Boogie - Trailer

Boogie, to his friends — dreams of making it big in basketball. Determined to score a coveted spot in the NBA, a rarity for an Asian-American, Boogie pursues the college scholarship track while his overbearing mother (Pamelyn Chee) plots another path for him with the help of a Chinese recruiter. Honing his skills on the cutthroat basketball courts of Lower Manhattan while navigating high-school commitments, a burgeoning romance with his classmate Eleanor (Taylour Paige) and parental strife at home, Boogie finds himself in a relentless battle for his future — culminating in a New York City street ball showdown with the number-one ranked Monk, played by the late Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke, making his acting debut.

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Written and directed by — and co-starring — Eddie Huang, whose best-selling memoir on Asian-American family life, Fresh Off the Boat, became a hit ABC sitcom, and whose Manhattan restaurant Baohaus and Vice show Huang’s World placed him in the food and travel zeitgeist, Boogie marks the filmmaking debut of a singular, frenetic and global talent.

Focus Features presents BOOGIE starring Taylor Takahashi, Pop Smoke, Taylour Paige, Eddie Huang, Pamelyn Chee, Domenick Lombardozzi, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Mike Moh, Perry Yung. Written and directed by Eddie Huang. Produced by Josh Bratman, Josh McLaughlin and Michael Tadross. Executive produced by Rafael Martinez. Original songs by Pop Smoke. Editor, Joan Sobel. Costume design, Vera Chow. Production design, Chris Trujillo. Director of photography, Brett Jutkiewicz.

BOOGIE opens March 5, 2021.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

From multi-hyphenate powerhouse Eddie Huang (Fresh Off the Boat, Huang’s World) comes a rousing New York story about basketball, young love, fractious families, and pursuing big dreams against all odds. Featuring a breakout central performance by first-time actor Taylor Takahashi — Huang’s personal assistant at the time he was cast — as a Chinese-American high-school basketball sensation yearning for an NBA contract, the film also features a diverse and eclectic supporting cast including Taylour Paige (Zola, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Pamelyn Chee (Princess of Nebraska), Domenick Lombardozzi (The Irishman), and the late rapper Pop Smoke, in his first and final screen performance as the best and most feared street basketball player in New York City.

With its scenes of domestic friction between parents and children, Boogie is also
a testament to the complexity of family dynamics, inspired by and deeply rooted in Huang’s own experiences growing up as the son of Taiwanese immigrants in Orlando, Florida. “I’m always unpacking my personal stuff in my work,” says Huang. “The reason why I wanted to make this movie is because I come from a family with a history of domestic violence.”

HOME IS WHERE THE HURT IS

Trained as a corporate lawyer but laid off in the economic downturn of 2008, Huang’s career took off as a restaurateur with his Lower Manhattan Taiwanese sandwich shop Baohaus, which opened in 2010 to glowing reviews. But it was his 2013 book Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir that placed him in the big leagues, landing on the bestseller list before being adapted by ABC as a comedy series, the first Asian-American-themed sitcom in 20 years.

Boogie, like Huang’s memoir, is an intimate family drama with comic overtones retaining echoes of the writer-director’s tumultuous upbringing in a home where harsh discipline and violence were not uncommon. Bullied in high school, subjected to racism in his predominantly white suburban community and strict discipline in his Chinese home, Huang turned to hip-hop for solace during his increasingly fractious adolescence.

Huang was 15 years old in 1997 when he watched Good Will Hunting at a relative’s house. “I had nothing in common with the main characters besides the fact that they grew up with domestic violence and they became deviant themselves and lashed out at the world,” says Huang. “This was a defining moment because it dawned on me that you could talk about this stuff. I decided everything I would do going forward would address aspects of my own family situation.”

Boogie’s story is less caustic and Dickensian than Huang’s own — the story of a happy-go-lucky, confident and slightly stubborn Queens Chinese-American high school student who longs to play basketball in the NBA — but it’s autobiographical in its depiction of mother-son contention over the direction of Boogie’s future after high school.

“Boogie’s situation with his mother was completely my dynamic at home growing up,” says Huang who remains very close to his parents despite years of household tension that often spilled over into violence. “I still have a lot to uncover and understand about my relationship to my parents and culture and how it contrasts with American values and society, and I think by continuing to examine this friction in my work, my audience will see a reflection of themselves.”

A BASKETBALL STORY

Huang’s first foray into feature filmmaking wasn’t always about basketball. Like Fresh Off the Boat, which launched his entertainment career in multiple mediums, Boogie in its nascent form centered on family dynamics and the emotional ramifications of being “other” in America — in Huang’s case a first-generation Taiwanese-American coming of age in Washington D.C. and Orlando, one of four children growing up with a strict restaurateur father and homemaker mother.

He started writing Boogie in 2016 as a means of reconciling Asian values with American values, trying to figure out his own identity while maintaining footholds in two very different cultures. But he got sidetracked, working in a series of jobs — attorney, stand-up comedian, fashion designer — before his restaurant turned him into culinary royalty.

But basketball was always a through-line in Huang’s life. After Fresh Off the Boat became a hit on ABC and Huang moved to Los Angeles, he began playing in recreational leagues around the city, most of them Asian… to a degree. “We never liked the rules that our league was predominantly Asian, because two of our teammates were half Asian and there had been resistance to them as kids playing in Asian leagues,” says Huang. “That rubbed us the wrong way. Our team, while mostly Asian, has black people, Jewish people, Latino people. We’re the only super-mixed team in the league.”

The sport was also a way for Huang to understand America, its different socioeconomic levels, and the discrepancies between race and identity that he sees as one of the country’s indelible and defining features. “I grew up in a very Chinese home, so basketball became that thing outside the home that made sense to me because it wasn’t traditionally Chinese,” says Huang. “My own American values I learned from watching and playing basketball — all of this plays out in Boogie as he tries to find his own place in the world.”

TEAM SPIRIT

Flash-forward to 2018, when the Boogie script was more or less complete and Huang found himself in an interesting predicament. His San Gabriel basketball league needed another player. At the invitation of one of Huang’s teammates,
24-year-old Japanese-American Taylor Takahashi — a newcomer to Southern California — showed up eager to play ball.

Takahashi grew up in Northern California, playing soccer, baseball and basketball in high school before he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in performance training. He was working as a personal trainer in Los Angeles and living in Orange County when he showed up to try out for his childhood friend’s team. Huang’s fellow players saw right away that the Bay Area native excelled at the sport, offering him a spot on the team.

Takahashi, who was moonlighting at night cooking yakitori in a Japanese restaurant, knew Huang’s work from his podcast and culinary endeavors — he was a fan, but never expected to meet him on a San Gabriel basketball court.
“The first day I walked onto the court, I’m meeting everyone and the last person I meet is Eddie,” says Takahashi. “I felt like I knew him already as far as the personality he displays in his work. He was the same person he was on his shows, but I also saw this very real person in him.”

As the season played out, Huang and Takahashi developed a friendship through basketball. From Huang’s perspective, Takahashi was one of the finest basketball players he had ever seen. “When you are Asian, nobody wants to pick you for the team,” laughs Huang. “Once we became friends and started playing pick-up games outside the league, nobody thought he would be any good. But after five minutes on the court, they think he’s the Asian Nate Robinson. Then he starts getting baskets and players want to fight.”

