Rebound: Old School Meets Middle School
By Marie Morreale                                                                                              
 

Rebound is a laugh-out-loud film about hot-tempered, yet successful college basketball coach Roy McCormick. When he loses his temper and accidentally knocks out the opposing team's mascot, he's kicked out of college basketball until he can change his attitude. So Roy takes a job coaching an inner-city middle school team on a losing streak.

At first, Coach Roy just shows up for work dressed in his designer suits and ignores the kids who need his help. Eventually, the kids on the team melt his cold heart and draw him into their world.

Comedian Martin Lawrence plays Coach Roy McCormick and Oren Williams plays Keith Ellis. Read on for exclusive interview with Oren Williams.

 OREN WILLIAMS

SN:Tell me about your character Keith. Are you like him or different from him?
Oren: Actually, I am very like my character Keith. We both really like basketball. We are very good and we play it all the time. I am kind of different from him because he goes at his coaches. If he doesn't like his coaches or doesn't like how the program is going on his basketball team, he lets the coach know it. He goes head-to-head with him. I don't do that.

SN: Was there anything silly that happened on the set with you guys?
Oren: On set I mean [Martin] plays different characters. He plays most of the characters in the movie, and he has this one character called Preacher Don, like a team preacher, and it is funny. He has like gold teeth and a perm with a purple suit on. That was the hardest thing; I had to keep from laughing on set. That had to be the hardest thing because that was so funny.

SN: Have you encountered anybody who has had anger management problems like Coach Roy, in Rebound? How did you deal with them?
Oren: I did. I had a coach a couple years ago who wasn't a really good coach. He yelled a lot, and he encouraged me not to shoot. He wanted his son to shine, instead of the rest of the team. I did not really like that, but I didn't really react like Keith would have reacted... I just dealt with it because I knew he would pass in a couple of years and go to another team.

SN: Which is your favorite NBA team?
Oren: My favorite team right now, even though they are going through a slump, is the Lakers. They have been my favorite team since the 3-peat and all that—even before they won three consecutive championships.

SN: Do you have a favorite player on the Lakers or on another team?
Oren: I like Kobe as a player but I have two other favorites on other teams. LeBron James is excellent. He is really good and Steve Nash. He is averaging like 18 points and 11 assists per game. That is really hard to do.

SN: Do you have a specific shot or move?
Oren: I can up with this 360 reverse layup. Cool. You are in the air, and it is like you're flying.

SN: What is your favorite subject in school?
Oren: My favorite subjects are math and science.

SN: Tell me why you like math.
Oren: I like math because it makes you think. It is not too easy, with me it is not too hard, but the math I am going through right now is getting pretty hard.

SN: Which math is that?
Oren: Algebra I. The equations and quadratic equations, I am getting through it, and I am still getting an A on it.

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