00:00My son needs a coach like you.
00:03He'll take your team from good to, oh my God.
00:06I don't coach high school kids.
00:08All my kids is 14 years.
00:09Jace turned 14 yesterday.
00:14So can you tell me a little bit about your character on Swagger
00:17and what you enjoy about playing her?
00:22Crystal is a powerhouse.
00:25You know, she's a powerful young Black woman
00:27and she doesn't let anything completely stop her.
00:31She doesn't give up.
00:32You know, she may have struggles like everybody in the world,
00:35but she works through them and she takes the time to work through them
00:38and, you know, heal from them and just keep moving forward.
00:44But what I love about Crystal is her drive, her determination.
00:48You know, I had to train for Crystal and I really took that from her.
00:54Like when I was training, I was Crystal.
00:56Like I took her drive and determination and applied it
00:59and worked through it and built her.
01:01Especially when I was training, it was very useful to like kind of be in character
01:04because I kind of built the swagger for her.
01:07I built how she is, how she plays and everything.
01:10It wasn't just a me thing, just training and then going on set
01:14and just, you know, putting it together.
01:16It was always a building process and I definitely took that from Crystal,
01:21just building and being determined and not giving up
01:24and just having that swagger as well.
01:27Now, many of us are familiar with you as a child actress.
01:30We've watched you grow up through the industry.
01:32How does it feel to be kind of stepping out of that little girlish role
01:36and more into playing a young woman of your actual age?
01:40I guess it's kind of different because when I was younger,
01:45I was on set dancing and cutting cartwheels and all over the place.
01:50But I'm kind of still dancing, but I'm just not doing the cartwheels and stuff.
01:55You know, I still have my personality.
01:57But on set, it's so much fun, especially the family I had on set made it so much fun.
02:02But other than, you know, kind of just growing up and maturing a little bit,
02:07it's the same thing.
02:08Everything's fun.
02:09You know, I built a family on set and I had, you know, castmates that were my age.
02:14So we all were just goofing around.
02:16It wasn't like I was just around adults.
02:18Even if I was, we all had fun.
02:21All the adults, we were all together having fun, you know, just being a family.
02:28Now, how was the training process for you?
02:30Were you much of a basketball player prior to this?
02:33Um, not really.
02:35I just had my brothers that I always looked up to.
02:38I kind of played when I was younger, but it didn't really count,
02:42especially when I went to do the training.
02:44I realized that, no, I had no experience and I just had a lot to learn.
02:50But it was a challenge that I was willing to take.
02:52And I just went with it.
02:55You know, I didn't hesitate.
02:57I just went like head first and I did it and I put in the work.
03:02And I had my brothers help me as well.
03:04Whenever I would go home or anything, I would have my brothers help me.
03:08And, you know, we'd work on my shot, make sure everything's looking good.
03:12And they'd like, I'd watch them play 2K and stuff.
03:15And I'm like watching and figuring everything out.
03:18Just, you know, talking about little things with them.
03:20Since they love basketball, they have the love for the game.
03:23And so they definitely helped me out with building Crystal and creating a relatable female baller.
03:31All right.
03:31Thank you so much for your time today.
03:33Of course.
03:34Thank you for having me.
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