Richard Williams (tennis coach)
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Reinaldo Marcus Green (born December 16, 1981) is an American director, producer and writer. His films include Monsters and Men (2018), Joe Bell (2020), and Bob Marley: One Love (2024). His 2021 film, King Richard , was nominated for Best Picture at the 94th Academy Awards .
Sep 5, 2021 · King Richard. ’s Director on Telling Venus and Serena’s Story With Heart, Nuance, and Truth. Reinaldo Marcus Green found a new side of Will Smith while telling an inspiring—and personal ...
Feb 14, 2024 · Arts · Q with Tom Power. How Reinaldo Marcus Green toed the line between truth and fiction in his new Bob Marley biopic. In a Q interview, the director explains why he loves making fictional...
- Overview
- Expanding diversity in the courts
- "Stories being generated for us"
They're considered two of the most powerful players in tennis history.
The Black and Latino movie director Reinaldo Marcus Green wants to take viewers back to the moment before Venus and Serena Williams became champions — and all they had was the ambitious plan of a determined father who wore short shorts and a cowboy hat on a tennis court in the city of Compton, in Southern California.
Green is the director of “King Richard,” which premieres nationwide Friday and tells the story of Richard Williams, the father of Venus and Serena (played by Will Smith). Together with his wife, Oracene ‘Brandy’ Williams (played by Aunjanue Ellis), he sets out on a family journey from humble beginnings to the threshold of tennis fame and fortune.
“To the outside world he was quite controversial and outspoken and colorful,” Green said about Williams in an interview with NBC News.
After meeting the family and hearing their story, the director became interested in showing another dimension of Williams’ character.
“He was a dad who just tried to do right by his kids, the best way he could with the tools that he had. And nobody is perfect,” Green said. “He’s learned lessons along the way. He had to, at the end of our film, understand that his daughters were growing up and what do you do when that moment happens. Do you squeeze tighter or do you let go?”
Carlos Mendez, the founder of the Multicultural Tennis Association, remembers seeing tennis courts when he was growing up in his predominantly Latino neighborhood in East Los Angeles. But the courts were all locked up.
The Mexican American father sees common ground with Williams, who created a tennis plan for his daughters just 12 miles away in Compton.
“I found a lot of parallels and similarities when I watched the movie ‘King Richard’,” Mendez said in a video interview. “For me, with my daughter, it was pivotal that I encouraged her as a Latina to do something outside of our tradition, our comfort zone.”
Mendez said that he wanted his daughter to grow up with the opportunity to play tennis. But when his daughter started at a country club as the only Latina out of 30 kids, he says that the initial goal of sharing his love for tennis with his family grew into sharing the sport with other members of his community.
“We don’t have a lot of kids that look like me or like my kids playing out there,” he said. “Less than 6 percent of college tennis players are Hispanic, compared to over 25 percent who play soccer.”
Mendez founded the Multicultural Tennis Association in Las Vegas, and he's now in Chicago, where they've expanded the association with the sponsorship of the Mike Tyson Cares Foundation and are offering free programs in inner-city parks in partnership with the Chicago Parks District.
When asked about the importance of visibility on screen, Green says that more and more diverse stories are being told. But viewers don’t want to simply see movies that only check off diversity boxes.
“What you may see now is let’s put a Black person in the lead, or let’s get a Latino,” he said. “But it’s not written for us. It’s written for someone else and it’s being slotted. As opposed to stories being generated for us. And I think hopefully that’s the next wave of films.”
Green says that starts with Black people and Latinos writing and telling stories about themselves, and having the opportunity to be both in front and behind the camera.
“We’re on the long journey because we want meaningful, sustainable change,” he said about creating authentic Black and Latino movies. “Rather than it just being of the moment. Hopefully our films will feel timeless. And not just let’s do it now and let’s do it paint by numbers.”
- Arturo Conde
Feb 10, 2024 · Bob Marley: One Love director Reinaldo Marcus Green reveals while making his film about the legendary Reggae artist that he learned about the singer’s wife, Rita Marley.
Sep 5, 2021 · Sept. 5, 2021 11:42 AM PT. TELLURIDE, Colo. — The day after the Telluride Film Festival’s world premiere of his new film “King Richard,” which chronicles the improbable rise of Venus and Serena...
Nov 9, 2021 · November 9, 2021 3:30 pm. Reinaldo Marcus Green. Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP. The fairy tale version of the story behind “ King Richard ” goes like this: Jada Pinkett Smith was on the U.S. Dramatic...