Huang’s team later found out that Takahashi was the all-time leading scorer at Alameda High School — in no time, he was the best player on his recreational team in Los Angeles. “When he came into play, instead of being cocky and self-serving, he made plays for other people,” says Huang. “He also made sure he wasn’t stepping on anyone else’s toes. You don’t usually see people that talented come in with that much humility on the playing court. I knew this was a special kid.”

A PERFECT UNION

In December 2018, Huang was asked to cook a holiday meal for the staff of Union, the famed streetwear boutique in Los Angeles owned by his close friend Chris Gibbs. He asked Takahashi to join him — along with Huang’s parents — to cook a homestyle Taiwanese dinner for the boutique staff.

The foodie luminary found himself in awe of Takahashi’s precision in the kitchen. “When we were prepping and cooking, Taylor would slice everything to meticulous perfection,” says Huang. “He also understood and respected the formal relationship between chef and cook, which impressed me. My mom noticed how he did everything he was told, which is very Japanese. She told me to keep him around.”

Huang knew that his friend, teammate and cooking partner wasn’t fulfilled in his job as a personal trainer, so just before Christmas he asked Takahashi to come work for him as a personal assistant. “I told him we could have a lot of fun together because we could wake up, play ball, lift weights, roll calls, take meetings and watch movies,” says Huang.

Takahashi was reluctant at first, unfamiliar with the entertainment business, and fearful of change. But after thinking about it, he took the job. One of his first duties was to read Huang’s dream project, the screenplay known as Boogie, about an Asian-American high-school basketball player in New York City who dreams of making the NBA drafts. Takahashi felt an instant personal connection reading it.

“This was a similar story to mine, as far as being an Asian kid dreaming of playing in the NBA,” says Takahashi. “Culturally it was different in that I’m Japanese-American and Boogie is Chinese-American, but Asian representation in the game of basketball has been so minimal historically that I instantly gravitated to the story. I knew how much it meant to Eddie to get it off the ground.”

That year, Takahashi became involved in all aspects of Huang’s busy and multi-faceted career as a writer, TV personality, foodie, and filmmaker. Three months after taking the job, Boogie got the greenlight from Focus Features. Takahashi fell headlong into every part of the pre-production process, taking notes on script calls with the studio, scheduling meetings, liaising with producers. At night he was still cooking with Eddie at events.

“It was the craziest year I ever had,” says Takahashi. “Eddie’s in so many different boats, and so many different markets — we had TV stuff, movie stuff. We’d host something for Adidas one day and do something for YouTube the same night. I was fairly organized with my own life, but taking care of someone else’s is another thing.”

During this transformative year, Huang started seeing Takahashi in a new light — as a potential casting choice for Boogie, the central character in his script. “Taylor was with me all the way during the casting process, when there were one or two people who were interesting to us,” says Huang. “At the time I hadn’t pulled the trigger on my secret idea — approaching Taylor with the lead role in the movie — because things were going so well between us in pre-production. I still thought we could find someone through casting that had acting experience and basketball skills.”

THE EDUCATION OF TAYLOR TAKAHASHI

As pre-production deepened, Huang found himself casually quizzing Takahashi on all aspects of the script and protagonist — what did he think of this scene? How do you think this sequence would play out? What would Boogie do in this situation? The duo made mood boards together for the film, and visited photography bookstores to get ideas on how to shoot the film. “Anything I could teach him about filmmaking, I did, because in the back of my mind I kept seeing him as Boogie,” says Huang. “I secretly knew I might need Taylor, even for an ancillary character.”

By this time the pair had become close friends, often speaking to one another in basketball terms and comparing certain actions to star athletes on the playing field. “Taylor became like a brother to me when I had no one in my life like that,” says Huang. “My best friends and family were in New York. That’s when it really dawned on me that Taylor could be Boogie. I noticed the way he moved through the world, the values he had, and the way he saw things. But I didn’t want to make the mistake of so many other relationships in my life, seeing something that wasn’t there.”

Instead of offering the role, Huang began assigning Takahashi books and movies to watch for personal growth, from Oscar Wilde, Sally Rooney and Malcolm Gladwell to Asian-American literary classics like Waiting by Ha Jin and No-No Boy by John Okata. “If you have a common interest with someone, sharing books can be a good way to communicate,” says Huang. “Taylor was educating his body a lot — and the body is a mind unto itself — but he wasn’t feeding his mind.”

Takahashi found himself opening up to Huang’s suggestions and offering him training sessions in return. “We struck up a trade — I gave him workouts and he gave me books and movies to watch,” says Takahashi. “I helped him physically change his body while I mentally changed my mind by allowing new stuff to come to me. Once you buy into reading and educating yourself, it unlocks a lot of potential, giving you answers that help give you reason and purpose in life.”

It was a movie recommendation that helped Takahashi unwittingly transform into Boogie, setting the stage for one of the great casting coups in recent movies.
Huang recommended Shoplifters, the 2018 Japanese drama by Hirokazu Kore-ede’s about an unconventional family of petty thieves. “Taylor watched it, took to the movie, and came back with notes,” says Huang. “I could see how it helped him really put things together in a bunch of different ways.”

Adds Takahashi: “There was always a reason behind anything Eddie gave me to read or watch. Shoplifters was the big one for me, because it put into perspective the fact that normal, everyday people could star in a movie.”

BECOMING BOOGIE

As summer 2019 wore on, and production on Boogie loomed, Huang and the casting team had still not found their lead actor. “I was watching Chinese and Taiwanese movies while following every second- and third-division Asian basketball player in the world,” says Huang. “I would have considered any Asian male at the right age that could play basketball and look good on camera.”

Finally, the casting team found a restaurant server on the Lower East Side of Manhattan who had a great audition and looked the part, but it was clear to Huang and Takahashi that he couldn’t play basketball. No matter how hard the duo prepared him, after three weeks of training sessions it was clear that he couldn’t effectively play Boogie.

“Throughout training — Boogie bootcamp as it became known — everything this kid couldn’t do were things I knew Taylor could do,” says Huang. “So I told my producers I was going to put Taylor on tape.”

In August, a few weeks before cameras rolled, Takahashi received the opportunity of a lifetime. He had three hours to prepare for his taped audition as Boogie, having never before acted in his life. “He had never even thought about acting,” says Huang. “I gave him his sides — Scene 44 — and told him from this point on, he was no longer assisting me — I’m prepping you to play Boogie.”

Takahashi retreated to the production office at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens and memorized his lines — reluctantly. “Acting was a foreign language to me,” says Takahashi. “I’d dreamed of becoming an NBA basketball player, scientist, astronaut, inventor, but never an actor.”

A few hours later, Huang taped his former assistant and sent the audition to executives at Focus Features. Takahashi for his part felt no pressure to give a powerhouse performance. “I just did what I felt comfortable with, because I didn’t necessarily want the part,” says Takahashi. “I knew if I wanted it too much — or wanted it at all — then I wouldn’t be able to play Boogie in the right way.”

Adds Huang: “Focus said we were nuts — it’s your first time as a writer and director and you want to cast your assistant in the lead? But they also knew it made a lot of sense. I genuinely believe in the power of chaos — sometimes when you drop people in a situation and they don’t have time to overthink, or over-tune it, you get a very real performance.”

After being offered the role, Takahashi wavered but ultimately accepted the part, seeing in Boogie a lot of similarities in himself and his own trajectory in life. He also saw an opportunity to increase the visibility of Asians playing sports. “We’ve had Yao Ming but he had to be 7 foot 8 for him to register in America.”

