Films and Videos | We Got Next | Director's Statement

I WAS A GIRL JOCK.

I enjoyed the sense of competition, but cherished the friendships that grew out of being on a team. As I developed the storyline for We Got Next, I knew I wanted the film to reflect the intensity of friendship between female athletes. I wanted to show teenage girls who were ambitious and committed—girls who approach their sport and friendship with passion.

In order for the film to work, I knew that the level of play had to be authentic. I decided to search for basketball players who could act. I hung out a college basketball games, interviewed coaches and players and eventually found my actors. I was fortunate to cast Rebecca Jade (Nikki), guard at U.C. Berkeley, and Marla Renee (Tasha), forward at San Francisco State. Both women were outstanding athletes and drama majors thrilled to have an opportunity to act on camera. I discovered the children who play young Nikki and Tasha on public basketball courts. The girls who appear in the scene at camp were recruited at a local youth league. Many of the girls in the film are fans of the women’s basketball team at U.C. Berkeley, so they showed up not only to “star in a movie”, but to get Rebecca’s autograph.

In writing the script, I was determined to capture the authentic slang and rhythms of teenagers. For this reason, I developed the script through improvisational workshops with the writer, Debbie McCann, and the two actors, Rebecca and Marla. I wrote the story in outline form, and the four of us workshopped together for two months. The actors played improvisational acting games, wrote poetry and journals in character and met weekly on the basketball court to rehearse scenes while playing ball.

I was particularly anxious about shooting the scene in which Nikki and Tasha beat local boys in a pick-up game because in rehearsals, the boys would win one week and the girls would win the next. I took Rebecca aside and told her that she had to turn it on for this scene. She did not let me down. By the time we shot the scene on day five, Rebecca and Marla were pros in front of the camera. The boys suffered performance anxiety facing the big film crew and all their equipment. The onscreen ass-kicking the boys take is real and not a trick of editing.