King Richard (Movie)

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    Will Smith Owned the Williams Sisters’ Story Onscreen. Then He Stole Their Moment.

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    An Oscar night that should have affirmed Serena and Venus’s rise to stardom instead played out in a way they have seen before — triumph tempered by mixed emotions.The table was set for a moment of family triumph. Venus and Serena Williams were dressed and seated for the grand occasion on Sunday night, and Will Smith, who had played their father Richard with uncanny similitude in the movie “King Richard,” was poised to win the Oscar for best actor.But then, as so often happens with the Williamses, things got complicated — and, through no fault of the sisters, an evening that should have affirmed their against-great-odds rise to stardom instead became about Smith slapping the comedian Chris Rock onstage.When Smith accepted the Oscar, he delivered a tearful, rambling, semi-apologetic speech in which he said that “art imitates life” and “I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams.”Serena, watching the speech from a front-row box seat, covered her face with her hand.Unexpected and uncomfortable to watch, Smith’s failure to control his temper or rise to the occasion turned the night into one that the Williams sisters will never forget, for all the wrong reasons.It has often played out like this for these remarkable siblings, with moments of triumph tempered by controversy or mixed emotions.Smith said of the man he played onscreen: “He was a fierce defender of family.” On Monday, he apologized to Rock, the Williams family and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, calling his actions “unacceptable” and “inexcusable” and saying that “violence in all its forms is poisonous and destructive.”“We don’t know all the details of what happened,” Richard Williams, via his son Chavoita LeSane, told NBC News. “But we don’t condone anyone hitting anyone else unless it’s in self-defense.”Will Smith slapped the comedian Chris Rock onstage at the 94th annual Academy Awards.Ruth Fremson/The New York TimesRichard Williams, complex and frequently difficult to read, certainly created some of the friction and misunderstandings with the wider world. But, as “King Richard” makes clear, he and Oracene Price — they divorced in 2002 — also laid the groundwork for one of the biggest success stories in sports, and for two incandescent tennis careers who have lasted far longer than one would have imagined considering that neither Venus nor her younger sister Serena had much choice in the matter of their career path.The sisters were raised from birth to be tennis champions, with Richard Williams’s 78-page plan as the blueprint and plenty of help from coaches like Rick Macci, who for four years in the early 1990s polished the sisters’ strokes and tactics and provided the seed capital and the support that helped make the long-shot family dream a reality.Macci said he saw Richard Williams, now 80, at his home in West Palm Beach, Fla., about three months ago and received a visit from him with a documentary crew about a month ago at his tennis academy in Boca Raton, Fla., where the sisters once trained. Macci said Williams was diminished after two strokes, but that they were still able to exchange stories.“There have been a smorgasbord of things that have played out through the years: the good, the bad, the ugly,” Macci, who figured prominently in “King Richard,” said in a telephone interview on Monday. “I think when you’re at the top and you’re unique, or two of a kind in their case, you’re just going to have speed bumps along the way. Last night was just unfortunate because it was just such a celebration of a story that you just cannot make up and unfortunately now that slap is the story. And the story should have been this miraculous thing.”Venus Williams and Serena Williams backstage during the 94th annual Academy Awards.A.M.P.A.S. Via Getty ImagesSome of the speed bumps were bumps of a different sort. In 1997, Venus Williams made her first major impact at a Grand Slam tournament, reaching the final of the U.S. Open at age 17 with white beads in her hair and thunder in her strokes.