But it was the coming-of-age aspect of Boogie’s story that appealed to Takahashi the most — he knew that by taking the role he could grow as a person himself. “I could use the experience to step outside my comfort zone in the same way I used basketball as an outlet when I was younger,” says Takahashi. “I was familiar enough with the world of the story, and the stereotyping that goes on in the sport, that I could wrestle with it, represent it on screen, and hopefully spark some change. I never saw Asian people playing basketball on screen when I was growing up — I thought about what seeing Boogie might do for other kids.”

Scenes at home between Boogie and his parents featured Chinese dialogue, and while Takahashi’s Chinese was negligible if not non-existent, with some quick preparation he was able to make his Chinese-language scenes come across as authentic before cameras rolled in September. “He got to the level where his Chinese at least sounded like American-Chinese teenager Chinese,” laughs Huang. “I still think he’s going to be the Asian Mark Wahlberg.”

ROUNDING OUT THE CAST

With only 12 days before shooting commenced, Huang still had not found the right actress to play Eleanor, Boogie’s tough yet charming high-school paramour. He had originally cast rapper Princess Nokia in the role, but the performer dropped out.

When his casting director suggested Taylour Paige, a light went off in Huang’s head. Not only did he enjoy her performance in the 2018 Detroit crime drama White Boy Rick, she also had basketball on her resume, having appeared in the VH1 series Hit the Floor as a cheerleader for the fictional Los Angeles Devils and even worked as an L.A. Lakers Girl for a brief stint.

Paige, whose career is in rapid ascent after standout roles in Zola and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, initially turned down the role of Eleanor, believing herself too old for the part of a high-school student. But the longtime Los Angeleno came around and accepted the part, giddy about playing a New York girl for the first time despite having only three days to fly to the East Coast before cameras rolled.

“I loved the way Eleanor was written,” says Paige. “She’s strong, assertive and grounded, but she also feels very deeply. Like Boogie, she’s coming of age in her own way, figuring out life and school and friendship. She’s at a fork in the road of her life — not quite an adult yet, but not exactly a kid either. That sweet teenage angst we all know. I’ve dreamt of living and breathing New York City for as long as I can remember, and I got to go back to high school again.”
 
Paige also warmed to Eleanor’s ‘90s New York street style, a combination of hip-hop and classic preppy flourishes fusing Baby Phat with Ralph Lauren. The performer attended Catholic school as a teenager, making her high school sartorial experience worlds away from Eleanor’s free-spirited one. “I wore a uniform to school, and grew up a dancer so when I got out of school every day, I went to dance class,” says Paige. “My teenage life was pretty much school, dance, sleep, repeat. I was never able to express myself through clothing or hairstyles like Eleanor.”

Paige had to quickly establish chemistry with Takahashi, a novice actor who was appearing on camera for the first time. “Taylour became like a big sister to him on set,” says Huang. “The other Taylor became humbler, wanting to play the subordinate one behind the scenes, whereas it became the opposite of that on screen as their romance blossoms. The dynamic is that Boogie needs to chase Eleanor — but Taylour did a good job off-camera making Taylor comfortable with her, getting him into a space where could be confident as Boogie pursuing her. She did it without me saying anything.”

To fill out smaller roles in the cast, Huang cast six people from his recreational basketball league in Los Angeles. “When you play sports with people, you see who they really are deep down inside,” says Huang. “I’ve gotten an insight into every person I’ve played basketball with — you come to see how people operate in a setting where something is on the line, how they work with other people, and what happens when people don’t get what they want.”

CASTING MONK

Nowhere was this more evident than in the last-minute casting of Monk, the New York City street basketball champion who is Boogie’s hero and nemesis. Huang had initially cast Dave East in the role, the Harlem-based rapper signed to Def Jam Recordings, and the performer had already shot several scenes when an accident in Las Vegas left him unable to perform the role.

Huang needed to quickly find someone who was a solid basketball player who also exuded street savvy and moxie. “I didn’t see Monk as a villain in this movie, although he is effectively our bad guy,” says Huang. “He’s more like a mountain top Boogie tries to ascend. He’s the best basketball player in New York City — a better player than Boogie. And while we all love greatness and strive for it, when there isn’t a mountain top to strive for, life becomes boring.”

Huang and the Executive Producer Rafael Martinez knew Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke’s label head Steven Victor and immediately placed a phone call. The up-and-coming rapper had just released his debut single, which Huang recalls being ubiquitous in New York City as cameras rolled on Boogie.

“All of us in the Downtown scene loved Pop Smoke, but we never thought about casting him until someone mentioned that he played basketball,” says Huang. “We found out that he was a Top 50 recruit in New York City before he started rapping. Pop came straight from a show in upstate New York and auditioned at my crib. We went to the basketball court and I ran him through drills — by the third take of his audition, we had our Monk.”

Pop Smoke was cast on a Saturday and went before cameras two days later as production resumed. The rapper had never even read the Boogie script when cameras rolled because there wasn’t time. Instead, Huang prepped him on set before each scene, giving him Monk’s words verbatim, and describing the feelings the actor needed to convey. “Pop nailed it and made the character his own,” says Huang. “He was born to be an actor and he’s the greatest surprise in this movie.”

Four months later, Pop Smoke died tragically after being shot during a home invasion in the Hollywood Hills. He was only 21 years old. His legacy lives on through the soundtrack and score of Boogie, a tribute to the Brooklyn Drill sound the performer helped popularize. The Boogie soundtrack, featuring new music by the performer is available on Victor Victor Worldwide / Republic Records.

CHOREOGRAPHING BASKETBALL…AND NEW YORK

Boogie is at its heart a sports movie, and it was always Huang’s intention to foreground the basketball scenes as the beating heart of his debut feature. It’s also a New York movie to its core — at once gritty and romantic in its depiction of a multi-cultural, multi-layered and multi-hued metropolis where a Chinese-American teenager can ascend to the highest ranks of basketball. Choreographing New York City street basketball became of crucial importance in creating a sense of authenticity and visual style in the movie.

A cinephile with an encyclopedic knowledge of world cinema, Huang’s taste in movies range from Asian classics to the New American Cinema of the 1970s, including the works of Martin Scorsese. “From the beginning, when we sold this movie to Focus, I told them to think of this as a kung fu movie,” says Huang. “Basketball, like kung fu, is violent and physical and we were going to shoot it that way — but it’s also like ballet.”

He turned to Scorsese’s Mean Streets as inspiration for Boogie’s shooting style, as well as the film series Yakuza Papers, known in the West as Battles Without Honor and Humanity. “The first Yakuza Papers movie came out the same year as Mean Streets, and they’re both failed coming of age stories about low-level mobsters and they’re both shot in the same way — which is crazy because the directors were working on opposite ends of the globe and didn’t know each other,” says Huang.

Both works also employed a specific kind of tracking shot, using a second camera to capture peripheral characters and actions in the background. “When Johnny Boy walks through the bar in Mean Streets, Scorsese tracks him with one camera while another one picks off details on the periphery,” says Huang. “That was my vision for the basketball scenes in Boogie.”

Director of Photography Brett Jutkiewicz came to Huang with a similar take on capturing action sequences in the movie. Using a Dick’s Sporting Goods commercial to illustrate multiple cameras “picking off” baseball players on opposite ends of the field, Huang quickly recognized the camera style from Mean Streets and Yakuza Papers. “I said to Brett, you’re hired,” says Huang. “We were of the same mind, and he knew how Scorsese and Yakuza had used tracking shots to such a potent effect.”

