Lil Rel Talks Uncle Drew, Working With Kyrie Irving, and Being a Chris Webber Fan
Lil Rel sits down with Zach Schwartz to talk about Uncle Drew, working with Kyrie Irving, and being a fan of Chris Webber.
Video Transcript
ZACH SCHWARTZ: All right, today, I'm joined by a Lil Rel. Thank you so much for jumping on with us. This week and every week since the quarantine started we've been doing just different sports movies, live Tweeting them on Thursday night. And now we're on the "Uncle Drew" movie, which you were a part of. So, you know, first and foremost, how did you come to be attached to the project, and how did that all come about?
LIL REL: My producer, Marty Bowen, he met with me at dinner. Explained to me what the mo-- first of all, he didn't really have to tell me what the movie plot or anything was, 'cause when he said Kyrie, Chris Webber, Reggie Miller-- I'm like, aight, bro, man. I'm a real I'm a huge basketball fan, so to just do a basketball movie in general I was excited. Plus, I've seen all the commercials. And I thought it was a dope concept in general. So I was down from the beginning.
ZACH SCHWARTZ: What was your childhood basketball movie?
LIL REL: I mean, "Space Jam," "Above the Rim," which people forget about, "White Men Can't Jump," "Blue Chips--" one of my favorite, actually. But the first "Space Jam" is very special to me. So it's going to be interesting when "Space Jam 2" comes out next year.
ZACH SCHWARTZ: Were there actors in the film that you were a little bit like, oh, gosh. How are we going to hide some of the lack of skill or anything like that?
LIL REL: That was a big thing to me when I told them I wanted to do this. I'm like, yo, I don't want the fake "Teen Wolf" type of shots and all that stuff. I'm like, no. I mean, every time I think about Michael J Fox taking those free throws, and he's jumping in the air, is the most insane thing I've ever seen in my life.
ZACH SCHWARTZ: One of the things is "Space Jam" is they build the Jordan Dome. Did Kyrie have a court, and you guys would get to run a little pick-up?
LIL REL: Well, they would run it-- those games you see, those are games.
ZACH SCHWARTZ: Oh, wow.
LIL REL: At one point, Lisa Leslie caught fire, hit like 6-3, straight. [LAUGHTER] Straight basketball, no movie or anything. Just make sure the camera's in the right place, and let them go do their thing. With that crowd going crazy, like the raucous for real. Lisa got so hot, it was crazy.
ZACH SCHWARTZ: [LAUGHS] I love that.
[LAUGHTER]
Was there a favorite Kyrie story that you left the film with?
LIL REL: When he announced that he wanted to leave Cleveland, I was in my hotel room watching Sports Center. Me and him had our first one-on-one together the next day. And I remember being like, so, yeah brother, you good?
[LAUGHTER]
ZACH SCHWARTZ: Oh, my god. That's good.
LIL REL: He was like, yeah, I'm good. Why you ask? I'm like, eh, you know, I was watching Sports Center last night, and hear that you went, uh-- [CHUCKLES] I mean, if you don't want to talk about it, brother, it's no big deal. But we can get to the script. And we really didn't talk about it at first. I'm watching these reports. They're looking for inside information. I get the man right there. And at some point, we had the conversation. It felt like he wanted to get it off his chest.
ZACH SCHWARTZ: Yeah.
LIL REL: And I just listened to him. It was so funny. I feel like I-- to this day, I'm like, I'm probably an inside source, you know what I mean. But to listen to it was one of the most fascinating conversations.
ZACH SCHWARTZ: Being around all these NBA legends, were you a little star-struck when you first walked on the set? Or what was that a bit like?
LIL REL: Our first table read-- yeah, when Chris Webber walked in-- Chris Webber is my favorite power forward that I love of all time for my own personal reasons. I'm a huge Chris Webber. Chris walks in. I got a speech made up my head about how I'm going tell him like he's my fave power forward of all time, such a huge fan. So I'm about to-- my mouth is about to move, bro. I'm about to be like, OK, that's Chris Webber. Here we go.
Yo, Chris. He's like, hey, man, look, I'm a little nervous. Dude, I'm a huge fan. Me and my wife love your comedy, dude. We've seen everything you ever been in. He started doing jokes back to me. I'm like, damn, he a real fan. You know what I mean? Like, he knew my bits. And I was just sitting there in awe, and I was like, look, man, I don't want to sound like I'm saying that 'cause you said that, but you're my favorite power forward of all time.
ZACH SCHWARTZ: You beat me to it.
LIL REL: [LAUGHS] Like, you beat me. I don't want to sound like I'm just making up stuff, and you just said all this nice stuff about me, but I had a whole speech prepared. You're the best power forward I've ever seen play, that I love from college to the NBA, man. I love Chris Webber.
ZACH SCHWARTZ: Well, thank you, again, for taking the time today, man. Really, really appreciate it. We'd love to have you on again soon.
LIL REL: All right, man, whenever this happens, brother I'll talk to you. [LAUGHS]
ZACH SCHWARTZ: All right. Appreciate it, man. Thank you so much.
