Mookie Cook as LeBron James in ‘Shooting Stars’.Photo:Oluwaseye Olusa/Universal Pictures
Oluwaseye Olusa/Universal Pictures
Despite making a movie based onLeBron James' life before the NBA, filmmaker Chris Robinson is still waiting to meet the basketball legend. But he’s already got the Lakers star’s approval, Robinson shared at a screening of the James biopicShooting Stars.
As Robinson and the film’s starCaleb McLaughlintook part in a Q&A following a screening of the movie in New York City on Wednesday, the director said that one of James' real-life friends portrayed in the movie, Willie McGee, recently told him that the NBA superstar has seen a rough cut of the film and “loved it.”
“He said that LeBron loved it. They loved it,” the director added. “So when the real guys loved it, that was good enough for me.”
‘Shooting Stars’.Oluwaseye Olusa/Universal Pictures
21-year-old McLaughlin, best known for his role in the Netflix hitStranger Things, portrays James' childhood friend Lil Dru Joyce III, while Avery S. Willis Jr. plays Willie McGee and Khalil Everage plays Sian Cotton. Real-life NBA prospectsScoot HendersonandMarquis “Mookie” Cookportray Romeo Travis and James, respectively, rounding out the high school basketball team’s roster and the group’s self-styled “Fab Four” nickname.
“Here’s something interesting. I have not met LeBron. I have not met LeBron yet,” Robinson said Wednesday, when asked what James thought of the film’s portrayal of his high school years. “So at first I was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to talk to him. I don’t want to have this conversation.’ "
“But the longer I didn’t meet him, the more I said, ‘Oh, maybe this is a gift,’ " the director added. “Because I have my thought process of who he is. It’s embedded in me.”
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“I’m going to hopefully, eventually meet him,” he added, noting that it was “great to not meet him because I didn’t have anything that would make me change my thoughts on the story.”
LeBron James and his mom Gloria.Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News/Getty
While James became one of the greatest basketball players ever after winning three state championships in four years at St. Vincent-St. Mary’s, the film also centers around the all-around skill of Cotton, Joyce III, McGee and Travis, who each went on to successful careers in athletics after high school and remain close friends.“We all know LeBron’s story to some degree, but we don’t know little Dru’s story,” Robinson said Wednesday of McLaughlin’s character Joyce III. In real life, Joyce III went on to become the University of Akron’s all-time assists leader and played 12 seasons of professional basketball in Europe, perCleveland.com.
“How is it to be the best friend of somebody who even your father is paying more attention to than you?” Robinson said of the film’s focus on McLaughlin’s character. “I think Caleb killed the role.”
Shooting Starsbegins streaming on Peacock June 2.
source: people.com