Due to production delays, including the last-minute casting of Pop Smoke as Monk, the basketball sequences kept getting pushed deeper into the production schedule, often filming in the middle of the night in late September so the production team could gain access to city courts. Takahashi, who felt confident going into the production because the schedule would be starting with the basketball scenes, quickly found himself having to focus on more emotional scenes instead.

During week three of the shoot, Jutkiewicz and Huang finally began shooting the basketball scenes, but they did not go smoothly. During the second day of filming scenes at The Cage, the Lower East Side courts where Monk and Boogie are pitted against each other in a kind of basketball kung fu — Takahashi injured his right wrist, the arm he uses for everything from dribbling to shooting.

“Everything I was looking forward to in terms of representing the sport on film we had to suddenly work around because there was so much I couldn’t do as an athlete,” says Takahashi. “For the movie, I had to do a lot of left-handed moves because I couldn’t bend my right wrist. I learned so much about resilience playing basketball on camera with my non-dominant hand.”

Orchestrating and choreographing the basketball scenes involved meticulous focus and planning on the part of cast and crew — one slight discrepancy during a game could throw the entire sequence off. “You can never really plan things out in basketball — you can only react to what’s playing out on the court in a given moment,” says Takahashi. “It’s the opposite in Boogie — you couldn’t really react, we could only plan things out. As a basketball player I had to flip this mindset, because the natural flow wasn’t always there. The scenes were scripted. Sometimes during the shoot, I just had to run around for five minutes on the court and freestyle while the camera crew captured whatever they could in those moments.”

DOWNTOWN COOL

Boogie is also an expression of Huang’s reverence and passion for New York City street style, which dates back to his childhood interest in hip-hop culture and courses through his adult forays into clothing design in the form of his now-defunct street fashion labels Bergdorf Hoodman and Monica Monroe.

While costume designer Vera Chow tended to the more conservative garments of parental figures like Boogie’s parents, the Chins, and school officials, including Coach Hawkins, Huang plundered his own stash of vintage Polo, Alexander Wang and Stone Island to dress his teenage characters. “I’d known what everyone was going to wear in the movie for a long time,” says Huang. “Same with the music.”

His friends at Supreme and Aimé Leon Dore — the cult menswear boutique in Little Italy specializing in ‘90s-themed streetwear — loaned garments from the archives while friends in fashion circles donated pieces for various characters, including MadeMe garments worn by Eleanor’s sidekick Alyssa.

Downtown retailer Brian Procell — whose namesake store on the Lower East Side specializes in ‘80s and ‘90s vintage streetwear — helped Huang pull outfits from various brands and labels to be worn by many of the young actors in the cast. Huang dressed himself in Alexander Wang pieces from his own collection before hopping in front of the camera to play Jackie.

He gave vintage Polo and Timberland items, also from his personal collection, to Taylour Paige as she transformed into Eleanor. “Taylour is an L.A. girl, and she was very aware of that,” says Huang. “She quickly became a New York girl, sporting a classic hip-hop tomboy look.”

One actor, who plays the assistant coach on Boogie’s high-school basketball team, happened to be one of the foremost collectors in the world of Ralph Lauren’s Polo label, dressing himself from his own stash of classics. Even Boogie’s father — a convicted felon — exudes street style, sporting bootleg Louis Vuitton and Gucci of the sort crafty shoppers can procure on the sly in the streets of Chinatown.

REFLECTING THE DIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

Boogie shot from September 9 to October 16, 2019 in Lower Manhattan and on stages at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, bringing multi-culturalism to the forefront with its wildly diverse cast and crew, including Japanese-American, African-American and Chinese-American central characters, a Taiwanese-American writer-director, and Italian-American, Latin-American and African-American supporting players.

In its story of an Asian-American teenager infiltrating a sport and succeeding against all odds to catapult to the front ranks of the game, it opens up possibilities for young people to shatter preconceived ideas about who gets to play and who doesn’t.

“Boogie is about not limiting yourself to a boundary or a box that people might place you in,” says Takahashi. “You don’t have to be loud or exotic to get attention, you just have to be true to yourself and not let outside influences dissuade you from pursuing your dreams.”

The film is also a continuation of Huang’s ongoing mission to heighten and amplify Asian-American representation in popular culture, in the case of Boogie and Monk, normalizing the vision of an Asian kid and a black kid playing sports together.

“I’m a fourth-generation Asian American and Eddie is first-generation, and while we have different trajectories, Boogie highlights the dynamic of what an Asian American experience can be in this country. The movie brings together a lot of different people and gives voice to those who normally wouldn’t have a voice.”

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

Eddie Huang (Director, Screenwriter, Jackie) is best known for his work as a writer, director, actor, chef, and television personality. Born in Washington, D.C. and of Taiwanese descent, his auto-biographical book, Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir, was later adapted into an ABC television series of the same name, starring Constance Wu and John Cho, went on to successfully air for six seasons on ABC. Huang, who also has a foothold in the TV hosting world, can be seen on The Cooking Channel’s Cheap Bites & Unique Eats and Viceland’s Huang’s World. Huang continues to be a part of the cultural zeitgeist as he grows in both an on camera and off camera capacity.

Josh Bratman (Producer) is a native of the Bronx, NY. In 2005, Michael De Luca tapped Bratman to help launch his eponymous Columbia Pictures–based production company. There, Bratman oversaw an eclectic mix of films including Paul Greengrass’ “Captain Phillips,” David Gordon Green’s “The Sitter,” and Robert Luketic’s “21”. After spending over a decade at De Luca Productions, Bratman founded his own film and TV production shingle, Immersive Pictures. Most recently, he produced “Boogie” for Focus Features and executive produced, “Violence of Action,” the Tarik Saleh-directed action thriller starring Chris Pine, with Thunder Road and 30West. Currently, Immersive is developing several best-selling book adaptions and prestige biopics, including Universal Pictures’ “Untitled John Lennon Yoko Ono Film,” alongside Ono, Bafta-winning screenwriter Anthony McCarten and filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée.

Josh McLaughlin (Producer) departed Focus Features in August 2019 to form his own movie and television production company, WINK PICTURES and has managed to put together a diverse slate of films. He executive produced Let Him Go starring Kevin Costner and Diane Lane, released in Fall 2020 to critical acclaim and enormous financial success for Focus. On the release slate, McLaughlin produced the Eddie Huang-directed Asian “coming of age” story Boogie for Focus Features with a March 2021 release. On the development side, he has set up the upcoming novel The Maid, with Florence Pugh attached to star and produce; a film project with Lulu Wang
(The Farewell); an adaptation of the podcast Bagman with Ben Stiller directing; and a film about the relationship between Carol Burnett and her daughter Carrie, which he is producing alongside Carol and Tina Fey. On the television side, included amongst the many projects McLaughlin has in development, are a series with Hillary Swank, with directors Fleck and Boden (Captain Marvel, Ms.America) onboard to direct from a script by Chris Rogers (Halt and Catch Fire); and a series to be directed by Jake Kasdan, based on an original idea by McLaughlin and the Academy-nominated screenwriter Billy Ray. McLaughlin joined Focus in March 2012 as Senior Vice President of Production, after serving as Executive Vice President at Chernin Entertainment. He rose to become President of Production at Focus. While at President Of Production at Focus, McLaughlin was involved in the production of Spike Lee’s Blackkklansman, Kasi Lemmons' Harriet as well as many of Focus’ enormously successful slate of films such as The Darkest Hour and The Phantom Thread. While serving as an executive at Focus, he worked with a diverse series of filmmakers including Niki Caro (Mulan) on
The Zookeeper’s Wife, David Leitch (Hobbs and Shaw) on the Charlize Theron film Atomic Blonde,and Joel Edgerton on Boy Erased. During McLaughlin’s time working at Focus, the studio produced its three most successful years at the box office of its 15-year history and and films that garnered 20 Oscar Nominations with three wins.
Prior to his time at Focus, amongst the many projects McLaughlin developed for The Mark Gordon Company and Chernin Entertainment, included producing the critically acclaimed film Talk To Me directed by Kasi Lemmons starring Don Cheadle, as well as the Billy Crystal film Parental Guidance 20th Century Fox.

