Will Smith to Portray Tennis Stars Venus and Serena Williams’ Father in Upcoming Movie ‘King Richard’

Although some fans were disappointed that Will Smith has decided not to play Deadshot in the new Suicide Squad movie that’s in development, he’s certainly not wasting any time setting up new projects. Currently working on pre-production for Bad Boys for Life (the third installment of the Bad Boys series), the 50-year-old has now reportedly signed on to star in the film King Richard, in which he’ll be playing the father of tennis superstars Serena Williams and Venus Williams.

Richard Williams, 77, describes Deadline, “despite having no tennis background, overcame tremendous hardship, skepticism and his own troubled past to raise two of the game’s greatest players.” Inspired by Romanian tennis champion Virginia Ruzici, he decided that his future daughters would be tennis professionals. True to his own thought processes, he actually wrote a 78-page plan and lessons began when each of his daughters turned 4-and-a-half years old.  Flash forward to 1999, and Serena won the US Open, while a year later Venus won big at Wimbledon.

Richard was a fierce defender of his daughters as they were growing up, a point never truer than back in 1995 when 14-year-old Venus was being interviewed by correspondent John McKenzie on ABC’s Day One news show. At the time, the journalist asked for her thoughts on whether or not she could beat an older opponent, and when, without missing a beat, she replied that she could, he questioned the source of her confidence. When she was pushed on the subject by the reporter, Richard suddenly interrupted — obviously annoying McKenzie (which is evident in the video below that went gone viral thanks to rapper and activist Ric Wilson).

This video of Richard Williams defending Venus's confidence when she was 14 yr old is the best video on the internet pic.twitter.com/NqnCRJsLLf

— disco ric (@RicWilson) August 29, 2018

In the now-vintage clip, Richard can be heard saying, “What she said, she said it with so much confidence the first time, but you keep going on and on. You’ve got to understand that you’re dealing with the image of a 14-year-old child. And this child gonna be out there playing when your old a– and me gonna be in the grave. When she say something, we done told you what’s happening. You’re dealing with a little Black kid, and let her be a kid! She done answered it with a lot of confidence, leave that alone!”

The script for King Richard is by Zach Baylin. Will’s next project will be May’s live-action version of Disney’s Aladdin, in which he plays the part of Genie.