Will Smith To Play Serena and Venus Williams’ Dad In New Biopic

Will Smith is set to take on the role of Richard Williams in a new biopic based on the tennis coach’s life. The movie titled King Richard, which will be produced by Tim White, Trevor White and Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment company, will see the actor play the famous father and is expected to reflect the California man’s journey as he raised pro athletes Venus and Serena Williams, both of whom reached the highest levels of professional tennis.

A man born and raised in Louisiana moved to Chicago after high school and settled in California. By 1979, he had five children and then met Oracene Price. Together, they had three children, including Venus and Serena. He famously wrote out a 78-page plan detailing the training of young tennis stars, when they were just four and a half years old.

The news of Smith’s new role has been met with mixed reaction, with some suggesting that a dark-skinned actor would be better suited to play Williams. One Twitter user wrote: “Why is he always cast in roles portraying dark skin men like there aren’t tons of black actors that would make more sense for the role?” while another tweeted: “was mahershala not available or any other darker skinned male actor ever??”

He is also slated to appear in the new disney movie ‘Alaadin’ and ‘Bad Boys 3’ which he co-stars with Martin Lawrence.

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Written by BoomRadioNG