Michael Tadross (Producer) has played a pivotal role as a leading figure in the film industry for the last thirty years. He produced the acclaimed Ocean’s 8, a Warner Bros. production starring Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway and Rihanna. In fact, Tadross has produced many Warner Bros. films including Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, Run All Night, starring Liam Neeson, Cop Out, starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, Winter’s Tale, starring Colin Farrell and Russell Crowe, Arthur, starring Russell Brand, Helen Mirren, and Greta Gerwig, and I Am Legend starring Will Smith, one of the highest-budgeted science fiction movies to be entirely filmed in New York City. Earlier in his career, he produced The Devil’s Advocate, with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves, Jack Frost starring Michael Keaton, and Eraser, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vanessa Williams and James Caan.

Tadross’ producing credits also include Hitch for Columbia Pictures with Will Smith and Kevin James, Basic for Columbia Pictures with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, Rollerball for M.G.M. with Chris Klein, L.L. Cool J and Jean Reno, The Thomas Crown Affair for M.G.M. with Pierce Brosnan and Renee Russo, Indecent Proposal for Paramount Pictures with Robert Redford and Demi Moore, School Ties for Paramount Pictures with Brendan Frazier, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Brenda Starr for Sony Pictures with Brooke Shields and Timothy Dalton, and Die Hard: With A Vengeance for 20th Century Fox with Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons and Samuel L. Jackson – the highest grossing worldwide film of 1995.

During his tenure as Executive Vice President of Feature Production at Paramount
Pictures, Tadross shepherded such iconic blockbusters as Forrest Gump, Naked Gun 33 1/3, The Firm, Clear & Present Danger, the Wayne’s World franchise, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Beverly Hills Cop III, Coneheads, and Sliver … to name a few.

Tadross’s made-for-television producing credits include When Will I Be Loved? for CBS with Stephanie Powers, and Deadly Illusion for Columbia Television, starring Billy Dee Williams.

He was Unit Production Manager on Ghost, Coming to America, Black Rain, Trading Places, Death Wish III and Scream for Help, and was First Assistant Director on such features as Cocktail starring Tom Cruise and Masquerade with Rob Lowe, along with numerous other films and mini-series made for television. He’s also been awarded one gold and two platinum records.

He began his career as a camera trainee and assistant film editor. He is now a member of the Producer’s Guild of America, the Director’s Guild of America, and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.

Brett Jutkiewicz (Director of Photography) discovered filmmaking by commandeering his father’s Hi8 camcorder to make skate videos and short films as a teenager growing up in Long Island, New York. He studied film at Boston University where he met several young directors including Josh and Benny Safdie, whose debut features The Pleasure of Being Robbed (Cannes ‘08) and Daddy Longlegs (Sundance ’10) Brett photographed shortly after moving to New York City. Since then, Brett has continued to shoot award-winning feature films as well as commercials, music videos, and television shows. The Civil War-set Men Go to Battle earned Brett a spot in The New Yorker’s Top 5 Cinematography of 2016 list and his recent films include the Fox Searchlight thriller Ready or Not (2019), and Scream (2022) for Paramount Pictures/Spyglass Media. Brett continues to live and work in New York City and wherever the camera takes him.

Chris Trujillo (Production Designer) is a New York based production designer with a background in fine arts. He cut his art-department teeth in the world of TV commercials and music videos. He transitioned into feature film as an art director and set decorator on a number of critically acclaimed projects including Ti West’s House of the Devil and Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture. As a production designer, Chris has spent several years making films in New York City and on location all over the country, including Xan Cassavetes’ Kiss of the Damned, Sara Colangelo’s Little Accidents, Henry Joost and Ariel Shulman’s Nerve, and M. Night Shyamalan's Glass. His most recent design work has been on the award-winning Netflix series Stranger Things with Matt and Ross Duffer, for which he received an Emmy nomination in 2017.

Vera Chow (Costume Designer) first began her foray into costume design back when she was a toddler. Her dad entered her into a children’s costume show for a company event and amidst the kicking and screaming, she secretly liked it. Vera continued through school designing every school play, won numerous art competitions and eventually landed a spot at Parsons School of Design and the European Institute of Design. Vera is now an established international costume designer. Her many credits include Big Fan, Kevin Can Wait, American Ripper, Shanghai Fortress, and Skyfire. On set you can usually find her hovering by craft services (especially when there is cheese), underneath a pile of smelly clothes in a costume shop, or tearing through stores and showrooms like the apocalypse is nigh. Vera is currently designing the hugely popular and iconic series The Walking Dead.

ABOUT THE CAST

Taylor Takahashi (Alfred Chin aka Boogie) was born and raised in the Bay Area, one of the most diverse playgrounds in America, where he explored his identity through the avenue of sports. His love for the game of basketball taught him life’s basic lessons and ultimately, led him to the opportunity to meet Eddie Huang in a basketball league. Boogie is Taylor’s feature-film debut and he looks forward to continuing to use his voice in an industry that needs more people of color. He would like to thank Eddie Huang for this journey, guidance, and insight.

Bashar Jackson (Monk) was a multifaceted Brooklyn-based artist known to the world by his professional moniker, Pop Smoke. The Canarsie native was christened "Brooklyn Rap's Homecoming" by The New York Times and was recognized for bringing "a sense of excitement to New York rap that had been absent for years" (Complex). Pop Smoke carried Brooklyn as the borough's next icon in the wings; his artistry ushered in a new era of music that will impact culture for years to come. His breakthrough 2019 mixtape Meet the Woo premiered to both critical and commercial success. He turned up at the top of 2020 with the Gold certified Meet the Woo 2 that debuted at #7 on the Billboard Top 200. His posthumous debut album, Shoot for the Stars Aim For The Moon, was released in July 2020, debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200, spent 22 weeks in the Top 5, had the most weeks at #1 in the history of the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart since 2012, topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland, and became UK's biggest debut album of the year. His single, “Dior,” is recognized with a GRAMMY nomination for Best Rap Performance. As of January 1, 2021, Pop Smoke has amassed more than eleven billion streams worldwide and counting.

Taylour Paige (Eleanor) is an actress and professionally trained dancer who is quickly making a name for herself in Hollywood. She made a splash at SXSW in 2016 with her feature-film debut, Jean of the Joneses, which opened to glowing reviews and put her on the map with the title role. Taylour then went on to star in Yann Demange’s White Boy Rick, opposite Matthew McConaughey, and then won the titular role in the upcoming A24 feature film Zola with Riley Keough. Taylour stars opposite Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman in the Netflix film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, produced by Todd Black and Denzel Washington.

