It takes a special project for multi-platinum recording artist Usher Raymond to return to the big screen. In the midst of being a husband, father and coach on “The Voice”, the eight-time Grammy Award-winning artist has been mentally and physically training for the fight of his life in his latest acting role as legendary boxer, Sugar Ray Leonard.
In the highly anticipated film, “Hands Of Stone” actor Edgar Ramirez gives an astounding, Oscar worthy performance through his portrayal of the most successful Panamanian boxer, Roberto Duran. While the film, which also stars Robert DeNiro as boxing trainer, Ray Arcel, focuses on the rags-to-riches story of Duran; two pivotal fights between he and Leonard change the trajectory of both boxers’ careers.
During a press conference in promotion of “Hands Of Stone” which hits theaters August 26, Raymond gets candid about the personal and professional sacrifices he’s made over the past three years to see the film come to fruition.
How did you go about getting Sugar Ray Leonard on board with you being cast to play him?
Usher Raymond: Normally you don’t have the benefit of preparing someone to pay homage to you and what you’ve done in your life. Usually, you pass away and someone does a tribute to your character and who you were during a specific period of your life. I was very fortunate to be able to represent an icon to many African Americans.
I hoped to only represent the greatest aspects of who Sugar was because his first loss against Roberto Duran was a difficult moment for him. While it’s Duran’s movie, Sugar Ray had a big part in what Duran’s legacy represents through the “No Mas” fight. I didn’t want to ask for his blessing until I read his book and knew his story. Then I approached him and said ‘Sugar, they asked me to play you and I just want to get it right, are you okay with that? Because if you don’t want me to do it, I won’t’ and he said, ‘My wife is a huge fan of yours!’ Then he made himself available, he invited me to his house, he came to visit me in Atlanta and he offered to watch me box.
What sacrifices were made in order to bring the film to fruition:
UR: It took two years to shoot this film because we originally started with a different cast and with an independent project, it can be hard to acquire the funds. We were going to shoot the entire story of Panama in Puerto Rico for budgetary reasons. [Robert] DeNiro, the director and I suggested reaching out to the administration in Panama to see if we could get them to help finance the film because it would help to promote tourism and they put a substantial amount of money on the table to support this Venezuelan’s directors effort to tell the story of Panama. It took a year to get to that point. I made so many sacrifices; I went on a small tour domestically but I turned down the international tour to finish up my work on “The Voice” then shoot the film.
I loved every aspect of prepping for the film and standing toe-to-toe with amateur boxers. I wanted to know what type of pressures athletes go through when facing their opponent. I would do six or seven three minute sparring rounds and I loved it, I was in the best physical shape of my life.
You seem very particular when it comes to acting, following this film, are you actively seeking more roles?
UR: I recently begun to understand why one of my favorite actors, Larenz Tate, is so selective and specific about what he chooses to do because you only have so many chances to tell the right story of who you are as a creative person. So yes, I am holding out for the right role and I hope it’s clear that I’m willing to make the necessary sacrifices to play the right role. When I reflect on the issues that black Hollywood has had with the lack of representation at the Oscars, I realized that we have a responsibility to tell stories that are meaningful for our history. There are so many other great projects that I’m hoping to be apart of as either an actor or producer. As you go down the rabbit hole of reading into our history, you realize that there are so many things that history books didn’t teach us about ourselves. Our identity was taken from us and we didn’t know that because there hasn’t been a reference of things that have allowed us to celebrate who we once were. Now we get an opportunity to do it by turning our stories into a reality.
Having acted since you were in your teens, do you think you’ve gotten better based on life experiences? Would you advise new artists bypass acting opportunities until later in their career?
UR: You don’t have to go through it the way I did to be successful, the key is to be non-complacent. If [after one role] you believe that you’ve mastered acting and you don’t have to study the craft or get a deeper perspective, then you’re not going to succeed. I’ve played in sitcoms, horror one-offs in ‘Twilight Zone’; I’ve played Usher the artist and an interpretation of an artist that was like “Usher”. I’ve acted in soap operas—I’ve done everything and this has been my particular path. I decided that if I really wanted to do this, then I needed to have a 360 view of how everyone looks at acting and maybe when I’m older, I’ll have an opportunity to use all of these things. There’s no wrong or right way to do it, except not being complacent.
