OAKLAND – The pitter-patter of rain outside of Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater melded with sharp cracks of bursting popcorn inside the venerable establishment, creating a soundtrack to the anticipation felt by attendees late on Tuesday afternoon.
A crowd – to the chagrin of security – clogged the cramped interior while hoping to catch a glimpse of a superstar actor who was slated to make an appearance for the screening of a movie he produced.
After almost an hour and a half, the man of the hour appeared with his family. No, it was not Michael B. Jordan or Timothée Chalamet walking through those doors and into a wall of flashing cameras.
It was none other than Warriors superstar Steph Curry, who chose his adopted hometown as the place to give the invitees a glimpse into what could be his future career during a screening of “Goat”, an animated movie he both produced and starred in as a voice actor.
“This is our home, and this is a place that when I got started, I was starting my true underdog journey in the NBA,” Curry said on the red carpet. “Seventeen years later, we’ve moved across the bridge, but we still want to plant our flag here and have Oakland represented on the national stage.”
Could Curry, who voices the character of Lenny the giraffe, eventually become a major force in the film industry? Stand-up comic turned director-producer W. Kamau Bell said he would not count it out.
“I don’t know if he wants the pay cut, but I think he is a natural born entertainer,” Bell said. “You can’t play the way he plays, with the joy he plays with and fierceness he plays with, without knowing how to act.”
The NBA has had more than a few stars try their hands at gracing the silver screen.
The performances range from memorable (“Michael Jordan in Space Jam”) to bad (anyone remember Kevin Durant’s “Thunderstruck”?) to bizarre (Shaquille O’Neal in “Kazaam”). As a voice actor, Steph Curry impressed the crew in his first major role.
“To use Steph’s words, he’s incredibly coachable,” co-director Tyree Dillihay said. “He submitted to the process, came in with great humility, and let us do things on the vocal performance side he didn’t himself know he could do.”
Curry, 37, has also co-directed “The Baddest Speechwriter of All,” a documentary that won an award at the prestigious Sundance film festival in January. But Curry admitted that filmmaking and acting are two very different skill sets.
He made sure to note that, as a world-famous basketball player, he has enjoyed opportunities that others have had to dedicate their entire lives to hope for. But he also wants to make the most of that situation.
“I don’t even want to limit myself on what’s possible down the road, but just the idea that I’ve had a good experience in all those different roles, (it shows) it’s all about the right project and having a great team,” Curry said.
He recalled sports movies like ‘The Sandlot” and “Little Giants” as movies that inspired him in his youth, and hoped that “Goat” and his other film projects can bring a similar level of enjoyment to kids.
While the room was full of movie-makers, there were many reminders that Curry remains an elite basketball player first, and film expert second.
Warriors assistant coaches Ron Adams and Seth Cooper milled around the room lobby before making their way to the theater seats for a showing, and sports reporters outnumbered the film critics on the red carpet.
For now, Curry remains focused on leading the Warriors into the playoffs when he returns to the court after the All-Star break, but also does not see “Goat” as his last film project.
“I’m not going to do that while I’m playing, obviously, but if the project makes sense and it’s something I’ve worked for, why not?” Curry said. “We already have a full-time actor in the house in (my wife) Ayesha, so she might be my coach down the road.”
Leave a Reply