CBS Editor Tyler Treese spoke with fantasy football features Omari Hardwick and Rome Flynn on film and works with Tony Gonzalez. The film will be available exclusively through Paramount+ on November 25.
“In this hilarious and heartwarming father-daughter sports fantasy, everything changes when Callie A. Coleman (Marsai Martin) discovers she can magically control her father, Bobby’s (Omari Hardwick) performance on the soccer field,” reads the synopsis for the film. “When Callie plays her father, running for the Atlanta Falcons, on EA Sports” MaddenNFL 23, Bobby transforms from a fumblite-filled craftsman into a star on the march to stardom alongside his daughter and wife Keisha (Kelly Rowland). As the NFL playoffs loom and the pressures of Callie’s new commitment to her friends on the robotics team mount, the two must move forward to keep the magic a secret as they navigate the ups and downs of their newfound success, while rediscovering what it really means. be a family.
Tyler Treese: Omari, I know you were DB in Georgia. You tried for the Chargers. Athletics and your love of the arts have always been connected, so was it nice to implement your football background in this film?
Omari Hardwick: It was as good as that question, brother. It’s rare that you can talk about all the things that, or I guess the important things that are in that bag that God gave you, and have those podcast conversations, like The pivot with Fred Taylor, Channing Crowder and Ryan Clark. We speak with Deion Sanders. You talk to these athletes, which is really cool, and most of all they want to know what you think about the other stuff that’s in the gym bag. So I think, for me, that was a big “wow” moment. Really, if you keep walking like a marathon, and I sort of convey that, I know I’m with Rome, and I have with other people who come after me who I think have a multitude of tricks in this bag.
That’s when you realize it’s a marathon. This movie was the first time I could look in the mirror and say to myself “oh yeah, my career has been a marathon”. Because here I am, finally getting to a point where, like you said, I could incorporate all these goodies into a movie. my love for art [and] my love of athletics is now combined and being an actor i can show both at the same time which is pretty amazing. Above all to do it with not only a very talented actor, namely Roma, but also a very talented actor who also comes from the world of sport. I probably would have felt something if he couldn’t run on the soccer field, but he’s super athletic, fast, he can catch. As a ball player who comes from soccer and me who comes from the sport that he really enjoyed, which is basketball, it’s interesting for us to be able to look at each other and say, ‘okay, we know we can act. so did we. And so that was a lot for me. I immediately felt comfortable knowing I had a cohort that could photograph a bag of the same size. But a great question, man.
Rome, Tony Gonzalez must have been fantastic to work with. This is the best tight end of all time. He plays your coach in the movie. How did you work with him?
Rome Flynn: It’s natural. Such a presence, you know? Here’s the thing. You’d have to live under a rock not to know who it is. But the important thing is… I feel that what is a good sign of a person who has great integrity but also has a great career and a great resume like his is that you wouldn’t know it if you didn’t know. Sometimes you are around these people and they talk about these things. Like with Tony, if you didn’t know he played football, you just didn’t know, you would have thought he was an actor. He was super present and he just knocked it out of the park, man. I’m glad they had a guy like him because they could have had a coach who’s also in the NFL but not a good actor. His role isn’t huge, but it’s really important because he’s connected to everything. [It] bonds throughout the team, bonds in the scene between me and Omari when we enter his office. Handling that kind of scene with two actors like me and Omari… I think he did an amazing job. So hopefully he will continue to do that, and that he will continue and that he will continue to push himself to do more of these things.
