Swagger | Inside The Episode: "Are We Free?" | Apple TV+
Life is not a straight line, it’s a maze. Take an inside look at Swagger Season 2, Episode 5, now streaming on Apple TV+ https://apple.co/_Swagger
From NBA star Kevin Durant, filmmaker Reggie Rock Bythewood, and the team behind Friday Night Lights. A basketball prodigy must navigate a maze of pressure if he’s going to overcome the odds against him and learn what it truly means to have swagger.
Led by an ensemble cast of stars including O’Shea Jackson Jr., Isaiah Hill, Shinelle Azoroh, Academy Award-nominee Quvenzhané Wallis, Caleel Harris, James Bingham, Solomon Irama, Ozie Nzeribe, Tessa Ferrer, Tristan Mack Wilds and Jason Rivera.
From NBA star Kevin Durant, filmmaker Reggie Rock Bythewood, and the team behind Friday Night Lights. A basketball prodigy must navigate a maze of pressure if he’s going to overcome the odds against him and learn what it truly means to have swagger.
Led by an ensemble cast of stars including O’Shea Jackson Jr., Isaiah Hill, Shinelle Azoroh, Academy Award-nominee Quvenzhané Wallis, Caleel Harris, James Bingham, Solomon Irama, Ozie Nzeribe, Tessa Ferrer, Tristan Mack Wilds and Jason Rivera.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 How can I see these guys on the inside as human beings?
00:03 I can understand how you're just reduced to something that was a mistake.
00:08 Life is not a straight line and it's a maze.
00:11 There's a larger story at play about resistance.
00:14 That's what Du Bois left us with, right?
00:16 Resist.
00:18 One of our central questions is,
00:25 are we truly free when our brothers and sisters are not free?
00:30 What happens to a dream deferred?
00:33 There are more black people in the penitentiaries across this nation
00:37 than there were black people enslaved before the Civil War.
00:42 I've never done anything like this before.
00:44 So for me to walk in, man, and digest the script that they gave me
00:47 was challenging for me.
00:49 I have this history or legacy that's about humanity.
00:52 When we came together, we could move a mountain.
00:55 Yeah.
00:55 This has been a unique treat
00:57 because we bring a lot of the incarcerated people front and center.
01:02 We really, really get to meet them, just real-life human beings.
01:05 Our students are future scientists.
01:07 This semester, they're working with bee colonies
01:09 and understanding how bees help the Earth.
01:11 I really just love the idea of bees.
01:13 They're really interesting juxtapositions of young black men in that environment.
01:17 You might say that they're dangerous and bad,
01:20 but the planet needs them.
01:23 They help the world be better.
01:25 Vince was a really great entry point to that
01:28 because they know him.
01:30 You're not just an awful person.
01:33 You have layers.
01:34 And that was really, really important for me to get through
01:37 because I even did a stint in jail when I was like their age.
01:41 I'm very much into redemption.
01:43 I mean, I am that.
01:44 So there's no way I wouldn't want people to see that in these characters.
01:47 You are not your biggest mistake.
01:50 That really means something.
01:53 Go ahead.
01:54 The other amazing thing that happened is that they play a basketball game
02:04 against a team comprised of these incarcerated young men.
02:07 As we started doing rehearsals, I just kept saying,
02:10 "But guys, what if we just do it all in one shot?"
02:13 Reggie is referencing the film 1917,
02:16 which is shot by one of the greatest DPs ever.
02:19 I think he won the Oscar for that film.
02:21 So I'm like, "Yeah, no, we'll do that. No problem. Me? Oh, yeah. Easy."
02:25 I already do camera workouts, but the way he was describing it,
02:28 I'm like, "I guess I just need to double my workouts
02:31 for the next month," which I started doing.
02:33 So I get around and pull.
02:34 -And so you see from the back. -Yeah.
02:36 So you're down there when that shot goes up.
02:38 All the background, go behind that tree over there, please.
02:41 It was like six minutes of just holding the camera up.
02:44 And it was really, you know, technically just an amazing cinematic feat
02:49 that we were able to pull that off.
02:50 Right here! Lock down!
02:51 As much as I like to say this is not solely a basketball show,
02:56 basketball's important.
02:57 I really love this idea that we have to get the audience
03:00 at the edge of their seat,
03:01 and while they're leaning forward, hit them with the truth.
03:03 -Go, got this! -Come on, got this!
03:05 Zoom, wait.
03:08 Keep going!
03:09 [indistinct chatter]
03:11 [silence]
03:13 [silence]
03:15 [BLANK_AUDIO]