Why are films like “Hands Of Stone” so hard to get made?
UR: If everyone didn’t look at this film as a labor of love, it wouldn’t have happened. There were many opportunities to walk away from it but as a financial investor and an actor, I knew the cast and crew was dedicated and committed. I felt this was a great story and I’m all about making sure we preserve the essence of our icons. Just because we have success in the moment, it doesn’t mean anything. Artists who are relevant today won’t be tomorrow unless someone does the right thing by their character and preserves it in the dialogue of a movie. There are so many incredible books but the interpretation of how someone looks becomes etched into your mind. I’ll never forget Denzel [Washington] as Malcolm X, or Don Cheadle as Miles Davis so I approached playing Sugar Ray Leonard with that in mind. I really wanted to get this right for the sake of our icons. This is one of the only ways we’ll get to preserve the legacy of the hard work that’s gone into our culture.
A character actor is often described as a transfiguration of sorts: one whose dramatic appearance reveals great beauty, spirituality or magnificence. Regina Hall is synonymous with theatrical transfiguration hoisting a bevy of acting roles from stereotypical to standout. Her hallmark is a solid trademark—whether vulnerable or venerable—the Washington, D.C. native surrenders to each role she’s asked to play.
Director Malcolm D. Lee (“Barbershop 3,” “Undercover Brother”) cast Hall as “Candy” in his 1999 trademark ensemble romantic comedy, “The Best Man.” In that role, Candy is a timid stripper whose charm danced her way into the heart of a preppy social worker conflicted by a longstanding commitment to his incorrigible college girlfriend. This was Hall’s first feature role. Since, Lee and Hall have worked together in the sequel, “Best Man Holiday” and the impending third installment, “Best Man Wedding.”
We sat down in Los Angeles last spring to discuss her enticing career, ignited by Lee’s Candy. During our conversation, the Fordham University alum explained the chemistry they shared—director to actor—his expectations of her creative instrument and what this particular film director relies on most from a Regina Hall performance. “Malcolm was the first director I ever worked with; I’d done indys but that was my first feature film. I think his decision to cast me made a big difference in my career.
“Malcolm is very clear on what he wants in a performance and, as an actor, you trust him to direct you on what you need to do. I think our work dynamic is charged by an element of trust in his sense and sensibilities about the entire film. The short hand between us is trust.”
The rest of our conversation follows—
Sandra Varner (Talk2SV): You’ve become one of the most versatile actors on the contemporary entertainment landscape with numerous film and television roles.
Your characters on ABC’s Black-ish, BET’s Real Husbands of Hollywood and the “Scary Movie” film franchise are hysterical, as well, your recurring role on ABC’s Grandfathered opposite John Stamos, quite memorable.
Given the diversity of your acting choices, your “believability factor” is high. What approach do you take when preparing for a role?
Regina Hall: I try to find the humanity inside each character. If the role is dramatic or comedic humanity exists within. My approach is to be human and build from that point.
Talk2SV: Believability can also be confidence in one’s self as a veritable portal to convey compassion within said characters, as you’ve stated. Who is Regina Hall—what do you believe and know to be true about YOU?
Hall: (Ponders a bit) who am I? I am still figuring it out. What do I know? I know that God is real and we are all connected to and through him. I know that we see him in all people, all shades. I know that God works through me in my work and the first thing I do before anything else is pray. I surrender in my prayers, acknowledging that I don’t know what I’m doing and ask God to please guide me. I do so literally until a director says, ‘Action.’ At that point and forward, I don’t think about it anymore.
Typically, before I begin working on a new project, I go away for a week to read the script and pray that the character drops into my spirit. Then, there are times when I get the script for the character two days before shooting begins. It is then that I find myself yelling, asking God, ‘Why did you give me this role?’ I just like to be prepared especially if I’m cast alongside established characters that have been working on the project much longer than I have.
