THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 24, 1996 TAG: 9610250823
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 81 lines
Tonight, you can see Joe Smith in his familiar role of basketball star when Golden State plays an NBA exhibition in Hampton.
In November, you can catch Smith in a new role: movie actor. He might be a natural at that, too.
``A lot of the ad-libs, he was very loose and very natural,'' said David Caruso, executive producer of ``Rebound - The Legend of Earl `The Goat' Manigault,'' in which Smith makes his film debut. ``He really was not performing, he was just being Joe. If doing more movies is something he's interested in, he certainly has the looks.''
``Rebound'' is an HBO movie about a New York basketball playground legend who gets sidetracked by drugs and never fulfills his potential. Smith plays Connie Hawkins, who is among the playground stars when young Earl becomes indoctrinated into the fast-paced games and lifestyle of the best players in New York.
Smith said he has five or six lines in the film, mostly trash-talking during basketball scenes.
``They weren't hard lines, they were easy . . . and now I can't remember them,'' Smith said. ``Wait, I remember one. Earl as a kid comes out and plays pickup ball with the older guys, and he takes Kimbrough to the basket and scores on him. I take the ball out of bounds and I'm passing it back in and I say, `That's your man, Kimbrough.' Because we have money on the game, I'm kind of upset about it.''
Smith's scenes are set in the late 1950s and early '60s. For someone who grew up in the era of baggy uniforms, Smith said wearing the tiny shorts and tight-fitting T-shirts that were popular 25 years ago made him feel like he was acting in his underwear.
``These guys wouldn't shed their warmup pants until you said `roll 'em,' '' Caruso said. ``When you'd say `cut,' they'd run back and put their warmup pants back on. If you ever want to bribe Joe Smith, we've got some pictures.''
Smith said his Golden State teammates all know about the film, and no one has teased him about his acting debut - yet.
``But they haven't seen the clothes we were wearing,'' said Smith, who was grateful Afros were not popular during the time period of his scenes.
Smith estimated he spent 80 to 90 hours on the set during nine days of filming in Toronto in June. The setting of the movie, however, is New York City. Filming began at 7 a.m. and sometimes went until 10 p.m.
``It was tiring,'' Smith said. ``I guess that's what movie stars do every day. We'd do a take, then we'd keep redoing it, then we'd have to change the angle and do it again. One five-minute scene could take like two days to do.''
Caruso said Smith will appear on camera about 10 minutes in the 115-minute film.
The hourly wage was minimal for the basketball players with multimillion dollar NBA contracts. Smith earned a flat fee of $5,000, and said he probably received an additional $2,000 to $3,000 in overtime pay.
Smith got the part through Nigel Miguel, a former player at UCLA and with the New Jersey Nets who served as the basketball coordinator to authentically stage the playing scenes. Miguel had worked on the Nike ``Revolution'' commercial in which Smith appeared, and talked to him last season after a game with the Lakers in Los Angeles about doing the movie.
``Rebound'' first airs Nov. 23 at 8 p.m. and repeats several times in following weeks. Other real-life basketball players in the film are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kevin Garnett, Pooh Richardson and Mitchell Butler. Among the cast are James Earl Jones, Loretta Devine and Eriq LaSalle, who also directs. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Joe Smith, third from left, will appear alongside, from left, Pooh
Richardson, Eriq LaSalle, Don Cheadle, Kevin Garnett and Mitchell
Butler the HBO movie ``Rebound - The Legend of Earl `The Goat'
Manigault.'' by CNB