregrounding, the humanity of king Richard's story,
Speaker 1 00:01:05 But in making the movie, obviously, you know, I wanted to make a movie that my mom could see. She's never seen a tennis match before. Um, but she understands what winning and losing is. She understands what family is. She understands what love is, and she understands what that kind of core is and what, and what it comes. You know, she understands what struggle is. And there were things that are relatable to folks like my mother, who could see this movie and, and enjoy it and still understand what's happening and not get lost in sort of the technical aspects of
Speaker 0 00:01:34 Despite ultimately being about Richard Williams. The film does not give him complete credit for the Williams sisters success, listen to ingenue Ellis who plays or seen price to William Sr's mother, speak on this.
Speaker 2 00:01:47 They sort of insisted that, um, Ms. Orenstein would not be in the shadows. Um, and as you said, we have these stories where you have the heroic male figure, but to do something where we did not see that Ms. Orson was a co-conspirator of this crazy dream would have been dishonest. Um, and we, we worked on that and, and try to give her, um, the, the, the presence that she deserved to have, because that was the truth. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:02:18 Iisha price, who is Venus and Serena sister, and also served as an executive producer speaks about how important getting the story right, was to the Williams family.
Speaker 3 00:02:27 We are really bought into the idea of what this could be and doing it right, and being authentically ourselves. And that took some time, um, you know, because that vilification aspect is still out there. And we, and, and being able to trust that this group of people, this filmmaker and this, this production team, and everyone would do this the right way. When, oftentimes in sport, obviously you get one chance at it. You get
Speaker 0 00:02:59 One, one time to step up to the line and serve that ball. For that point. Authenticity was also a concern for the actors, Demi Singleton, who played Serena Williams, discusses the importance of accurately portraying her real life counterpart.
Speaker 4 00:03:12 Yeah. To, to bring everything together and make it feel as real as possible. I think tonight, and I just did a lot of research and it was really important to us that everything we did
Speaker 0 00:03:23 Was real will Smith, whose performance has been highlighted in many credit reviews, describes how taking on the role of Richard Williams changed his own perspective as a parent, as the father of Jayden Willow Smith listened, as he describes what he learned during the movies filming
Speaker 5 00:03:38 For me as an actor, when I take a role, also I'm taking it to explore something, I'm taking it to learn something. And that was a new parenting idea for me, of aligning with your children versus directing your children, you know, and it was a very, very different, um, concept. And a approach that was, was, was magical in the Williams family
Speaker 0 00:04:10 Though, much younger than willsmith Senaya Sydney who played Venus Williams also found the filming experience enriching
Speaker 6 00:04:17 When I'm going to take away from this is just being able to step into Venus's shoes. Um, helped me as a young woman, you know, there were so humble at such a young age, and they had such a great father. And I think, you know, again, families, everything, and that taught me so much and made me, you know, go out there and reach out to people that I haven't talked to since I was little
Speaker 0 00:04:39 Part of king Richard's emotional core is how Venus and Serena were instill our trailblazers for young black women around the globe. Venus speaks about what she hopes they'll take away from king Richard story.
Speaker 7 00:04:51 Uh, always believe in yourself, never doubt. Doubt does nothing for you. What you, the same time you're doubting the same time you can spend believing in you and putting the work in. So that way you do believe in build confidence.
Speaker 0 00:05:03 Serena also added you really do.
Speaker 8 00:05:06 You have to, um, ultimately just believe in yourself and anything is possible, and it's not too high. If you set your goals at the sky, the sky is literally the limit. So don't be afraid to set high goals.
Speaker 0 00:05:22 King Richard will be released today, November 19th in both theaters and HBO max for WMUR news. This is Emily's though.