Much prayer goes into a part before it becomes ‘a part.’ Doesn’t matter if it’s a small part, a big part, a funny part, two lines or whatever…I pray that God does something through me and he does.
Talk2SV: Let’s talk about transparency. Viewers like to lose the celebrity’s identity so they can lose themselves into the character’s identity. What is your method to become transparent for the sake of the character? What allows you to get into character faster?
Hall: I like to sit with myself and think about the character, with honest emotions, particularly at the individual scene level. Ask questions about the character’s personality. Ask myself, ‘who is this person; what is she trying to uncover; why is she doing what she’s doing?’
To go through that process, even if everything never gets to the screen, allows the character to resonate with the audience. People… audiences recognize truth.
Talk2SV: By all indications during this conversation and observation of other interviews you’ve given, it appears you’ve come to terms with honesty, fundamentally. Is that an accurate assessment?
Hall: I’ve never thought about it in that way, but, yeah. When it comes to honesty and truth, what else really is there? Even if a lie lay beneath the truth, you can’t escape it. The truth is freeing.
Up next, Regina Hall will be seen alongside Morris Chestnut in the Screen Gems feature, “When the Bough Breaks,” the story of a couple’s struggle to conceive, exacerbated by a young surrogate who yields anything but a bundle of joy.
The Olympic games are set to start in Rio de Janeiro and John Smith is back. Smith is one of the most decorated U.S. Olympic Track and Field coaches in the history of the Games. He has coached Olympians for six consecutive summer Olympic Games toting 13 gold medals, 6 silver and 4 bronze. For the 2016 Rio Olympics, he is breeding another round of gold medal hopefuls including the spirited U.S. 100-meter champion English Gardner, veteran Tyson Gay who will compete in the 4x 100 meter relay and first time Olympian Gil Roberts who is set to run in the men’s 400-meter and the 1600-meter relay to name a few.
“He has coached champions, he breeds champions, he’s a champion himself,” says Gil Roberts, a track and field star while at Texas Tech who has two U.S. titles in the 400 and a world championship gold medal as the anchor leg of a 1600-meter relay who will be competing in Rio in those events.
In part, Smith figured out a winning formula from his experience as a world record holder in track and field. He is one of the top sprinters in UCLA school history and was ranked as the #1 quarter-miler in 1971.
“That was my year,” after breaking the world record for the 440-yard dash with a time of 44.5 seconds -- a record that still holds -- he was the favorite to win the 400-meter gold in the 1973 Munich Olympic games. Two weeks before the games, Smith suffered a hamstring injury that thwarted his ability to finish the race in the 1972 finals. While injuries are unavoidable for many athletes, Smith says the key is how you bounce back once you have been knocked down.
“That lesson I learned in Munich lives with me still today,” Smith says proudly. “I found this space where there is no fear.”
It is the same lesson that is a driving force and one that Smith seeks to instill in all of the athletes he trains. While he is an undisputed world class track and field coach, he never thought this would be a path he would pursue.
“This is the last thing I wanted to do,” Smith said. This was particularly true because “When I first started coaching, none of the elite athletes wanted to work with me,” remembers Smith.
“But when I got into it, it made me feel like I had purpose.”
Smith’s transition into coaching was not exactly conventional as his coaching acumen was not an easy sell since he had virtually no coaching experience. So, he began by mentoring and coaching master athletes who are track and fielders who range in age from 64-80. It lacks the glamour and world stage that comes with coaching elite, gold medal caliber athletes, though even in his early days, everyone he worked with broke records.
It taught him that “the fundamentals of coaching are the same,” no matter the athlete. His success gave him the confidence to join the UCLA recruitment staff at which point, ironically, young talent started to recruit him.
Dating back to Smith’s first time as a coach at the Olympic games in Barcelona in 1992 where he led two young track and field athletes to gold, Quincy Watts out of USC and UCLA’s Kevin Young. Watts earned two gold medals in the 400m and as the second leg of the 1600m relay, while crosstown rival Young earned his first gold medal in the 400m hurdles becoming the first man in history to run the 400m hurdles in under 47 seconds (46.78).
