Ball Don't Lie: Professor on Point. (Q+A with Grayson Boucher)

Many basketball players have tried their hands at an acting career. Shaq had two of the worst movies of all time in Kazaam and Steel. Ray Allen came out with a Spike Lee classic in He Got Game. Michael Jordan came with an iffy movie, Space Jam.
Then there's Grayson "The Professor" Boucher. He is the lead role in the best basketball film since Spike's He Got Game. BDL plays through a section of time in the life of Sticky (Grayson), an undersized teenage PG prodigy living it out on the streets of Venice, California. His emotional growth stunted by the emotional trauma from a tragedy in his past, his status as a hot potato in the foster care system and his "gift and curse" Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder, Sticky compensates his limitations with his basketball prowess.


Let's be real, Ball Don't Lie is an indie film, and a damn good one at that. It has a loaded cast, many of whom you wouldn't expect in a basketball movie. Here's a quick rundown of the cats involved in the film.

Grayson Boucher
Kim Hidalgo
Rosanna Arquette
Melissa Leo
Nick Cannon
Chris "Ludacris" Bridges

That's just the top 6. Loaded cast, solid directing by Brin Hill & the screenplay is by Matt de la Pena, who wrote the novel of the same name. Check your local listings for showtimes, this is on that legit ish. Anyway, recently I had an opportunity to speak with Fess about his acting chops.

JW: Your movie Ball Don't Lie recently premiered- Tell me about that experience, what it was like to be a lead and make a movie?
GB: Honestly? It was probably one of the most awesome experiences of my life. Because, I look back to when I was younger, I had never pictured myself going into acting or anything like that. Mainly because I was more of a shy, introverted kid that was nervous during public speaking and I didn't take any theatre classes growing up. As I got older, grew out of that stage, I began to wonder if I would be able to do anything at that level- like just being given an opportunity by someone? So to be offered a lead role on my first job was a huge deal for me. To actually carry it out and act with some great actors, some big names; it was wonderful. I'm almost just as proud of that experience as anything I've accomplished in basketball.

JW: How did it feel to work with an Oscar-Nominated actress, with Melissa Leo? [Nominated for Best Actress for her role in Frozen River -Ed.]
GB: That was great. I'm honored just to be in the same picture, the same scene with her. What's so crazy is, she wasn't nominated when we shot that- that was in 2007, but when she had come on set, I had a couple conversations with her & I took notice of how she carried herself and handled her business when she was talking to the Director, Brin Hill, and she was asking all these specific questions. Then she blocked out her scene with what she was going to do, how she was going to react in certain points of the scene... She's in there, it's a smaller scene, her total screen time was probably five minutes, but just the way she carried herself in those five minutes and how she blocked it all out... I could just tell she was something special. I was thinking to myself, "This lady, she seems like she's exceptional!" I hadn't heard of her work too much before that point, but when she got the oscar nomination for Frozen River I wasn't surprised. At all. Honestly.

JW: Just from those five minutes?
GB: Just from those five minutes. Man, it was incredible. I wasn't surprised at all. It was one of those situations where you sit back and you go "...Figures." When I saw Frozen River, it really relayed to me why she was so deserving of it.

JW: With acting, in one way similar to basketball, you can improve by watching other people in the industry and emulate certain things that make them successful. What actors or films do you watch in order to try and pull something from that?
GB: Truthfully, every film I watch now is from an actors point of view. I used to watch movies strictly for entertainment and look for the highlights and the climax- things considered cool and so forth. But now, with every film I watch, I try to analyze how those actors were approaching those scenes as actors. I think you can watch it for the entertainment factor, or watch it from the actors point of view and try to break down what it is they are trying to do in that scene, how they prepared for it; what techniques they used. I have favorite actors from a personal standpoint, but really I just try to gain something from every movie I watch.

JW: Now, I'm sure growing up in Oregon gave you the opportunity to watch quite a few movies- not as much to do otherwise. Are there any movies you watched that, in retrospect, you see in a completely different light now that you're an actor?
GB: To a degree. Some of the classics I watched growing up after time have gained a much larger appreciation for me. Just because i watch the actors and really realize what they did. Say for example Forrest Gump. That was always one of my favorite movies growing up. Now that I know what it takes to be a leading role- the grind and the mental preparation, how hard it is to portray a character? Now that I look back at what Tom Hanks did, it becomes that much more incredible for me.

JW: There have been people with athletic backgrounds that cross over into the movie industry- John Cena comes to mind. He would go from one day performing hours upon hours of wrestling, then go right over the acting with no breaks in between. Was it difficult for you, going from an every day is basketball with the tour and everything else that entails... To an acting job?
GB: Dude, absolutely. We filmed that in the summer of 2007, so I was doing that movie coinciding with the AND1 mixtape tour. That was super rough, because I would film literally 14-15 hours per day - being in a lead role meant I was in almost every scene - we shot for 25 days. The weekends in between there, I would have to fly out and play. So Friday night, I would take a red eye flight after all my work was done with the movie for the week. So I would take a red eye Friday night, get there Saturday and go straight to the game. I mean that literally. I got off the plane when the tour was in Atlanta, drove to the Arena and played right after that. No breaks, no rest, nothing. After that, I would fly back on Sunday and be ready for work on Monday. I did that again the next two weekends, so with Atlanta, Boston and maybe Dallas. I'm not totally sure that was the stop, but it was definitely crazy. It was a grind. These people that nab lead roles in movies, they work much harder than the average person would think.

