Sanaa Lathan; Gina Prince-Bythewood. Photo:
Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
‘The Woman King’ director says she called to apologize to Lathan shortly after the incident, but there was still “a little friction”
Director Gina Prince-Bythewood is reflecting on some behind-the-scenes tension on the set of Love & Basketball.
On the Nov. 18 podcast episode of Legacy Talk with Lena Waithe, Prince-Bythewood opened up to Waithe about the casting process for the 2000 cult classic as well as a moment when she felt she failed as a director — specifically when she brought actress Sanaa Lathan to tears on set.
Explaining that while she now knows she made the right choice when casting Lathan for the part of Monica, she revealed that she questioned her decision at the time because Lathan, 53, had no basketball experience.
“I never knew I made the right decision,” the Woman King director, 55, admitted. “Sanaa and I are great friends now, but during [filming] she felt that. And I was giving off a vibe of, ‘I don’t know. Did I make a mistake?’ ”
The sports romance flick follows childhood friends Monica (Lathan) and Quincy (Omar Epps), two kids from Los Angeles who aspire to basketball greatness. Their complicated relationship eventually blossoms into romance.
Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan in a ‘Love & Basketball’ scene. Sidney Baldwin/New Line/Kobal/Shutterstock
Prince-Bythewood then described a tense moment right before shooting one of the film’s first basketball sequences, which resulted in Lathan crying.
The Independent Spirit Award winner said that after she saw Lathan handling a basketball, “I was like, ‘F—.’ Not impressed at all, and scared,” she recalled. “I looked at [Lathan], I’m like, ‘This basketball — you have to take it everywhere. You got to dribble wherever you go. I need you against the driveway doing passes, a hundred a day. I need you to live and breathe this.’ I suddenly see her face start to crumple and just as she turned, started crying.”
“And in that moment I was like, ‘I am the worst director in the world.’ “ she said, adding that she called to apologize to Lathan shortly after.
“I did my best to say, ‘I believe in you and I was wrong in that moment and I just want what’s best for the film and for you.’ And she accepted the apology, but there was a little friction,” she admitted. “But she was never unprofessional, she was great. I learned so much from her.”
Gina Prince-Bythewood and Sanaa Lathan in 2023.
Amanda Edwards/Getty
The Secret Life of Bees writer also shared that she didn’t fully realize how lucky she was to have Lathan in her movie until the editing process.
“[I was] watching her performance every day [in the edit room] and going, ‘Oh my God,’ “ she said. “After the first couple of days I called her. ‘You have given me an incredible film and it’s because of your performance.’ “
Lathan previously revealed to PEOPLE that she, too, had anxiety about the fact that she wasn’t a basketball player.
“What a gift it was that I was able to, at a young age, play this amazing, fierce character in this beloved movie,” Lathan told us in August. “When we were making it, for me, I was nervous about the basketball because I really wasn’t a basketball player. I looked like a basketball player because I had a dance background, so I was able to really mimic.”
