We had the opportunity to chat with the director of 'House Party' and 'Boomerang' about his newest movie release, set to debut on Disney+.
'Safety' is inspired by real-life events of one American football player, named Ray McElrathbey. Ray, who plays the position of "safety" on his Clemson Athletics college football team, must learn to juggle this new scholarship life while also taking care of his younger brother Fay, his mother in rehab, as well as all of the happenings of being a Freshman in college. A truly inspirational story, 'Safety' is directed by the one and only Reginald Hudlin, who has worked on many quintessential titles in the past, such as 'Django Unchained' and 'The US Office'.
We had the opportunity for a quick chat with the famed director, ahead of the movie's Disney+ release.
On how difficult it was to condense Ray's story down to a two-hour family movie, Reginald told us of the struggle he faced. At one point, the movie was three hours long. He told us: "Ray has had a momentous life. He had so many incredible things, happen to him, before the events of the movie, after the events of the movie.
"As Ray would tell you, I'm not a movie. I'm a miniseries. But, you know, even with what we shot, we ended up having to cut wonderful, incredible scenes out. And one of the things that has been most gratifying is that people see the movie, they laugh, they cry and I, you know, that's what I want.
"If you're laughing, you're crying and you're feeling inspired, then we've done our job."
When asked about what it feels like to be adding another uplifting sports movie to the growing genre, Reginald said: "Yeah, I mean, there are so many great sports movies going back to 'Brian's Song' and, you know, 'Remember the Titans' and 'Friday Night Lights'. So you know if you do it well, you can really resonate with audiences.
"The trick is what new do you have to say? It's not, you know, Page 12 of 23 it's not about, 'Oh, let's just do what they did'. Fortunately, we had a true story. So, it was really invaluable to have Ray involved in the entire process and having Ray on set for my sake, for the sake of the cast."
Choosing Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You' during one of the movie's cutest moments wasn't an accident either. He told us: "There are certain love songs that are just classics. And it just felt right. The minute that song would come on, everybody would start swaying and you want to start dancing too! And I just wanted every time that a song would come on, you'd be like 'Oh! That's my jam!' And Whitney Houston definitely falls into that category."
And finally, we asked him how his directing ability has changed over the years, ever since his 'House Party' debut in 1990: "I like making it different every time. For me, this is nothing like 'House Party'. But it's like 'House Party' in that it's a young cast, they're all at school together and they're figuring out their lives. It's more emotionally complex, because I want more emotional complexity in my life right now. But it's the same kind of fun spirit that I really loved."
'Safety' will be available on Disney+ from Friday, December 11.