These days, a variety of exceptional track and field athletes from across the country travel to Los Angeles for the sole purpose of training with Smith. Just ask English Gardner, the 24-year-old phenom out of Willingboro, NJ.
During the 2012 Olympic trials in Monaco, Gardner first observed Smith, who at that time was coaching Carmelita Jeter, who holds the second fastest 100m time after Florence Griffith-Joyner. “I saw how he coached her, how intelligent he was about the sport, how passionate he was, and their bond together was pretty amazing.”
Gardner got the gumption to knock on Smith’s door and as they sat on his balcony, she said “I’m going to work hard to become a professional athlete and when I do, you’re going to be the one to coach me.”
Four years later, Gardner is coming off her most successful season with Smith. The former University of Oregon sprinter punched her ticket to the Rio Olympics after winning the 100-meter final at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials at her home track of Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon clocking in a time of 10.74 seconds.
“It was mostly him giving me the confidence in myself and my ability,” said Gardner. “When I get on the track, I turn into a beast, an animal, a person who’s not afraid of anything and someone who has faith that they prepared themselves for that moment.”
As she prepares to compete in the women’s 100-meter and the 4x100-meter relay, Gardner says these days she has to contain her excitement.
For Gil Roberts, another Smith protégé, the U.S. trials for the 2016 U.S. Olympic team almost ended in the blocks. Roberts has trained in Los Angeles with Coach Smith for the last four years.
“He’s a technician,” the Oklahoma City native Roberts remarked. “I’ve always felt like I had the talent to be the best, but I needed to fix my technique and I knew John is the best in the business at that.”
While Roberts has been the healthiest now than he’s ever been, the reality is that for him or any athlete who has prepared and trained to realize an Olympic dream, the opportunity can be compromised by a simple misstep. During the U.S. Olympic Trial semifinals, Roberts was called for a false start.
“Before the gun went off, they told us to get in our blocks and there was noise from the sound system projecting into the speakers, so I mentioned it to the official but he told me there was nothing they could do about it,” Roberts remembers.
“He said ‘Set’ and the noise got louder and louder and I thought I heard something so I flinched, but apparently it wasn’t the gun.” Roberts proceeded to run under protest uncertain if his efforts would pay off. Despite his trepidation, Roberts finished second in the race and as the official concurred with both Robert’s agent and Coach Smith, and within the hour he learned he qualified for the finals.
The common denominator amongst all of Smith’s athletes is that they are elite track and field athletes who not only work under the direction of Smith but work in many ways with each other as a result of their common connection to him and their sport.
“It’s good to be surrounded by champions,” says Roberts. “We kind of feed off that, I couldn’t ask for a better situation or a better coach.”
Rio has had an onslaught of concerns that range from security issues to facility/accommodation concerns about the potential for transmission of the Zika virus, all of which have contributed to many athletes opting out. For Smith after his involvement in multiple Olympic Games, his approach is simple “Each games has its own set of challenges, nothing’s ever the same. That’s kind of the exploration I go on each time.”
Perhaps a cliché, but his story as a coach goes back to that old saying “it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.” All of the Olympic athletes under his coaching umbrella hope and plan to achieve the ultimate goal that results in standing atop the podium with their gold medal gleaming in the Brazilian sun. Somewhere in the crowd Smith will rejoice in their individual victories and his part in those victories… and yet be thinking about the coaching adventures that await him in the next Olympic Games.
Councilmember Jawane Hilton is completing the interim term of former Carson City Councilmember and current Assemblymember Mike Gipson. Now the councilman is looking to begin his own term and set forth his own vision for the city of Carson.
“We have made great progress in Carson but there is still a lot for us to do” said Councilman Hilton.
“While we were not successful in bringing an NFL team to Carson, we still have a very promising site that will be developed into a first class retail and entertainment center for not only our residents to enjoy but for the entire South Bay Region to enjoy which will mean a significant increase in revenue to the city and a lot of new jobs for our residents.”