“I’m tall; I’m Black,” the 6-foot-1 Williams said early in the tournament. “Everything’s different about me. Just face the facts.”But her breakthrough took on another dimension when she and the Romanian player Irina Spirlea bumped into each other on a changeover during their semifinal. In defeat, Spirlea suggested that Venus Williams had an arrogant attitude, while Richard Williams talked about the racism his family had faced on tour and labeled Spirlea a “big, tall, white turkey.”In 2001, the family came to Indian Wells, Calif., and was booed by the crowd after Venus Williams withdrew from her semifinal match against Serena Williams shortly before it was to begin because of an injury. There was speculation at the time that Richard Williams was predetermining the results of his daughters’ matches — speculation that the Williamses denied — but the late withdrawal sparked suspicion and upset spectators. When Serena Williams returned to the court for her final against Kim Clijsters, with Richard and Venus in the stands, there were boos throughout the match, and Richard and Venus said they heard racial slurs from some fans.Serena and Venus Williams have remained remarkably close despite facing off frequently during their professional careers.Jed Jacobsohn /Allsport via Getty ImagesSerena won the title, but triumph again had a bitter taste. She boycotted the tournament for 14 years, returning in 2015, with Venus ending her 15-year boycott the following year.Even without controversy, the sisters’ dual success has been intricate. Remarkably close in their youth, as they remain today, their rise to the top of the game meant that they became frequent opponents, and though Venus Williams was the first to reach No. 1 and the first to win Wimbledon in singles, Serena Williams would prove, as her father predicted, the greater player, winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles to Venus’s seven.Venus handled being usurped with grace, and Serena has always made it clear that she would never have become the champion she did without Venus as her role model and cheerleader-in-chief.“Venus wasn’t at all resentful,” Macci said. “She’s never been like that. And Serena has always looked up to Venus as ‘my big sister’ and even today, they have that. That’s very uncommon. You’re not keeping score, because it’s family and if one wins, we both win. I saw that early on.”Richard Williams arrived before the game started when Venus Williams faced Mandy Minella at Arthur Ashe Staidum during the 2010 U.S. Open.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesIt has worked beyond even Richard Williams’s imaginings. Though he predicted greatness and No. 1 rankings for Venus and Serena, he had long maintained that they would retire relatively early to pursue other interests. Instead, they have endured and excelled while pursuing other interests, including interior design and fashion design. Though they are near the end now and have not played on tour since last summer, they remain un-retired. Venus Williams is 41. Serena Williams is 40.Sunday night would have been a time to revel in the length of their journey, the depth of their achievements and Richard’s legacy. Instead, it turned into a night for Serena to cover her eyes, but, cinema, even when it is an Oscar-winning true story, won’t be the last word on the Williams sisters, or their father. More

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      Jane Campion and the Perils of the Backhanded Compliment

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      Jane Campion’s comment about Venus and Serena Williams reminded our critic of his own night of ‘botched fanciness’ and racial slights.Something about the way the director Jane Campion went overboard on Sunday to identify with, then insult, Venus and Serena Williams at an awards show brought to mind a night of botched fanciness that happened to me. A couple Fridays ago, I went to see some art: a Faith Ringgold retrospective at the New Museum in the afternoon, with friends; Norm Lewis singing at Carnegie Hall in the evening. (That was a solo trip.) For both, I wore a suit.The Ringgold show requires three floors and includes her 1967 masterpiece “American People Series #20: Die,” a blunt, bloody racial-rampage frieze that would be pure physical comedy about the era’s racial cataclysms were it not for the helpless terror in the faces she’s painted (Black men, women and children; white men, women and children). The scale of the canvas helps. It’s huge. Ringgold has always painted Black women in a range of moods, feelings, conditions, beauty. She gives them faces that feature both personal serenity and indicting alarm.I planted myself in a tight corridor that featured three works at the alarm end of things — the “Slave Rape” trio, from 1972. Each is a warm, sizable canvas of a woman nude and agape, framed by patchwork quilting, a signature of Ringgold. I was taking my time with one called “Slave Rape #2: Run You Might Get Away” — the woman is mid-flight, loosely shrouded by leaves, a big gold ring in each ear — when two strangers (women, white) parked themselves between me and the piece and continued a conversation I had heard them having in an adjacent gallery. They noticed neither me nor the depicted distress nor my engagement with it. I waited more than a minute before waving my hand, a gesture that seemed to irritate them.