King Richard

LOS ANGELES, March 27 (Reuters) - Will Smith won his first Academy Award on Sunday, capturing the best actor honor for his portrayal of Richard Willia...

Richard Williams has been in ill health for years and did not take part. Isha Price, one of Venus and Serena’s three older half-sisters, was an early collaborator on the “King Richard” script, providing details and recollections that made the movie the story of the family. Smith shot to fame in the 1990s in the television sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and took on mostly comedy and action roles early in his movie career before expanding into drama.

The inspirational sports drama features Smith's best performance in years, writes Adam White.

Richard is a conundrum of a protagonist, a man who is by turns inspiring, brilliant, ignorant and mean. Despite its optics as a treacly biopic endorsed by the famous women it revolves around, King Richard spends a lot of time in those uncertain waters. A tennis player said on TV that she was earning $47,000 (£35,000) a tournament, perking Richard up and leading him to write a 78-page plan outlining the entire careers of his then unborn daughters. He plays Richard Williams, a tennis coach and security guard who always sensed that at least one of his daughters would be a sports sensation. You will have probably heard that Will Smith is in a film about Venus and Serena Williams, that he plays their father, and that the movie is more about him than it is about the world’s most famous sisters. But it’s less likely that you’ve actually seen King Richard. It’s a film first eclipsed by the concurrent release of Smith’s skin-crawlingly intimate memoir, then by headlines about what a financial disaster it was at the box office.

Will Smith's best actor Oscar for "King Richard" on Sunday is the crowning glory of a wide-ranging showbiz career for the former "Fresh Prince" -- but the ...

The biggest box office hit of Smith's career came with his role as the genie in Disney's live-action "Aladdin" remake in 2019, while he has also continued to star in original sci-fi fare such as "I Am Legend" and "Gemini Man." Since then, Smith has signed up for more "Men in Black" and "Bad Boys" sequels, as well as trying his hand at Hollywood's superhero craze with "Hancock" and "Suicide Squad." The following year, he starred in "The Pursuit of Happyness," with Smith giving a moving Oscar-nominated performance opposite his son Jaden, one of two children he has with Jada, his second wife. The end of the 1990s and the beginning of the next decade saw Smith branch out into more serious films such as "Enemy of the State" and "The Legend of Bagger Vance." The duo found commercial success and eventually won two Grammys, but financial difficulties turned Smith toward acting, and he found a starring role in the hit series "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air." BOOM!).

Will Smith has officially won this year's Best Actor Academy Award for his performance in the sports biopic King Richard.

Until then, this is arguably one of the most emotionally conflicting wins in Oscar history. His Best Actor win should be the story, but it has taken a backseat to this unpredicted chaos. However, the biggest shock of the night came when actor Will Smith slapped Chris Rock across the face for joking about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Even with that bizarre confrontation, Smith was still one of the biggest winners of the night as he won Best Actor for his role in King Richard.

Will Smith became the focal point of the 2022 Oscars, and his invocation of King Williams as his inspiration was a poor choice.

In bringing up the parallel in his acceptance speech, Smith may have not been excusing his actions so much as explaining them, and the subtle nuance in that distinction is important. Though there were undoubtedly admirable traits about Williams as a father, even the film itself acknowledges that his often rash and bullheaded behavior was not excusable just because his challenges reaped success. Williams' behavior is not something the film necessarily condones, and a key scene toward the finale featuring his wife reprimanding him for his actions makes that clear. King Richard is based on the real-life story of tennis coach Richard Williams raising his daughters Venus and Serena to become some of the greatest athletes in the world. That cost, in the context of King Richard, is that the titular character is uncompromising and self-assured to the point of barreling through anyone who stands in his way. Actor Will Smith made Oscars history at the 94th Academy Awards, but it wasn't for his win for King Richard. Though the actor was the favorite to win Best Actor in the lead-up to the night, his physical altercation with comedian Chris Rock became the focal point of the ceremony.

The 2022 Academy Awards started off with a bang when the Williams sisters took the stage to tee up Beyonce performing from their hometown tennis courts.

It was perfectly fitting that Beyonce would perform on the Lueders Park courts that were officially rebranded as the Venus and Serena Williams Court of Champions in 2016. Then, the camera panned to the court, where Beyonce was accompanied by dozens of dancers and musicians, including her and Jay-Z's daughter Blue Ivy. In the Will Smith-starring film about the Williams sisters' upbringing, Beyonce's song that she co-wrote with Dixson (real name Darius Scott), plays under the end credits.