Jawane Hilton has always been involved in working to improve the quality of life for Carson Residents. He has been working for years in the community serving as the pastor of City on the Hill Church in Carson, but he has also been on the human relations commission and the public safety commission.
“We have had great success in the city of Carson for the past 14 months that I have been on the city council. We have opened a number of new restaurants, we have approved and completed a lot of new development projects which are bring both business and new residential units to the city. We have passed public transparency. Utility user tax which will keep the city of Carson from experiencing a fiscal crisis like so many other cities have had to struggle with. We have passed a city budget on time and managed to expand services to our youth, our public safety departments and our seniors. All while being able to put approximately 22 million dollar in the city’s reserves”
Carson politics have often been hard to manage. Former mayor and city clerk Jim Dear was beaten in his bid for re-election for mayor and then after winning the city clerk election by a very narrow margin and after several months of confusion, attacks and disruption citizens launched and were successful at re calling him. Now the city has put these difficult issues behind them and the city council is looking to move the city forward in a more conducive and united fashion.
“For the first time in a long time Carson is on the rise,” Hilton said.
“We are moving the city forward by leaps and bounds. We are bringing for the first time the Porsche Experience to the city, which will bring thousands of visitors to the city. We have a 5 star restaurant coming to the city. For the first time in a long time people are excited and want to do business in the city of Carson.”
Carson is a very unique city. It is a very middle class suburban community, but right in the heart of the county of Los Angeles with Compton, South Los Angeles and Watts bordering the city lines. It also is a very diverse community with a large African American, Latino and Pacific Islander population. The city also is the home of Cal State University Dominguez Hills. “Dominguez Hills for years was the college of last choice, but now the University is so well respected that is becoming a university of first choice,” said University President Dr. William J. Hagan. City Hall and the University work very well and very closely together and collaborate on a lot of projects. The university is looking to expand and certainly the city will play a vital role in helping the college grow, which would be nothing but a win/ win for both institutions. “Now Dominguez has a waiting list to attend the university and I am looking to take full advantage of this university to insure Carson residents benefit from having a world class institution right in the heart of our city. In the past 14 months since I have been on the council I have built a pipeline between the city and the college. I have developed an intern program for the students at Cal State Dominguez who want to work in government so that they get the opportunity and the experience of working for municipalities such as ours (Carson)”.
Carson is also a very family oriented city and Jawane Hilton has been at the forefront of providing opportunities for the young people of the city. The utility users’ tax that was just passed, the second biggest line item in the tax is for services for our parks and recreations department. “We have the greatest parks and recreation department of any city the size of ours in the country” stated Hilton. The city’s parks are open every day of the week, they have created internship programs to provide jobs for over 1000 of our youth between the ages of 16 and 18 as long as they had a 2.5 GPA or better. We are really working to live up to the city’s motto Future Unlimited”.
While Juwan Hilton is completing Gipson’s term, he says he always keeps in the forefront of his mind that is following in the footsteps of the first African American elected official in the City of Carson Gil Smith (who he reminded me is a supporter of his in this upcoming election). “We definitely like to support those individuals who shoulders we stand on in the city. Every day we have programs for our seniors. We have recreational programs to keep them active both physically and mentally or to just keep them entertained. We also make sure that we provide for their medical care.” Carson is the only city this side of Palm Springs, California which has a stroke center within the city providing much needed services to Carson residents and the surrounding community.
People often don’t like when cities enact new taxes, but the councilman is quick to point out that this tax was needed and helps to keep Carson moving and has been supported by the city’s residents. “The main focus of this tax was to provide more and better public safety to our residents, to expand our Parks and Recs. Services and provide more services for our seniors.”
Carson has much to do, but the city seems to be moving in the right direction. With a united city council, with a clear vision of where the city is looking to go and what they are looking to accomplish over the next 4 years the future appears to be nothing but up for the City of Carson. And with young progressive leadership of Jawane Hilton whose political future seems to be boundless we see nothing but great things for Carson. That is why The Los Angeles Watts Times and The Los Angeles Sentinel are proud to endorse Jawane Hilton for Carson City Council.