“Is something wrong?,” one stranger asked.“You’re in my way,” I told her.“Please accept our deepest apologies,” said her friend. If a middle ground exists between sincerity and sarcasm, these two had just planted a flag. But they did move, though not immediately, lest I relish some kind of relocation victory, and kept their talk of real estate and art ownership within earshot.The Faith Ringgold painting “American People Series #20: Die,” from 1967, in an  exhibition at the New Museum.Faith Ringgold/ARS, NY; Simbarashe Cha for The New York TimesAfter a drink with my friends I left for Carnegie Hall. A cab made sense. One pulled up, and the driver (male, brown) took a look at me, then noticed a white woman hailing a taxi up ahead and drifted her way, instead. When I jogged over to ask him what just happened — Is something wrong? — I was given no acknowledgment in the way only a guilty cabby can achieve. I chased the car half a block to photograph a plate number that you’d have to be Weegee to get just right. I’m not Weegee.I’d never been to Carnegie Hall. And I liked the idea that Norm Lewis was going to break me in. He played Olivia Pope’s senator ex on “Scandal” and one of the vets in Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods.” He’s got a luscious, flexible baritone that I’d only ever encountered in recorded concerts on PBS. That night, backed by the New York Pops, he gave Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Marvin Gaye the polished jewel treatment and pumped “Ya Got Trouble” with enough breathless gusto to make you wonder, with all due respect to Hugh Jackman, why the current “Music Man” revival isn’t starring him.As a solo performer, this was Lewis’s first show at Carnegie Hall, too. And people were anxious to see him and their beloved Pops. In a queue in the lobby before the show, one such person (woman, white) was making a point to push past me when I turned to ask if she was all right.“We’re going to will-call,” she said of herself and the gentleman she was with.“Ma’am, I think we all are,” I said.“We’re members. Are you?” she asked.I lied, hoping a yes would stanch her aggression.“Of the Pops?”She had me.“I like Norm Lewis,” I told her.“We love the Pops.”Venus Williams, left, and Serena Williams at the Critics Choice Awards; “King Richard,” a movie about their family, earned a best actor award for Will Smith.Frazer Harrison/Getty ImagesI was thinking about my night out a week later when one of the world’s great filmmakers saluted two of the world’s greatest athletes in an acceptance speech at the Critics Choice Awards. Jane Campion had been given the directing prize for a sneaky-deep ranch drama called “The Power of the Dog.” From the stage, Campion (woman, white) saluted Venus and Serena Williams and announced that she had taken up tennis but her body had told her to stop. In her nervous excitement, Campion was charming. She then took curious note of her plight as a woman in the film industry by informing the Williamses that they’ve got nothing on her. “You are such marvels,” she said, through a grin. “However, you do not play against the guys like I have to.”The Williams sisters were in the room that evening because a smart, tangy movie about their family, “King Richard,” was in the nominations mix, alongside Campion’s. “King Richard” is not about the time in 2001 when a California crowd booed and slurred Venus and Serena and their father, Richard, at a top tennis tournament. It’s not about the many mischaracterizations of their bodies, skills and intent in the press and by their peers. It’s not about the insidiously everlasting confusion of one sister for the other, the sort of thing that, just a few weeks ago, took place on a page of this newspaper. It’s not even about their fight, Venus’s particularly, to get women’s prize money even with men’s “King Richard” is about how the sisters’ parents molded and loved and coached them into the sort of people who can handle sharp backhands and backhanded compliments with the same power and poise.Even though Campion’s errant backhand had flown wide, the room lurched into cheers. Some of the applause came from Serena Williams, who has watched many a shot sail long. I had to desist further thought about the meaning of Campion’s aside. It was too confused. Was this a wish for the establishment of gendered guardrails for directors at award shows or the elimination of such distinctions in sports? Are there no men to be contended with in tennis? The line separating argument from accusation and accusation from self-aggrandizement was murky. I thought instead about the costs of the murk.Sunday afternoon, the Williamses got dressed up to celebrate some art. And somebody stood before them and challenged the validity of their membership, here in Campion’s restricted vision of sisterhood. The