On this edition of THE INTERVUE, we are going back to Prince George’s County and into the world of basketball with the sophomore season of AppleTV+’s series “Swagger” this Friday June 23rd!
In season two, we meet the man-children Jace, Phil, Nick, Musa, Drew and Royale as they are entering their senior year of high school. All but Phil will be attending Cedar Cove Prep; a predominantly white institution where wealthy board members control the entire operation from the hiring of faculty to the enrollment of students. It is a school of power and influence. For all of their academic success, their basketball program has not been competitive until Emory Lawson, the athletic director, managed to acquire the Swagger players. Almost overnight, Cedar Cove’s basketball program becomes elite, attracting the attention of Alonzo Powers from Gladiator Sneakers. Games are attended by top college scouts from the nation and are live-streamed for thousands of fans.
With winning comes scrutiny and the players find themselves under a microscope as they vie for a national high school championship. Everything is going right in the life of Jace Carson and his family. Jenna is renting a house in a residential neighborhood and her cosmetic sales business is booming. Then, a video surfaces that threatens to destroy it all. It is surveillance footage of Coach Warwick, Crystal’s former coach, being beat down in an alley. The attackers are masked but Coach Warwick believes he has found evidence proving the Swagger players were involved. As this speculation reaches the public eye and social media, the bond of brotherhood the players have built is tested. Their once promising futures are in jeopardy.
In the first of a three-part series, I will be talking to the creator, director and EP of Swagger, Reggie Rock Bythewood!
The first question that I wanted to ask you is that we had a great season one but what lessons have you learned from the first season that you’re carrying over to the sophomore season of “Swagger”?
Well just think of it as, like, an evolution. So, like real life, you go through adolescence, and now you’re in senior year approaching adulthood. And while there are certain things in embedded in you into, which is like, hard work and becoming a good person, like what do you do when a sense of urgency hits you. They already sense of urgency you feel to figure out your life. Then another level of urgency when you are hit with obstacles and roadblocks that you didn’t see coming.
That’s great to hear. From what I understand that when it comes to shooting the basketball scenes, you’re on rollerblades, which I’ve never even heard of. And it makes you part of the action instead of being a spectator. I want you to talk about this shooting style and how it was very effective, especially for what we see in swagger so far.
I really wanted the audience to feel a part of the action. And, decades ago, I shot something on rollerblades, and it has just been looking for an excuse to do it again in the storytelling. So, we have a great camera operator name John, and he’s an athlete himself, you have to be athletic to shoot the basketball the way that we do it. And so, while there are other shows and commercials that are now drawing inspiration from what we did, we originated this.
So, part of the challenge was okay, now that other people are doing it as well, how do we take it to another level in season two. We have things where a camera operator like literally jumps off a ramp, so that he can be airborne when our players airborne, and it’s just really, amazing to just do something so cinematic, we did one basketball game where we never cut at all. It’s all one shot. It’s been incredible and a lot of fun, challenging, but a lot of fun.
I read that you have a Maryland rapper from my home state, IDK. And he created some brand-new songs for the season. Can you tell us a little bit about the songs and how did you discover IDK?
We all sort of threw out potential artists that we’d want to work with. And him coming from the DMV (the DC, Maryland, Virginia) area felt like it would make great sense. I met with him. I love our producer Imani Floyd, we met with IDK. And we just really talk we had this concept of doing hip hop with the sort of jazz influence was great, because we have our composers, the legendary jazz artist, Terence Blanchard. It was like a great fit. IDK really gave the show sort of its own sound and in some ways, it’s familiar, but so unique and specific to “Swagger”.
And my final question is this, you’ve always maintained that “Swagger” is not solely a basketball show, but about growing up in America, what is the ultimate story that you want to tell about growing up in America?
I’ve really just ultimately wanted to present our humanity. And just really want to just convey the urgency of community. People say, “it takes a village”, but what does that really mean? And I just want to explore that and take a look at that. “Swagger” is about having a cause bigger than yourself. And great, though, if that individual doesn’t have to stand by himself or herself.
Stay tuned for more interviews with the cast of “Swagger” later today!
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