Venus and Serena Williams are taking us all to the begging with their upcoming biopic King Richard. This heartwarming Warner Bros. documentary reveals how the iconic sisters became tennis’ greatest-of-all-time.
Behind Williams sisters’ success is a loving figure that shaped and trained them to excel in the sport, tennis coach, and their father, Richard Williams. In King Richard, Will Smith takes the duty to portray Mr. Williams and the screen parent of the athletes.
© Getty Images“There‘s a scene where Will says that you’re doing this for every Black girl. And that really hit me in a different way because obviously, at the time, we didn‘t know,” Serena says during an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“I guess the in through Richard appealed to me because it‘s the only way I could be involved,” Smith told the publication, adding that Mr. Williams “reminds me a lot of my father. It was that same generation — men that used to fix everything with their hands,” the actor explains. “I understood what it was like to live at the edge of survival and to try to sustain a dream.”
© GettyImages“There are so many ways to tell this story,” Serena says. “But I think telling it through my dad was the best way because he had the idea. He knew how to do it.”
Today, Mr. Williams is considered a visionary; however, he was misunderstood. “The first time we talked, I saw a little bit of a flash,” says Will. “He was one of the most misunderstood people during that time. Nobody got it. He was so far ahead in terms of the balance between pushing and protecting, [and] had a savant-level comprehension of when those moments were.”
King Richard will be available on HBO Max and in theaters on November 19. Reinaldo Marcus Green directs the film.
