King Richard Actor Aunjanue Ellis expresses her admiration for ‘Inspirational’ Serena Williams

Serena Williams

The Tennis world got a glimpse about Serena Williams and Venus Williams‘ childhood and their ascendance to being one of the greatest players of all time, through the docu-drama released in 2021, King Richard.

The film depicts the legendary Williams sister’s tennis journey through the viewpoint of their father, Richard Williams. The film showed how invested Richard was hugely invested in Serena and Venus’ tennis career and how Richard and his wife Oracene became coaches for their daughters in their early careers, and how he laid the groundwork on their whole career trajectories before they were even born.

Aujane Ellis talks about how Serena Williams inspired her niece

Aunjanue Ellis who plays the role of Serena and Venus’ mother, Oracene Price revealed how inspiring the movie was in an interview. Ellis explained how her niece was influenced by Serena and to go to her gymnastic classes.

“The night that it came out, my niece, nine, watched the movie at least two times, from what I understand. While she was in the bath, she watched it again. The next morning she had to go to gymnastics and she told my sister she said that ‘I don’t feel like going’ and my sister said to her, ‘well, what would Serena do?’ and my niece was like, ‘okay. all right. I’ll go’. That’s all I needed. That movie was a direct inspiration for my niece to get up on Saturday morning and go to gymnastics,” she said.

Ellis also said she felt it was her responsibility to portray Oracene’s character and show the sacrifices she made for her daughters and pay tribute to her, which she rightly deserves. Will Smith, who played the titular character of Richard Williams also said he was honored to be a part of the film and bring this incredible story to life.