‘King Richard’ Hot Takes Splitting Opinion Right Down the Line
Will Smith delivers a career-best performance in King Richard, with the A-lister completely disappearing into the role of Venus and Serena Williams’ father, and it’s not a shock to discover that he’s been positioned as the one to beat in the Best Actor race.
However, there’s been some backlash pointed in the direction of the uplifting and inspiring biopic, for how it glosses over the fact that Williams already had an ex-wife and five children by the time he met Venus and Serena’s mother, and now another wrinkle to the discourse has appeared online.
Some Twitter users aren’t happy that King Richard follows the success of the two future icons through the eyes of their often-controversial old man, which they feel diminishes the achievements of their success by focusing largely on Richard’s role in their training and development.
As you can see below, a can of social media worms has been opened by the hot take, with many pointing out that the movie wouldn’t have happened any other way.
King Richard discourse over a movie that the Williams Sisters chose to focus on their father is funny considering that The Blind Side chose to focus the movie on a white woman over Micheal Oher to the point that Micheal spoke out against the movie.
— The Boy (@blkbuddha) November 21, 2021
Idk the “King Richard” takes are extremely weird as a Black person who grew up knowing Venus and Serena’s story and the part their father played. Y’all are just really uninformed.
— Daric C., M.A. (He/Him/Él) (@DaricCott) November 20, 2021
The interesting thing about the critique of “King Richard” centering the father is not just that Venus and Serena executive produced it, but they refused to attach their names UNLESS it aligned with their vision. pic.twitter.com/0cKroF4ZMX
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) November 21, 2021
As one of the sisters in ‘King Richard’, I hope you get a chance to watch our work & take some time to look into the Williams family role in making this film. Without them, this wouldn’t be possible.
The origin stories of Black icons deserve space & to be told as they desire. https://t.co/7hhQupqHT8
— mikayla (@carpeingdiem) November 21, 2021
King Richard was wonderful! Watched it with my parents tonight and we all loved it. Baffled by the discourse criticizing the film for what it isn’t instead of engaging with what it is.
— roxane gay (@rgay) November 21, 2021
All of these cringeworthy takes on King Richard serve as a reminder of the need to have Black writers and editors who have the power to guide and steer news coverage.
— Kat Stafford (@kat__stafford) November 21, 2021
King Richard has nothing to do with misogyny. Rather it sheds light on the demonization of “Black present dads”. You can also read about how Lavar Ball was treated.
This simple minded take is actually embarrassing. https://t.co/eWjGE4j0dC— nbadraft20201 (@datvoich) November 20, 2021
king richard gets into it a very tiny bit, but there’s an entire movie that could made about how tennis (and its journalists) treated the williams family and how they were always portrayed as aggressors pic.twitter.com/pW6JBSx2Dd
— alex (@alex_abads) November 21, 2021
Did they seriously make a film called ‘King Richard’ about the success of Serena and Venus Williams – but it’s about their dad, Richard?
— Dr. Jessica Taylor (@DrJessTaylor) November 20, 2021
Venus and Serena Williams are executive producers of King Richard. It’s almost as if this is the story that both Venus and Serena wanted to tell and wanted to share. To call this film “a Will Smith vehicle” is disrespectful to Venus, Serena, Will Smith, and to the filmmakers. https://t.co/41WDNvKzCc
— Yoko Higuchi (@theYokoHiguchi) November 20, 2021
Venus and Serena are executive producers of King Richard and had the power to veto any creative decisions they didn’t approve of, so they were quite clearly supportive of their dad being the driving force behind the story. Besides, it’s inevitable that we’ll be getting another biopic focusing almost exclusively on the trophy-laden siblings eventually.
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