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Ryan Coogler “Stephen Curry: Underrated” Interview
Celebrity Wire
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7/22/2023
In this “Stephen Curry: Underrated” documentary interview, Ryan Coogler talks about the first time he met legendary NBA star Stephen Curry and what inspired him to want to do a documentary on him. Check it out.
Category
🎥
Short film
Transcript
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00:00
Oh wow, yeah, the first time I met him.
00:07
Well I went to a lot of games and I see him at the games.
00:11
You know, so I don't know if that counts as a meeting, but we will acknowledge each other,
00:18
you know.
00:19
But the first time we actually sat down, I think that might have come in 2018.
00:26
I think we had a meeting.
00:29
It was me, my partner at Proximity, Zinzi Kugler, my wife as well, and Steph.
00:38
Aisha was there.
00:39
We were at International Smoke, which is Aisha's restaurant that she has in San Francisco.
00:45
And yeah, I think one of Steph's business partners was there.
00:50
I think Little Cannon was there.
00:51
He was like a little carrier, you know.
00:54
I have fond memories of that, but that was the first time we sat down and spent some
00:59
time.
01:00
It was great.
01:01
Yeah, my creative relationship with Pete Nix, it goes back like about 11 years.
01:13
He was finishing a film called The Waiting Room, which covered Highland Hospital, which
01:18
is a hospital in Oakland with the city's trauma unit, kind of the only one.
01:24
He was observing folks who were coming in and out of the waiting room, emergency waiting
01:29
room, to be seen.
01:31
Beautiful movie.
01:32
And I was in the Bay trying to get my first feature film, Fruitville, stationed off the
01:37
ground.
01:38
And we had some scenes that took place in Highland.
01:41
I was trying to get access to the hospital.
01:42
And Pete, who I was introduced to through Michelle Turner-Saeyo, who worked with the
01:47
San Francisco Film Society at the time, we were introduced and got to know each other.
01:52
He helped our film get access.
01:55
We formed a friendship from there, where we support each other personally, professionally.
02:02
And eventually, after a few years of running Proximity, we were able to bring him on as
02:08
the head of nonfiction.
02:09
He's made a couple films for us as a director as well.
02:11
Oh, man.
02:12
I mean, I'm a Warriors fan through and through.
02:21
So everything about Steph's story, I'm in on personally.
02:24
My wife, Zinzi, is from Oakland as well, a big Warriors fan.
02:27
As I mentioned, Pete Nix lives in Oakland, been there for a couple decades, big Warriors
02:31
fan as well.
02:33
So we all in on Steph.
02:34
We love him.
02:35
We love his story.
02:36
But when we were approached by Eric Payton and Unanimous Media to partner in telling
02:41
his story, I got to know that Steph had made this promise to his mom to finish college,
02:47
get his degree.
02:48
And he wanted to take care of it in that upcoming season, that 2021-22 season.
02:55
And it was also a possibility that he might break the three-point record that year.
03:01
And also, they were interested in kind of talking about his upbringing around that elite
03:06
eight run.
03:07
And I thought that was just really exciting and an interesting way of looking at his story.
03:15
Some of that stuff I didn't know that much about, so I was intrigued.
03:19
And then once they bring Pete as a director, and he came on board, it really took off.
03:26
So I would say everything about his story was interesting, but the specific attack that
03:30
they were interested in taking was what caught my eye.
03:32
It's a great question.
03:43
I think every film is different.
03:46
This documentary had its own specific challenges, predominantly around access.
03:52
The subject is somebody who's still actively working.
03:54
He's not reflecting back on a career that happened years ago.
03:58
He was actually living it at the time.
04:01
And we had a Verite filmmaker in cinema.
04:04
Verite lives and dies by the amount of access that it has.
04:08
So solving that conundrum, I think, and working with Eric Payton and Tiffany over at Steph's
04:14
team, that was a lot of push-pull that we were going through.
04:19
And that ended up coming out really, really well.
04:22
We ended up being there in the right moments, and Steph was able to maintain his focus time
04:27
for him to achieve a goal of ultimately winning the championship, which we were fortunate
04:31
enough that he delivered upon while we were filming.
04:33
It was crazy.
04:35
And I think that when it comes to fiction films, we have a whole other list of things
04:43
to navigate.
04:44
It's usually just timing and the elements and making sure that you navigate in the politics
04:51
of all the money that's getting spent and everybody's expectations.
04:55
I wouldn't say one is easier or harder.
04:57
They just are incredibly different.
04:59
Steph was really open in terms of the archival and exposing that stuff.
05:10
We were able to get incredible things like video cell phone footage of the basketball
05:15
games from the Davidson stands during that run and childhood photography and videography
05:21
of Steph at home and playing basketball.
05:24
You can hear his mom screaming and what she was saying.
05:27
It's pretty fantastic what we were able to get access to, and I'm excited for the audience
05:31
to see.
05:32
I think in terms of our director, Peter Nick's vision, he sees this film as a testament to
05:45
the power of community, family, and mentorship and how those things played out in Steph's
05:52
life.
05:53
Ultimately, for him, the film is about the power of being seen, of being seen properly.
05:57
The title is underrated, but the film covers the people who actually didn't underwrite
06:01
Steph, the people who invested in him and saw what was there, what could potentially
06:08
be there, but also what was already there right there in the now.
06:11
I hope people take away from that the understanding that there's value in being seen and take
06:18
stock of the people who see you.
06:21
As it stands right now, see who you are, not just your shortcomings, but the things that
06:27
you have to offer.
06:29
Steph does a good job of taking care of those people who invested in him.
06:35
I think that every time he's out there on the court, he's trying to bring pride to those
06:39
people who were there for him and believed in him, whether it's Davidson, whether it's
06:44
his family, whether it's his coach, Coach McKillop, or whether it's the Dub Nation.
06:50
That is something I think everybody can relate to.
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4:32
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