Perry Yung (Mr. Chin) is an American actor and musician from Oakland, CA who received his breakout role as Ping Wu in Steven Soderberg’s Cinemax series The Knick. He quickly became a fan favorite and recurred for two seasons. He has guest starred on Gotham, The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, Royal Pains, Limitless and Law and Order: SVU. His film work includes John Wick: Chapter 2, Benji the Dove, Condemned and Jade Pendant; and he voiced the Puppet master in the English-language release of the Chinese animated feature The Guardian Brothers. In 2018 Perry landed the role of Father Jun in Cinemax’s Warrior, produced by Justin Lin (Fast and Furious), Shannon Lee (Bruce Lee’s daughter) and Jonathan Tropper (Banshee). This dream production allowed him to combine acting with his music career as an award-winning shakuhachi bamboo flute musician. His flute playing is heard on the soundtrack score throughout Season 1. Perry is a member of La Mama Theater's Great Jones Repertory Company of New York City and has appeared Off-Broadway and internationally since 1993.

Pamelyn Chee (Mrs. Chin) is a Shanghainese actress born in Singapore and raised in NYC. She was last seen in the feature sequel Beyond Skyline, alongside Frank Grillo and Iko Uwais. She also guest-starred on Freeform's Stitchers. She played the titular role in HBO Asia's Grace, headlining the show with Russell Wong. This show was nominated for eight awards at the Asian Television Awards. She also starred alongside Joan Chen and Chin Han, Don Hany, and Michael Dorman in HBO Asia's Serangoon Road. The show was nominated for an AACTA for best drama series in Australia. Pamelyn was discovered on YouTube by Heidi Levitt for Wayne Wang's feature Princess of Nebraska. She speaks fluent Mandarin and Cantonese, and continues to travel between Asia and the US for work.

Claire Hsu (Young Mrs. Chin) is a two-time award-winning trilingual actress born in Taiwan who has performed in Chinese, French and English both on stage and on screen. Upon graduation, she landed a part in Lynne Ramsay’s Cannes-winning You Were Never Really Here and shared the screen with Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix (Joker). That same year she became Disney’s live-action Mulan finalist, and was screen tested at Disney Studios. Claire has portrayed characters ranging from innocent (twice as victims on Emmy-winning A Crime to Remember) to badass (as a crime boss in Broken Badges). She can be seen in national TV commercials, as well as on the book cover of Soundless (by New York Times bestselling author Richelle Meade). Claire won Best Lead Actress for Nanny at First Line Festival 2017 and took home the same prize for Locked Alone at Northern Ireland YFIFF 2019. 

Jessica Huang (Shan, fortune teller) is Eddie Huang’s mother, making her feature-film debut.
Alexa Mareka (Alissa) marks Mareka’s feature-film debut; she also recently played a small role in the independent feature Out and About. Currently residing in New York, Alexa was born and raised in Florida where she received her early training in theater. Since 2017, Alexa has been studying acting and filmmaking at NYU, starring in several student films.
Jorge Lendeborg, Jr. (Richie) has proven to be one of the busiest young actors after making his film debut only three years ago. The Dominican-born Lendeborg was recently named to The Hollywood Reporter’s Next Generation 2018 list and is known for starring opposite Hailee Steinfeld in the Transformers spinoff, Bumblebee, for director Travis Knight, which has earned more than $460 million worldwide at the box office. Additionally, Jorge can be seen in Robert Rodriguez’s  Alita: Battle Angel, produced by James Cameron and starring alongside Christoph Waltz, Ed Skrein, and Rosa Salazar. Jorge also starred in Greg Berlanti’s Fox feature Love, Simon alongside Nick Robinson and Jennifer Garner. Recently, Jorge wrapped production on Diego Hallivis’ independent film American Carnage, starring opposite Jenna Ortega and Eric Dane, as well as on Amazon Studio’s Bliss, starring opposite Luke Wilson and Salma Hayek. Jorge also appears in a leading role in John Leguizamo’s feature directorial debut Critical Thinking, starring opposite Michael K. Williams. In 2016, Jorge broke out in a starring role in Stephen Caple Jr.’s feature debut The Land for IFC Films, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, earning him rave reviews for his performance. He can also be seen in Dave McCary’s Brigsby Bear opposite Claire Danes and Kyle Mooney, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017 and sold to Sony Pictures Classics. Additional credits include Jon Watt’s Spider-Man: Homecoming and the independent feature Shot.
Steve Coulter (Mr. Richmond) recently wrapped The Conjuring 3 as Father Gordon, also portraying the role in Annabelle Comes Home as well as finishing the feature El Tonto, directed by Charlie Day. He will next be seen in Warner Brothers’ Just Mercy opposite Michael B. Jordan. He can be seen recurring on Starz's P-Valley, Paramount Network's Yellowstone, Hulu's The Act, Syfy's The Purge, and a great guest-star spot on HBO's Watchmen. Before that, he had a recurring role on Hank Azaria's Brockmire for IFC, as well as a turn on the hit Netflix series House of Cards. He also portrayed Martin London in the HBO movie The Wizard of Lies starring Robert De Niro. He can of course also be seen in The Conjuring 1 and  2. He appears in a leading role in Insidious: Chapter 2, directed by James Wan, and can also be seen in Insidious: Chapter 3. Steve has also recurred on AMC's The Walking Dead and Cinemax's Banshee. 
Domenick Lombardozzi (Coach Hawkins) is an established actor known for his work on both the big and small screen alike. Most recently, Lombardozzi starred in Martin Scorsese’s critically acclaimed Netflix feature The Irishman, opposite Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Anna Paquin. Currently, he can be seen starring alongside Kathryn Hahn as a series regular on the HBO half-hour comedy Mrs. Fletcher, where he plays a struggling plumber taking care of his aging father. Lombardozzi also appears in the recurring role of Jack Maple, legendary New York City police detective, in HBO’s The Deuce. He appears in Universal Pictures’ Judd Apatow-Pete Davidson collaboration with Marisa Tomei, Bill Burr and Steve Buscemi, The King of Staten Island. Among his other television credits, he has appeared on Showtime's Ray Donovan and on Courtney Kemp's hit Starz series Power. On the big screen, he played opposite Liam Neeson in Cold Pursuit. Perhaps his most notable credit is for is his leading role in the early 2000’s HBO hit series The Wire, in which Lombardozzi portrayed  Detective Thomas 'Herc' Hauk, a Baltimore police officer turned P.I., playing opposite Michael Kostroff, Seth Gilliam, Dominic West and Idris Elba across five seasons. Other past television credits include Magnum P.I.., Yellowstone, MacGyver, Sneaky Pete, The Good Wife, Boardwalk Empire, Rosewood, and Breakout Kings, among others. Past film credits include Bridge of Spies, For the Love of the Game, Find Me Guilty, The Family, The Wannabe, The Gambler, Blood Ties, and Miami Vice, among others.
Tommy Bo (Terry) is a recent graduate of Point Park University. Tommy recently shot Hit and Run, on Netflix.  His theatre credits include Dead Bird Boys, Coram Boy, and Good Person of Szechwan at Point Park University. He is represented by HCKR and The Cooper Company. 
Shenell Edmonds (Tina) joined Daytime sudser One Life to Live in 2009 as college-bound teenager Destiny. Shenell’s maternal family hails from the island of Dominica (not Dominican Republic). Using every opportunity to represent the island, Shenell was invited to escort Mayor Toni Harp of the City of New Haven CT for International Women’s day, where she modeled the national dress of Dominica, the Wob Dwiyet, during the city’s Caribbean Heritage Festival; she wore hand-woven earrings portraying the island’s flag in People Magazine, and wore the traditional Madras cloth as a headband in an episode of Blue Bloods, among other occasions. Ms. Edmonds enjoys various types of music, dancing, and traveling, but most of all, she is passionate about acting, whether on stage, on camera, or in the living room.