JW: Did that ever affect your playing ability during that season of the tour?
GB: I think it did. I believe it did in a couple games. My play was absolutely effected there a few times. I wouldn't say that I had terrible games or anything, but I didn't quite have the game that I would want to. Atlanta, which was the first stop when the movie and the tour were going on at the same time was cool, that turned out fine. Then I had a game in Boston- it was a real turbulent plane right the night before, I think I flew out at midnight. I got there, didn't have time to get anything to eat. After that I drove straight to the venue, laced up my shoes and got in the game. I was out there floating around, you could tell I wasn't coming with the energy that I normally have coming into a streetball game. So it definitely effected me, partially in a negative way. But when I look at it, in order to be successful, you have to work harder than you want to. There are going to be a lot of hurdles to jump over and that was one of them.

JW: In the movie, your character doesn't go through a stereotypical plot progression of a "white kid in a black area." Your character, Sticky, seems to go through a more chaotic environment. Do you feel in any way feel reminded of Arthur Agee from the epic documentary, Hoop Dreams?
GB: It's funny that you bring up Arthur, he's my good friend. Also, Hoop Dreams was the film that most inspired me growing up. So it's funny you say that. But back to your question, Absolutely! I think that there are some similarities... Obviously these are two different worlds, he was in the south side of Chicago. My character was in California, but at the same time, he was dealing with the hurdles of not having enough money to go to a good school, sometimes they didn't have enough money to eat. There were times they had no electricity, he didn't have a father in his life consistently, his father wasn't a good role model. My character is dealing with being a foster kid, not being wanted by any families or anything. He also didn't have much money, it's a struggle. And the only thing you can really relate to at the end of the day is basketball, that's what inspires you and what keeps you going. So I think the characters relate on many different levels, but it's not simple enough to go down a checklist.

JW: Did meeting Arthur and befriending him change your perspective on the events that occurred in Hoop Dreams?
GB: I don't think it did change my perspective, because I had always admired him. I had such an admiration for him in that movie and how he dealt with all that struggle and hardship, because he was still able to be successful in life. So just on that basis I had a great appreciation for him. Then when I met him, he was such a cool and humble dude. He was also a fan of mine, which was surprising. I don't think it changed my view of him because he was still so cool when I met him, you know what I mean? So to this day I'm still impressed that he's still true to himself and he got past everything, because many people in his situation don't become a success in life. I guess what tripped me out the most was that he was a fan of mine. I was pretty regular before I was a part of AND1, I still am regular, but in the sense that I was just a young man and then I was on the team, given an opportunity to play basketball for a living, I hadn't really realized just how many people watch ESPN. So for some of the people that I was fans of and admired to be a fan of me in turn? That tripped me out, it's an honor.

JW: Back to the movie, were there any parts of the character that you took from your own life experiences?
GB: There were many aspects of my life that I injected into his when it came to my portrayal. Obviously he had a much tougher upbringing than I did, because I was fortunate enough to have my parents growing up in Oregon. But at the same time, I've seen a lot of adversity in basketball growing up, because I was always smaller and overlooked. People never respected my game- I'd always have to prove it to them, get in their face and score on them on a regular basis to get any respect on the court. I still deal with that today on certain levels. I felt there was a good portion of that experience to relay to my character. People look at him and don't think he's as good as he really is, party because he looks so young. And that's how it's been for me my whole life! I look young, I'm small, people stamp me with a stereotype that I can't possibly be a good player. I've had to prove it to people. Off the court, my character faces some tragic events, so I would have to take from my life some events that affected me, that happened to me. They obviously weren't as tragic, but I would have to bring back those memories to trigger myself to cry or feel sympathetic toward something I might not usually feel sympathy for. That's what acting to me is in a nutshell: Bringing back memories in your real life to trigger emotion that you use as a catalyst to portray these people and act out these situations that you're called to do in the script.

JW: Where there any drills or exercises that you would go through on a consistent base with an acting coach?
GB: Yes I did. I worked with an acting coach 3 to 4 months before we started filming. We would do all types of exercises. Say there was a scene where I would get mad, where I would have to show anger but not be over the top. We would do different drills where he would be like "Play this scene so pissed that you could almost kill the person that you're talking to." So I would do it that hard, and he would just simply look at me and say, "Okay. Now go back and play the scene regularly." Sometimes when you do a scene over the top... It's hard to explain. With me, when I act, sometimes it's hard to bring out emotions in myself. Because in real life, my personality is really leveled so I never get too excited or too low. So in order to do a scene where I have to be really animated and loud with it, there are times when it's difficult to bring that out of me. In order to bring that out, he would have me do a scene way over the top, ridiculously animated and high strung so that when it came time to do the scene, I would have expelled enough emotion to where I would be right on point and strike the necessary balance of temperament and anger for that particular moment.

JW: Did you read the book by Matt de la Pena?
GB: I read the book three times, I believe.

JW: Was there a big difference in plot between the movie and the book? He did write the screenplay with Hill I believe.
GB: He did, Brin Hill co-wrote the screenplay with Matt de la Pena. There are a lot of similarities in the plot and what goes down in the book and in the movie. There are a couple main differences that somebody who has read the book would notice when they see the movie, but for the most part it sticks with the book in a lot of events. The way it opens up and ends is just like the book, most of the plot stays the same. Honestly I feel like any fan of the book will see the movie and realize they just saw a faithful depiction of what they read.