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And you went to
basketball boot camp for this film. Can
you talk about that experience?
Derek Luke: Oh yeah. Let me
first start out with the shoes we had
on. We wore these all star shoes and I
couldn’t figure out how on earth, could
somebody run on these shoes. Every one
of those actors complained. We were like
man, can we at least were Jordan’s. I
mean blisters and every type of thing.
And then we had the short shorts. But we
had great practices because spiritually,
physically and mentally, we had coach
Haskins, we had Pat Riley and we had Tim
Floyd. They literally…our tongues were
hanging out. The thing is for the real
players, they said ‘our practices were
worst than the game’. When they played
games, they played to win so that they
wouldn’t have to go back to practice.
You seem to
play a lot of athletes. You were in
‘Friday Night Lights’ and now you’re in
this. Does that come naturally to you?
The physicality of it?
Derek Luke: No. The
physicality was natural. When I’m
running to catch the bus…I mean, I used
to live out here. But when you’re
running on the court it’s a different
thing. I was like, oh, it’s called
technique now. I think naturally I train
like an athlete from lifestyle to diet.
How I like to just work out so…
What was the
hardest part of the film that you had to
endure?
Derek Luke: The basketball.
Yeah, because the thing about…when you
make any kind of action film, you’re not
really going there to do a 100% acting.
You do 70% basketball and they say ‘oh
Derek, you got a line right here’. What?
Yeah, you got to say this line right
here. And your used to…you want to be
all (dribbles ball). I think this role
was a challenge because you had to
depend on others to help you. It wasn’t
just the direction.
Was it harder
playing the 1966 version of basketball
as oppose to playing regular basketball,
by yourself in real life?
Derek Luke: I think I get a
kick out of it. I think cause it’s real.
And I think more cause the research I
think I like when I walk on the streets,
people are like more conversational with
me than they are looking at me as an
actor from Hollywood. People just start
talking like, yo man, I was in foster
care. I’m like word? And we just start
talking. It doesn’t feel like I’m
carrying a cross.
Did you meet
the player that you portrayed in the
film?
Derek Luke: No. I never met
Bobby. He passed in 2002. I did meet his
wife.
As Anton
Fisher, you were pretty new to this
whole process. Do you ever stop yourself
and say, I really can’t believe I’ve
gotten this far?
Derek Luke: I think the more
and more I tell the story about Anton,
it becomes like a new story all the time
as I tell it. Oppose to all…I remember
the smell of the store. I remember
catching the bus at 5 in the morning to
get to work at 9. I remember and when
people ask me about it, it really uh, it
charges me up actually.
What was it
like playing all the basketball?
Derek Luke: Everyday the
challenge was to be the star basketball
player on the team. Actually, that’s
where the character came from. It was
backwards for me. Usually, you would
develop a character and you know, you
would give it shoe laces. This one was
unlaced and Bobby Joe had passed away.
And Bobby Joe was such a layed back
character. He avoided the press a lot.
So, you had to get like snippets of his
personality here and there.
Do you know why
he never went on to be a professional
basketball player?
Derek Luke: You know, that’s
what I liked about him. He was
unaffected. That’s why I was drawn to
him because it was just a game. There
was the ball, and when he was done, he
just put it down. And then he walked off
the court. Nobody knew why but he
married his college sweetheart. I think
that’s what made, to me, you know that’s
where I found Bobby Joe; was on the
court. And where I really found Bobby
Joe was at his end. Meaning his decision
to marry Tina Hill.
Did you ever
get to play those guys in some ‘real’
shoes, like you wanted to?
Derek Luke: Yeah we did
but…it was like somebody moved the magic
carpet from under our feet. They were
like naw…naw you can’t…I said, I thought
this was gonna be like ‘Hoosiers’…lol.
You know, shooting us from the neck up.
They were like no. we demand reality.
So, we had to take like everything off
and put those all stars on.
The other
actors were saying that it was just a
bond between you guys and that it was
just as natural on screen?
Derek Luke: Well, it wasn’t
really…we got evacuated when we filmed
in New Orleans. And we were on our way
to Baton Rouge and we got a call one day
saying everybody pack up everything you
have and if some things not necessary
their like leave it behind. I’m
like…leave it behind? So basically, New
Orleans to Baton Rouge is about an hour,
hour in a half. It took us 14 hours to
get to Baton Rouge. And when we got
there, everything was closed. And we saw
one McDonalds in the hood. You know, in
the hood, you know what I’m saying, the
stores stay open late. That’s when
people be waking up to go get food. So
basically, we tried to negotiate Tatyana
Ali to some guys there. They were like,
listen, we’re not opening up McDonalds.
They said they would open up McDonalds
but you guys got to cook your own food.
So, the whole cast, the whole crew…we
went in and it was like 60, 80 of us in
there making our food. I was on the
fries. Austin Nichols? Naw, he couldn’t
even make a shake. I came from…I have a
degree in fast food. I used to work in
Roy Rogers and Wendy’s. What? Come on.
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