KING RICHARD Driven by Heart for Family
By Movieguide® Staff
KING RICHARD is a new movie about two of the greatest tennis players in the history of the sport, Venus and Serena Williams, and their father, Richard Williams.
Will Smith portrays the Williams patriarch and his influence on instilling confidence in his two daughters as they climb to the main stage of tennis. However, the movie focuses on the unifying theme of family and the inspirational story of two sisters and their supportive parents.
According to the Movieguide® review:
KING RICHARD tells the story of a caring father who supports his daughters, Venus and Serena, in becoming the greatest tennis players. Richard has five girls, two of which, Venus and Serena, are fabulous tennis players. During the day, Richard goes to the best tennis clubs and tries to get the girls a coach who’ll train them for free. During the afternoon, he trains the girls, and they practice on the public tennis courts in Compton, where they live. Richard convinces a famous coach to train Venus. When Venus starts winning every tennis competition she enters, Richard fears she’ll become burned out and vain.
KING RICHARD is beautiful, heartfelt and inspiring. It has a strong Christian, moral, pro-family worldview with positive messages of Christian faith, virtue and character. Viewers will become totally immersed in the story and find the characters appealing. The movie does have some hard scenes related to gang violence and foul language. Overall, though, KING RICHARD stresses the importance of Christ-like character, the love of a family, and following one’s natural God-given talents. MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.
Producer Trevor White said that he and fellow producer, Tim White, discussed KING RICHARD’s heart. It became apparent that it would be family.
“When Tim first kind of brought me the idea of doing a film about Richard Williams, we kind of thought about it in terms of this might be the greatest coaching story in the history of sports,” White said in a recent press conference. “What made it really exciting is when we started to kind of dive into their story, it was far beyond a coaching story, it was a story about a family, and a story about love and how that keeps the drive alive in a way.”
“The big effort was that it was going to be a gripping family story,” Writer Zach Baylin added. “It wasn’t just going to be like a Sports Center package about these moments that we all know and become really like calcified. If we were really going to get to know the family, we needed the intimate moments.”
Although audiences still await the theatrical release of KING RICHARD, perhaps the two most important audiences members, Venus and Serena Williams, have already given their feedback on the adaptation of their lives.
“I think it’s super emotional, and I’ve seen the trailer I’ve read the script. And every time I watch it, my eyes are just watering,” Venus said. “I think it was amazing to see the family atmosphere on the set, and how much Demi [Singleton] and Saniyya [Sidney] really acted like Serena and I, even when the cameras weren’t rolling, like holding hands, and it was so sweet. I’m just really proud of what everyone has accomplished. And it’s pretty surreal, to be honest. They really understood our family and portrayed us in a way that was really us. And I’m very proud of that.”
Serena added: “No word describes it better than just surreal. Then to have Will [Smith] play this role as my father and the way he just embodied Richard Williams, it just took the whole film to a whole new level. It’s so emotional. It’s well done. And it’s a brilliant piece of work.”
Smith said that his appreciation for the Williams family, especially Richard, came 20 years ago after he saw an interview.
During the interview, Richard sticks up for Venus—who was 14 at the time—and Smith said that that changed his perspective on parenting.
“It’s a famous interview where Richard Williams snaps on the reporter… that image burned in my heart, because that’s how I wanted my daughter to look when I showed up,” Smith said. “And that interview had really changed my parenting at that time. It was like the look on Venus’s face. We just watched it. And it was like, she had a lion, and she was so confident and so comfortable that her lion wasn’t gonna let anything happen to her. You know, and I fell in love with Richard Williams. That was 20 something years ago. And when the opportunity to be a part of this came up, that was the first thing that I remembered. I knew I wanted to show a father protecting a daughter like that, to the world.”
Sidney, who plays Venus Williams in KING RICHARD, said that what stuck with her most about the Williams family was their humility.
“Being able to step into Venus’s shoes helped me grow as a young woman,” the young actress said. “They were so humble at such a young age and they had such a great father. I think family is everything, and that taught me so much and made me go out there and reach out to people that I haven’t talked to since I was little.”
“Something that I will always take away from this is just to make sure you always respect whoever you’re working with,” she added. “Mr. Will made us feel so comfortable but at the same time, he created a relationship with everyone on set. He also has such a big heart and he inspired me so much and he was definitely like our dad.
“When I left shooting the movie, I kind of just wanted to go back and do it all over again. Those are the memories that you wish you can just redo, live all over again. But at the same time, I really challenged myself and I’m just proud of everybody and I just can’t wait for the world to see it. I cry every time.”
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