The three icons team up for the Oscar-buzzy biopic, in which Smith plays the tennis superstars' father.
Serena Williams is not a woman who is easily caught off-balance.
“Well,Willsays that you’re doing this for every Black girl.
Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Will Smith on EW’s December 2021 cover.AB+DM for EW
And that really hit me in a different way because obviously at the time we didn’t know.”
He adds later that the Williams patriarch “reminds me a lot of my father.
It was that same generation men that used to fix everything with their hands.
Richard (Will Smith), Venus (Saniyya Sidney), Serena (Demi Singleton), and the rest of the Williams clan arrive at Venus’ 1994 professional debut in Oakland in a scene from ‘King Richard.'.Warner Bros.
Adds Serena, 40: “There are so many ways to tell this story.
But I think telling it through my dad was the best way because he had the idea.
He knew how to do it.”
The real-life Richard Williams with preteen Venus (left) and Serena in 1991.Paul Harris/Getty Images
“He was one of the most misunderstood people during that time.
Nobody got it.”
Nor is it about tendon injuries or famous on-court dustups and Sharapova feuds.
AB+DM for EW
2 Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in her second-ever match.
“‘Start your own business, be a young mom and still have your own empire.’
They opened those doors for me.”
“I was so happy when Beyonce called.”
When she finally did, she had to laugh.
“It was so off in terms of personality,” Isha recalls.
“I do remember selfishly thinking, ‘What does this mean for the movie?'”
Serena Williams
“There would be no Serena if there wasn’t a Venus.
She was my hero and she still is my hero.
She’ll do something and I’m like, ‘I’m doing that too.'”
Authenticity on the court was, obviously, another priority.
“Some sports are a little bit easier than tennis to make look real,” says Serena.
“But fellow tennis players can see when it’s not the real deal.
I think it was pretty nailed [here].”
For Sidney, a natural southpaw, that meant learning to play right-handed.
“We just did it.
After I saw how hard the girls were working, I didn’t have any doubt.”
“She’s such a nuanced person,” Ellis says of playing that emotional scene.
“Reinaldo just let us try things, and then he’d pull us back.”
“She was very much a huge cheerleader, a second mom,” Isha says.
“Mikayla wanted to know everything she could to bring that out.
She did such an amazing job.”
Finally, the film is a valentine to Venus, the tennis trailblazer who people sometimes forget came first.
“It’s kind of difficult for me to say, ‘Oh, this film shows me.’
Because me is Serena.
It’s so symbiotic.”
For Smith, the project was intensely personal as well.
“Richard Williams was a big, athletic man, and I wanted to really capture that strength.”
Director Green says he felt supported by Smith like never before with an actor.
“And that’s part of Will’s process.
He comes from an era where you respect the director.
Could he threepeat withKing Richard, which drew raves when it debuted at Telluride on Sept. 2?
The star appears more interested in sharing the wealth than hoarding it.
“I don’t make movies for awards or anything like that,” he says.
COVID kept Richard Williams, who turns 80 in February, away from set.
(He did not participate in this story due to health issues.)
Has he seen the movie?
Even those closest to him can’t say for certain.
But clearly that was never the point.
“The film is not really about winning a championship,” says Venus.
“It was about this process of making a person who could win in life.”
It’s like Tiger Woods is number one and his brother is number two.
It’s a tale Serena herself will be sharing with little Olympia when she’s old enough.
“She gets to see what Mommy was like,” Serena says.
“I always wondered how I would explain my life.
Like, how will I even start that conversation?
This is the perfect way.”
Motion direction and photography by AB+DM for EW.
