Arts & Entertainment                          August 10, 2005

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Oren Williams: Young actor/athlete developing his games
By Rych McCain Photos ©2005 by Andre’ B. Murray/ “Bern” Agency Photos!

I have been featuring young people from my personal family of Rych’s spiritually adopted, hand-picked, child actors and this week’s feature is a continuance from that very special group. OREN WILLIAMS is a gifted teen actor/athlete whose latest role is that of Keith Ellis in the new Martin Lawrence movie REBOUND. Williams’ character is a ball-hogging showboat who clashes with coach Roy McCormick (Martin).

Williams’ first job was a Broadway Department Store ad at nine months-old. He became a child model for the famed Ford Modeling Agency. Assignments for Sears, Warner Bros., Tommy Hilfiger, Macy’s, Bugle Boy, Mercedes-Benz and others followed. Then, the national commercials came including McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Kinko’s, Montgomery Wards, Addidas and a slew of others. Williams’ mom and dad are actors and at two-years-old, he was taught to begin reading scripts. By five, he had guest starred on the NBC hit series “ER.” This led to other roles i.e., SC-FI’s “Sliders,” CBS Network’s “City of Angeles,” “The Amanda Show” for Nickelodeon, “Any Day Now” for Lifetime and “For Your Love” on the WB and “For The Love of Olivia,” a CBS-TV movie in which he portrayed Oscar® winner Louis Gossett Jr.’s grandson.

Williams’ impressive performance as Raymond, Dr. Wilkes’ (Rocky Carroll) asthmatic son, on CBS’s “Chicago Hope” earned him a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Supporting Young Actor in a Prime Time Drama. On the big silver screen, Williams starred as Lisa Raye’s son Jamal, in Ice Cube’s “The Player’s Club.” He has also appeared in the movies “Kingdom Come” with Whoopi Goldberg and Jada Pinket-Smith and “Ride or Die” with Duane Martin and Vivica A. Fox. In “Clifford—The Movie,” Williams was the voice of Charley starring with the late John Ritter.

Williams currently has a three-picture contract deal with 20th Century Fox Pictures, the first of which is the new Martin Lawrence film “Rebound.” In real life Williams is an actual basketball player. He has won more than 40 trophies and has competed in AAU’s Jr. Olympics. He hopes to make the NBA in the future.

Did the children on the film’s team actually play sports as well? Williams responded:

“They just cast them. They didn’t make sure they could play basketball at all, so they were really bad.”

The cast did go through a two week camp to learn the fundamentals of the game and conditioning.

Did the actors really have to be in shape for the filming? Williams lights up with this answer. “Yeah, and if you get it wrong, they make you do push ups,” he explained. “You could tell the people who were out of shape because after two takes, they were really tired. That gym was so hot, they had to bring in three air conditioners, but they couldn’t use them on the takes. But, they cooled us off because they had to [spray] sweat on us so it made us look like we were wet from the game, so it cooled us off a little bit toward the takes but it really was hot in that gym.” What was it like working with Martin Lawrence? Williams said, “He’s wild and crazy when the cameras are turned on but he’s a pretty cool and normal guy when the cameras are off.” And, it had to be a kick to be the on screen son of foxy Wendy Raquel Robinson. Williams has an upbeat response to that as well: “Wendy was great. My mom would come to the set and Wendy would say to her ‘I’m his mom for a few weeks,’ so she was like a real mom and she was pretty cool to work with.” Being in the biz all his life, does he feel he’s having a normal childhood?

Williams pondered this one for a moment. “It’s not like a “normal” normal childhood, but I’m not going to go

crazy. I think I’ve had a pretty normal childhood. I still get to go out side and play with my friends everyday and I go to basketball practice.”

He plays for the San Fernando Jaguars and they travel around to different tournaments. Williams has a younger brother Zachary, who also is an actor. You will meet him in an upcoming feature soon. Check out Williams’ website, OrenWilliams.com.

There is a very ugly side to Hollywood that is not very kind to child actors because they treat them exactly the same as adults. It’s strictly “all business” and about the green to the producers and the studios. It is not the glamour and glitz that outsiders imagine it to be. Williams, however, has a mom and dad who know the business in and out, and are the guiding light for their actor sons.

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