Urban Thought Collective

What’s Up UTC!! I’ve been away a couple of weeks but with good reason. Since my last entry I have been getting my Hollywood grind on in a major way. I worked on the set for Eddie Murphy’s newest film “A Thousand Words” and got my three vouchers to get in the union (SAG here I come). But I’ll give you all the details in next week’s blog. This week it’s all about Starz.

If you recall, I mentioned the network called me up to produce a promo and interview for their upcoming marathon of football movies. Since it would be my first project for Starz (I usually produce just for Starz in Black) I jumped at the opportunity. But while I had a bigger budget, I only had two weeks to get a top NFL star, find a location and hire a crew. And, to top it off, I don’t know too much about football or football players except for the ones profiled on “Sports Center” or “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” (I just love that show).

Anyway, they gave me their wish list, which included some of the big dogs like Reggie Bush, LaDanian Tomlinson and Warren Sapp, and wanted me to make it happen. Well, thanks to the good ol’ ESPY Awards being in town…I did. Fact is, every pro-athlete and their baby mama was in L.A., and so it made it that much easier to get someone to say yes and that someone was (drum roll please) Baltimore Ravens Linebacker Ray Lewis.

Now, I’m not going to lie. I didn’t know that much about him outside of his 2000 murder case, but after some serious Googling, and having everyone from my brother to my pastor tell me he’s the greatest NFL player of all time, I was totally sold. The guy is amazing. Besides the fact that he’s a future Hall of Famer and has been named Defensive Player of the year in both 2000 and 2003, he is such a humble and genuine guy. He’s not arrogant or cocky but rather all about helping people in his community. He is extremely serious about his relationship with God and being a great footballer player (he told me he uses a deck of cards as his count for push-ups and sit-ups). I was totally impressed.

But I wasn’t the only one. The entire set, from the director to the makeup artist who was moved to tears, watched him seamlessly go from delivering his lines with the same intensity and passion he has on the field to holding back tears as he candidly talked about his mother and the sacrifices she made to raise him into “the God fearing man he is today.”

What’s more, the 33-year old father of two also dished about his secret passion for acting and how when his contract is up with the Ravens after this season he’s hoping to head west (wink wink, San Diego Chargers) to get into films. It was truly one of my best interviews to date. A heartfelt thank-you to the man himself, Ray Lewis, for giving so unselfishly of your time and just being you! You truly have “it.”

To those reading this blog, be sure to check out the promo and the interview running all month on Starz. Until next time stay blessed, black and beautiful…

Jasmine Simpkins is a writer, producer and actress living in Los Angeles. She covers Hollywood from both in front of and behind the scenes. Her thoughts and experiences are chronicled exclusively for www.urbanthoughtcollective.com.