Will Smith disclosed during a recent interview that King Richard‘s actress Demi Singleton had to learn a new skill to portray Serena Williams.
Singleton, who is left-handed, learned how to play tennis with her right hand to dominate the role. The actor told Serena and Venus Williams as they visited the set, “She’s left-handed, so not only she had to learn how to hit the ball with her right hand. So that’s the level of dedication that these kids is making.”
As the video continued, Smith added that creating a biopic is exceptionally challenging, especially for young talents because of its weight to tell somebody’s story.
He said, “It’s a huge responsibility to tell somebody’s story because you know it brings out so many emotions for them. Anytime you do things like this, its always some stuff that the family love and there’s some things they hate. You can’t tell somebody’s story without some part of it not being authentic. You can’t expect that you gone hit everything perfect, but you just hope they look at the thing as a whole. They feel good when they see it.”
The trailer about King Richard was first released in July, and fans immediately claimed that Smith is on his way to earning an Academy Award. The actor was previously nominated for his starring roles in Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness.
King Richard is set to be released in theaters on Nov. 19.