next day, Campion gushed an apology. These slips and slights and presumptions have a way of lingering, though. Their underlying truth renders them contrition-proof. I had every intention of keeping my date with Faith and Norm to myself. These incidents aren’t rare in fancyland, and therefore don’t warrant a constant spotlight because standing in its glare is exhausting. But Venus. Her face does something as Campion speaks. A knowing cringe. She and her family came out to soak up more of the praise being lavished on art about their life. They were invitees turned, suddenly, into interlopers, presenting one minute, plunged through a trap door the next. Faith Ringgold would recognize the discomfort. She painted it over and over. Run you might get away. But you probably won’t. More

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      ‘King Richard’ Review: Father Holds Court

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      Will Smith and Aunjanue Ellis play the parents of Venus and Serena Williams in a warm, exuberant, old-fashioned sports drama.The climactic scenes in “King Richard” take place in 1994, as Venus Williams, 14 years old and in her second professional tennis match, faces Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, at the time the top-ranked player in the world. If you don’t know the outcome, you might want to refrain from Googling. And even if you remember the match perfectly, you might find yourself holding your breath and full of conflicting emotion as you watch the director Reinaldo Marcus Green’s skillful and suspenseful restaging.You most likely know what happened next. Venus and her younger sister Serena went on to dominate and transform women’s tennis, winning 30 Grand Slam singles titles between them (plus 14 doubles titles as a team) and opening up the sport to aspiring champions of every background. (They are credited as executive producers of this film.) You might also know that those achievements fulfilled an ambition that their father, Richard Williams, had conceived before Venus and Serena were born.In the years of their ascent, he was a well-known figure, often described with words like “controversial,” “outspoken” and “provocative.” “King Richard” aims in part to rescue Williams from the condescension of those adjectives, to paint a persuasive and detailed picture of a family — an official portrait, you might say — on its way to fame and fortune.In modern Hollywood terms, the movie might be described as a two-for-one superhero origin story, in which Venus (Saniyya Sidney) takes command of her powers while Serena (Demi Singleton) begins to understand her own extraordinary potential, each one aided by a wise and wily mentor. But this is a fundamentally — and I would say marvelously — old-fashioned entertainment, a sports drama that is also an appealing, socially alert story of perseverance and the up-by-the-bootstraps pursuit of excellence.It’s also a marriage story. When we first meet them, in the early 1990s, Richard (Will Smith) and his wife, Oracene (Aunjanue Ellis), are living with five daughters in a modest bungalow-style house in Compton, Calif. He works nights as a security guard, and she’s a nurse. Their shared vocation, though — the enterprise that is the basis of their sometimes fractious partnership — is their children.This is an all-consuming task: to bring up confident, successful Black girls in a world that is determined to undervalue and underestimate them. Tennis, which Richard chose partly because of its whiteness and exclusivity, is only part of the program.The children — Tunde (Mikayla Lashae Bartholomew), Lyndrea (Layla Crawford) and Isha (Daniele Lawson), along with Venus and Serena — lead highly structured, intensely monitored lives. (A disapproving neighbor calls the authorities, convinced that Richard and Oracene are being too hard on the girls.) This is partly protective, a way of keeping them away from what Richard ominously calls “these streets” — a menace represented by the hoodlums who harass Richard and the girls during practice sessions — but it also reflects his temperament and philosophy.He likes slogans and lessons, at one point forcing the family to watch Disney’s “Cinderella” to teach the importance of humility. “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” is one of his favorite mottos. There is nothing haphazard or sloppy about “King Richard,” and it succeeds because it has a clear idea about what it wants to accomplish. The script, by Zach Baylin, is sometimes unapologetically corny — if you took a drink every time the Williams sisters say “yes, Daddy” you’d pass out before Venus won her first junior match — but the warmth and verve of the cast make the sentimentality feel earned.Five Movies to Watch This WinterCard 1 of 51. “The Power of the Dog”: More