Mike Moh (Melvin) is known for captivating audiences with his versatility and charisma, Mike Moh’s repertoire of humanistic portrayals have garnered him critical acclaim in film and television. Moh will was most recently seen in Sony’s, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in which he plays the iconic Bruce Lee opposite Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie.  The ninth film from writer-director Quentin Tarantino pays tribute to the final moments of Hollywood’s golden age. On television, Moh starred as ‘Triton,’ a skilled assassin who has the ability to live underwater in Marvel’s Inhumans for ABC.  His other television credits include Castle on ABC and Empire on FOX.  Additionally, his was applauded for both his dramatic and action abilities for his performance as ‘Ryu’ in Street Fighter: Assassins Fist.Moh also owns Moh's Martial Arts in Madison, Wisconsin.

Ben Davis (Josh, St. John’s Scout) is a Tony Honoree whose credits include the upcoming The Woman in the Window with Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, and Gary Oldman; The Magic Flute, directed by Kenneth Branagh, and the Award-winning film of Samuel Barber’s A Hand of Bridge. Television credits include Law and Order: SVU, Blue Bloods, 30 Rock, and Numb3rs. Broadway credits include, Baz Luhrmann’s La Boheme, Dear Evan Hansen, Violet, A Little Night Music, Les Miserables, and Thoroughly Modern Millie. He is represented by CESD in NYC.

Ezra Knight (MLK Coach) was seen most recently off-Broadway as Woody in the world premiere of Toni Stone at the Laura Pels/Roundabout Theatre. On Broadway he appeared in Mean Girls, Pretty Woman (original cast), and in Lincoln Center’s production of Cymbeline. Regional work includes Ivo Van Hove's
A View from the Bridge at the Goodman Theatre. Television work includes Wu-Tang: An American Saga, Murphy Brown, Daredevil, Random Acts of Flyness, Quantico, Billions, The Blacklist, The Following, Orange is the New Black, Law & Order, and the forthcoming Starling. Ezra’s film work includes ADDicted, The Abandoned, Lost Cat Corona, Straight Outta Tompkins, Table One, and the short film Symposium. Ezra resides in Harlem, NY. 

Margaret Odette (Principal Kodal) is a native New Yorker and graduate of the famed NYU Tisch School of the Arts with her MFA in Acting. While still in school Odette made her big screen debut opposite Jason Sudeikis in Leslye Headland’s Romantic Comedy Sleeping with Other People. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was the runner-up for the Audience Award. Odette’s television appearances include the popular CBS series’ Instinct alongside Alan Cumming and Elementary with Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu. It is on stage that Margaret really shines and continues to impress all in and out of the business in her young rising career. Odette performed with the Chautauqua Theatre Company for their 2016 season which led to Hal Brooks casting her in his production of Figaro at the Pearl Theatre. Her performance in Dominique Morrisseau’s Skeleton Crew for director Awoye Timpo garnered her a Berkshire Theatre Award nomination. This led to the lead role in Paradise Blue at Long Wharf Theatre. Previously, she starred in Daniel Talbott’s Off Broadway staging of Jessica Dickey’s play The Convent at A.R.T. She most recently completed a successful run of The Public Theater’s Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Kenny Leon for Shakespeare in the Park. Odette also completed filming the pilot for the Showtime anthology series How to Make Love to a Black Woman, directed by Naima Ramos Chapman and starring Cynthia Erivo.

John Orantes (Cage referee) was born and raised in San Francisco, California, the youngest of three siblings.He became interested in acting when he was 14 after watching Johnny Depp’s performance in Pirates of The Caribbean: Curse of The Black Pearl, and from watching actors such as Robin Williams, Danny Glover, and Jack Nicholson. His first major feature role was in Douglas Miller’s independent feature, Repatriation, alongside Ryan Barton-Grimley. Since moving to Los Angeles, can be seen in numerous projects including Christopher Nolan’s Tenet for Warner Brothers. On television, he can be seen on CBS’ S.W.A.T., NBC’s New Amsterdam and the Apple TV+ series Truth Be Told.

In Loving Memory of
Bashar "Pop Smoke" Jackson
July 20, 1999 - February 19, 2020

FOCUS FEATURES presents

an IMMERSIVE PICTURES production

“BOOGIE”

Written and Directed by
EDDIE HUANG

Producers
JOSH BRATMAN
JOSH McLAUGHLIN
MICHAEL TADROSS

Co-Producers
SHANE MUNGUIA
CHARBEL YOUSSEF

Executive Producer
RAFAEL MARTINEZ

Production Designer
CHRIS TRUJILLO

Director of Photography
BRETT JUTKIEWICZ

Score by
ADRIAN YOUNGE and ALI SHAHEED MUHAMMAD

Costume Designer
VERA CHOW

Edited by
JOAN SOBEL, ACE

Unit Production Manager CHARLES ZALBEN
First Assistant Director NICHOLAS R. BELL
Second Assistant Director SCOTT FOSTER

CAST

Alfred “Boogie” Chin TAYLOR TAKAHASHI
Eleanor TAYLOUR PAIGE
Monk BASHAR “POP SMOKE” JACKSON
Mr. Chin PERRY YUNG
Mrs. Chin PAMELYN CHEE
Melvin MIKE MOH
Richie JORGE LENDEBORG JR.
Coach Hawkins DOMENICK LOMBARDOZZI
Mr. Richmond STEVE COULTER
Fortune Teller JESSICA HUANG
Uncle Jackie EDDIE HUANG
Alissa ALEXA MAREKA
Assistant Coach DESPOT
Young Mr. Chin REN HSIEH
Young Mrs. Chin CLAIRE HSU
Patrick LENARD "CThaGOD" MCKELVEY
Barracks MC AC CASCIANI
Arthur (Dragon Team) MING WU
Terayle (Dragon Team) TERAYLE HILL
Memphis Houston MITCHELL ITO
Dennis Thompson (MLK Team) FARNOLD DEGAND
Oracles Cook BERNARD CHANG
Joy SAMANTHA EBERLE
Terry TOMMY BO
Tina SHENELL EDMONDS
Josh (St. John’s Scout) BEN DAVIS
MLK Coach EZRA KNIGHT
Principal Kodak MARGARET ODETTE
Todd SAM JULES
Cops ED ARISTONE
ARIEL ELIAZ
High School Ref KAREEM SAVINON
Cage Ref JOHN ORANTES
David (Young Basketball Player) TY PAULEY
Bronx Basketball Player MICHAEL DURADOLA
Man on Bus PHILLIP S. SOTTILE

Stunt Coordinator KEIL ZEPERNICK
Stunt Players JEREMY SAMPLE
RANDALL TRANG
KENNY WONG
PAI-SEN WANG
DERRIC STOTTS
GUISEPPE ARDIZZONE
FRANK ALFANO JR.
DAVID F. CHEN
STEVE MASON

