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.
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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.