If you???re having trouble figuring out what Crossover is, you???re not alone. Part sports movie, part urban drama, Crossover has a little of everything, even the old White Men Can???t Jump hustle. When I talked to the film???s star Anthony Mackie, he says he sees its place among Hollywood???s long tradition of sports movies.
???I think the thing about it is you have all these different basketball movies and they find their own genre, be it Glory Road being a great historic movie, Above the Rim being a great gritty urban street basketball movie, Hoosiers being that great American tale basketball movie and this is just kind of like a fun coming of age new basketball movie that allows people to realize that basketball really has a means to an end,??? Mackie said. ???We realize how important and valuable the Harlem Globetrotters was not only to the development of basketball, but to the future of the NBA as a whole.???
Mackie plays Tech, an underground street ball star trying to get his GED, a story which correlates to Mackie???s own journey as an actor. ???The thing about Tech is he doesn???t realize where he???s going, where is basketball going to take him. That boils over in his insecurities as far as Cruise and the rest of the people around him. If there???s one thing I know is an insecure actor. The thing about Tech that???s so great is the arc of his story, he realizes by the end of the movie that basketball is a means to an end, just like I used acting to get me to college to where I could get my degree to go on and do better things, he uses basketball for that same purpose. He uses basketball to get him into college once he realizes what???s going on, and he uses that to take it to the next level of manhood.???
Of course he still makes side money running games on the court. With his diminutive friend Up playing a nerdy imbecile, he tricks opponents into betting against him. Sound familiar? ???The thing about it is, pool halls across the country, they still hustle people out of their money. The hustle always works because you always play into a guy???s masculinity. He thinks he can beat you. Girls realize this, if you tell a guy he???s cute, he believes it.???
A steadily working actor for the past four years, Mackie has no specific aspirations to be the breakout star of the film. ???Between you and I, I???ve had some great opportunities in my career and I???ve done, I???ve felt like I???ve been lucky and fortune to work with the people that I???ve worked with. After certain projects that I thought were going to take me to the next level didn???t, I have no faith in the system of being recognized for my work. Therefore I just try to continue to do good work and work with people that I admire.???
This wasn???t always the case. ???Two years ago, like with She Hate Me or I feel like Sucker Free City which I feel is the best work I had ever done that wasn???t recognized at all or wasn???t seen at all, at that point in time I was bitter and upset. But now I realize the game of the business. As long as you continue to do good work and you???re not recognized for it, that don???t mean you???re not a good actor.???
Now Mackie realizes that if he does his job right, people may not notice his acting at all. ???When you see the other cats that are being promoted in situations and given great jobs with great directors, it???s like it just don???t make sense. You have directors running around casting all these random rappers and people in these great roles, you???re like, ???Dude, have I not been pounding the pavement for the last 15 years???? But then I realized that as soon as you start equating your struggle to somebody else???s, that???s when you lose it. Everybody???s journey is different through this business so right now I???m just riding on my journey. If somebody else don???t realize it, that???s cool, I understand that.???
Mackie has truly been working back to back. If having four movies come out this year isn???t enough, he fills in the gaps with theater. ???I???ve been very fortunate. I love doing theater. I think theater is one of the best training grounds in the business because the thing about it is you have to do it every day, so it teaches you focus, it teaches you preparation, it teaches you what you have to do to get your mind and body ready to go do it every day. Therefore you develop a work ethic and a pattern. Theater has just afforded me so many opportunities. Theater to me is like what basketball is to Tech. Theater took me out of the hood. If it wasn???t for theater, I might still be in New Orleans. Theater afforded me opportunities that I can???t really thing that would come in some other industry. So I love the theater. Theater???s my girlfriend.???
Crossover, Half Nelson and Haven all open within the month, with We Are Marshall scheduled for December. ???It???s gratifying because three of them started off as independent movies and the one big budget movie is coming out at the end of the years so I feel like everything is working towards the pinnacle which is We Are Marshall. I???m very happy about my position in this business. I feel like if you work with good people, you???ll do good work. I???m very proud of the work I???m doing and the people that I work with. I feel like there???s a lot of talented cats out there that aren???t given the same opportunity, so I???m very fortunate.???
As a football player in We Are Marshall, Mackie underwent another grueling round of training. ???Football is all about explosiveness. It???s all about coming off the ball. Football is just the most rigorous training I???ve ever been through. I???ve never been pushed to the limit like that by anybody or anything. That was a great experience.???
In Half Nelson, Mackie plays a neighborhood drug dealer who takes good care of his daughter in between deals. ???The greatest thing about the script was there were no stereotypes. This was a script just a true story of true people who had true existence. I didn???t want to bring stereotypes to that. I didn???t want my character to stick out as the one boring stereotype. The thing about it is if you look at it, in the hood, drug dealers were not bad people. Every time I tried to do something wrong, it was a drug dealer that ran me home, it was a drug dealer that gave me money to buy shoes. It was a drug dealer that dropped me off at school. Those were the guys that took care of the hood when nobody else would. When everybody else turned their back on the hood and was like, ???Eh, just let those poor people suffer among themselves??? it was the drug dealers that really looked out for the kids and took care of the parks and gave us places to play. That???s when everything took a turn for the worse but when I was growing up, it was all about respect. We respected our elders.???
Haven, which has been on the shelf for several years, features Mackie in an ensemble cast of young talent. ???I feel like there???s this young actor who???s the breakout star of Haven, his name is Victor Rasuk and he was in Raising Victor Vargas. Watching him work and seeing this young talent come of age, it???s kind of like Shareeka Epps in Half Nelson. It was just a great experience and Frank E. [Flowers] really took that, as a first time director, really took that project over and made it his own and told the story he wanted to tell so I was very happy about being a part of it.???
Crossover opens Friday.
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Interview-Crossover-s-Anthony-Mackie-3290.html
