We speak to WhiteMenCantJump director Calmatic about working with the legendary Lance Reddick, heralding Jack Harlow's acting career, and bringing the Los Angeles of his childhood to the movie:
White Men Can't Jump is a remake of the 1992 sports comedy of the same name. The movie follows Kamal and Jeremy, two basketball players who take notice of one another's skills. The pair team up to make some extra cash hustling other players on the court and slowly become friends.
Calmatic on White Men Can't Jump Screen Rant: As a guy that grew up in South LA - my school was Crenshaw, - this movie hit home for me like you wouldn't believe. There's elements from the original in this, but you make it completely your own. Kenya Barris was born and raised in Inglewood, and you're from South Central. This really feels like a love letter to LA.
It's like, okay, I get a chance to do that. I'm going to make sure that it's something for the locals and something that we recognize. And I could have this final tournament anywhere in la, but why not put it right in the middle of a Myrt Park? That's the epicenter of black LA. There's no other place that deserves that more. And so I got a budget to do that. And so, why not?
Can you talk about the casting process and how important it is to have actors that actually know how to ball to make it feel real? I love that your impression of Jack was whether or not he could play ball. Something that surprised me about Jack was that this was his first acting job ever; he knocks it out of the park. Talk to me about what he brought to the role of Jeremy that wasn't on the page.
Calmatic: Yeah. It's interesting because we shot this film in order pretty much. And so I think the first day that they were on set was the first time that Jeremy and Kamal meet in the film. And so it wasn't like too method, but we had this idea to keep them separate when they were just meeting each other off-camera. And then as the characters got closer, they got closer off-screen and they kind of used that energy to leak into some of the scenes.
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