Art Director NAOMI MUNRO
Graphic Artist VANESSA RIEGEL
Storyboard Artist WES SIMPKINS
Art Department Coordinator NATALIE LIZBETH MONTOYA

Set Decorator OLIVIA PEEBLES
Assistant Set Decorator PAIGE MITCHELL
Leadperson MIKE MURPHY
Shop Foreperson CINDY FAIN-VREELAND
On Set Dresser MIKE MARCEL
Set Dressers MIKE CONSOLMAGNO
DIANA DONOVAN
FABRICE CARRIER
MARK RODRIGUEZ

Property Master MONICA JACOBS
Assistant Property Master AUDRA KLAIR
Props Assistant NAEEM DAVID

A Camera Operator STANLEY FERNANDEZ
B Camera Operator CHRISTOPHER MESSINA
A Camera First Assistant JAMES SCHLITTENHART
B Camera First Assistant BAYLEY SWEITZER
A Camera Second Assistant JORGE DEL TORO
B Camera Second Assistant RACHEL FEDORKOVA
Digital Imaging Technician JAIME CHAPIN
Video Assist ADAM SMELIN
Loader ADAM SCHLARB

Gaffer MICHAEL MORTELL
Best Boy Electric BRANDON MORGAN
Company Electrics KENNETH MARCH
MITCHELL PERRIN
HECTOR HERRERA
Basecamp Genny Operator COURTNEY DENK

Key Grip SCOTT DeANGELO
Best Boy Grip ELI MORALES
A Camera Dolly Grip JASON LOPEZ
B Camera Dolly Grip JULES CORTEZ
Grips WILL MENA
JUSTIN HONEY
TOKUHISA TOYODA

Production Sound Mixer ANTONIO L. ARROYO
Boom Operator DMITRI VOLOVIK
Utility JOE SAVASTANO

Special Effects Coordinators JOSEPH GALIONE
JOSEPH SACCO

Assistant Costume Designer WENDY YANG
Costume Supervisor JESSICA ZAVALA
Costume Coordinator CHRIS MAHNKEN
Key Costumer MARY CAPRARI
Set Costumer MARQUIS BIAS
Tailor KATIE PATZEL

Make-up Department Head ANOUCK SULLIVAN
Key Make-up Artist ADELINA ATASHI
Hair Department Head DANIELLE CRAWFORD
Key Hair Stylist DUANE MOODY

Location Manager DANIEL McCARTHY
Assistant Location Manager BRAD REICHEL
Location Coordinator SEAN TRAYNOR
Location Assistants TRAMAINE RENEE
ANTHONY HO
Parking Coordinator JON JOHNSON, SR.

Script Supervisor RACHEL COLE

Production Supervisor CHARBEL YOUSSEF
Production Coordinator BETTY CHIN
Assistant Production Coordinator MEREDITH METCALF
Production Secretary TREVOR LAUFER
Assets Manager DARREN E. JOHNSON

Additional Editors SCOTT CUMMINGS
SUSAN E. MORSE, A.C.E.

Post Production Supervisor ISABEL HENDERSON

Assistant Editors MICHAEL WOOLDRIDGE
KENNY DUCLOS
LARA KHACHOONI
BETHANY ORLEMANN
Post Production Assistant GRIFFIN BRUCE

Second Second Assistant Director MARA TULEUTAYEVA
Additional Second Assistant Director THERON T. ALFORD

Production Assistants

DANNY FAUCETTA KIRA LIVA
MAGGIE GRABER YANNI SOFILLAS
BOBBY ROSE CHARLIE LIAO
PHIL FRANCE JOSHUA TAYLOR
LOREN HERBERT CICELY VASTA
BRANDON KAPLAN JACKIE KIM
EMMA DEKOONING VILLENUEVE TONY GONZALEZ
DAPHNE MIA ESSIET

Assistant to Mr. Tadross KIM PAULEY
Assistant to Mr. Huang ANNA POLLACK

Production Accountant JENNIFER GATES
First Assistant Accountant KAREEM O’NEILL
Second Assistant Accountant PARMJOT GIRN
Accounting Clerk ANTHONY PENCZNER
Payroll Accountant ERIC BELLAMY
Payroll Clerk STEVEN RICARDO
Post Production Accountant KELSEY SCHULER

Background Casting MEREDITH JACOBSON MARCIANO
Casting Assistant ERIKA DEMEZA
Unit Publicist NICOLE KALISH
Still Photographer NICOLE RIVELLI

Construction Coordinator PIERRE ROVIRA
Key Construction Grip STEVE FRATIANNI
Shop Electric HARRIS COHEN
Camera Scenic YUKO NAKAO
GERALDINE POPE
Charge Scenic KATELYN SMITH
Scenic HEATHER PIPER

Transportation Captain TIM WOOD
Transportation Co-Captain BRETT MICHEL
DOT Compliance Administrator ASHLEY LaBUTTE

Clearances ASHLEY KRAVITZ
Production Counsel DAVID BOYLE
ADAM MACY
JULIANNE PATTERSON
LAUREN HANSSON
Translation Consultant MIN DING

Security REGIN ASSOCIATES INC.
Health Safety Manager ADAM TACKETT
On Set Medic BOB BRODER
Catering FIRST PRODUCTION CATERING
Head Chef RODOLFO MACHUCA
Craft Service MARSHARK CRAFT

Aerial Director of Photography BRIAN HELLER
Helicopter Pilot AL CERULLO

Re-recording Mixer / Sound Supervisor RUY GARCIA

ADR Supervisor MARISSA LITTLEFIELD
Dialogue Editor LUCIANO VIGNOLA
Effects Editor ISAAC DERFEL
Assistant Sound Editor AILIN GONG
Foley Artists ALEKSANDRA STOJANOVIC
VLADIMIR KERKEZ
Foley Recordists VLADAN NEDELJKOV
ALEKSANDAR RANCIC
ADR Recording Studios POSTWORKS NY
SOUNDTRACK NY
ADR Mixers MARK DESIMONE
CHRIS WHITE
ADR Recordist KRISTIN CATUOGNO
Re-Recording Assistant JEVON JOHNSON
Sound Project Manager CHRISTINE ANDREWS
Post Production Sound Services POSTWORKS NY
ADR Group Coordinators DANN FINK
BRUCE WINANT

Loop Group

DONTE BONNER KALISTA BREWSTER
JUSTIN DAVIS DANN FINK
AMBER JUNAI KENNETH LEE
STEPHEN LIN POPPI LIU
JADA MAYO REYNALDO PINIELLA
BRYAN REYNOSO ARMANDO RIESCO
SHIRLEY RUMIERK MYLES TAYLOR
BRUCE N. WINANT LYA YANNE

Visual Effects by BRAINSTORM DIGITAL
Visual Effects Supervisor ERAN DINUR
Visual Effects Producers GLENN ALLEN
RICH FRIEDLANDER
Matte Painter BEN ZYLBERMAN
Compositing Supervisor YUNSIK NOH
Digital Compositor UNGGYU CHOI

Additional Visual Effects by CADENCE EFFECTS
Visual Effects Supervisor CRAIG CRAWFORD
Visual Effects Producer JEREMY BEADELL
Digital Compositors PETER STEFFAN
MAX AUSTIN

Dailies GOLDCREST NY
Title Design TEDDY BLANKS
End Titles ENDCRAWL.COM

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