The star of Hulu’s new ‘The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat’ reflects on the legacy of ‘Love & Basketball’
Sanaa Lathan had “no idea” Love & Basketball would “become what it became” or have the lasting impact it has had in pop culture history.
In an exclusive interview, the star of The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat recalls the cult classic romantic sports comedy’s Sundance Film Festival premiere — nearly 25 years after its release.
“I just remember, after there was a five-minute standing ovation, I was just floored … and then the rest is history,” Lathan, 52, remembers of Love & Basketball’s reception at Sundance in January 2000.
“It became this thing where people watched it over and over and over again, and it crossed all racial and cultural lines,” adds Lathan, who starred as basketball player Monica Wright opposite Omar Epps.
Notably, Love & Basketball was added to the prestigious Criterion Collection in 2021, and it was selected for the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 2023 for its “cultural, historic” and “aesthetic importance.”
‘Love & Basketball’ director Gina Prince-Bythewood and Sanaa Lathan; costars Omar Epps and Lathan in a ‘Love & Basketball’ scene.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty (2)
In the Gina Prince-Bythewood-directed film, Lathan’s character and Epps’ Quincy McCall character grow up together in Los Angeles pursuing their separate basketball dreams before sparking a romantic relationship, which included their memorable one-on-one strip basketball scene.
“What a gift it was that I was able to, at a young age, play this amazing, fierce character in this beloved movie,” Lathan says. “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.”
Trae Young and Sanaa Lathan at a WNBA game in Los Angeles on Aug. 15, 2024.
Juan Ocampo/NBAE via Getty
Lathan and Prince-Bythewood, 55, reunited recently at a WNBA game between the L.A. Sparks and New York Liberty. The Aug. 15 reunion came 25 years after the two filmed a scene — very quickly — at a WNBA game for Love & Basketball.
“When we shot that last shot where Monica is in an actual game at the end of the movie where Quincy and her daughter are sitting courtside, that was an actual L.A. Sparks game,” Lathan explains. “We had one take. I was so nervous because they allowed us to get the real stadium and the real players. One take, because it was in the middle of an actual game.”
Since Love & Basketball, Lathan has earned a Tony nomination for her role in A Raisin in the Sun, nabbed an Emmy nod for her guest role in HBO’s Succession and made her directorial debut with On the Come Up.
Now, she’s starring in The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat alongside Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Uzo Aduba, who play three friends navigating life’s challenges and milestones throughout the decades.
“Part of the reason why I even decided to do [The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat] was to work with them and work with that kind of supreme — oh, no pun intended — supreme kind of thespians,” Lathan says of the trio’s theater backgrounds. “It was such a treat.”
