There’s a new White Men Can’t Jump movie on the way for Hulu subscription holders, and it features a brand new cast. Following in the footsteps of Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson are Sinqua Walls and Jack Harlow. While Wells has been acting for some time now, this title on the schedule of 2023 new movie releases marks Harlow’s feature-film debut. The rapper may be well known for his musical prowess, but he had to prove that he could co-lead this production, which required some basketball work on his part. Luckily enough, after his audition, he did something “funny” that ultimately landed him the gig.
You may be tempted to assume that casting the two lead characters wasn’t all that easy, and you’d be right to think so. I had the pleasure of speaking with director Charles “Calmatic” Kidd ahead of the White Men Can’t Jump reboot’s imminent release, and he spoke about the casting process. He described it as “challenging” because the stars he looked at couldn’t perform all of the duties needed for the movie. In time though, Sinqua Wells – whose credits include Power and Teen Wolf – got on the filmmaker’s radar. Kidd explained to me that Wells fit the role Kamal Allen for a few key reasons:
Man, it was so challenging. It was just so many great actors that couldn't hoop, and so many great hoopers that couldn't act, you know what I mean? So when we found Sinqua, it was like, ‘Oh, like, let's stop here, let's really think about this. I think this might be our guy.’ I interviewed him even before our audition. … I found out that he was an LA native, and he went to the same, you know, junior highs and high schools that I went to. And it was like, ‘Okay, you get this world. You get this character. You know exactly what's going on, and you’ve been acting for a while now. And so we need someone like you to kind of anchor this set, and like, you know, be like the strong point. Because we don’t know who the white man is yet. You know, it might be a newcomer.’
So clearly, Calmatic knew right away that Sinqua Walls was the right person to be the spiritual successor to Wesley Snipes (who would’ve been down for a sequel). But what about the movie’s main white man? Well, it seems the House Party helmer looked at a few stars before he landed on Jack Harlow, who’d previously hosted SNL. The EP was initially pretty pleased with what he saw from the Grammy nominee. Yet funny enough, Harlow had another “audition” after meeting with his would-be-director:
And then, you know, the name Jack Harlow came up, and it was like, ‘Oh yeah, this makes sense.’ And it's funny, because the day after he auditioned, he had a celebrity basketball game, and it was like, that was his basketball audition. We were watching him [,and] he was shooting three pointers from deep and going to the hole and doing reverse layups. And I was like, ‘Alright, We'll get a trainer for him, and then we’ll make him look like, you know, the best basketball player ever. And over the course of prep, while he was on tour, he was training with a basketball trainer. He was working with an acting coach, and he came to set overly prepared. And to be honest, I can't see this movie without [him and Sinqua].
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The irony of the situation can definitely make you chuckle. Yet the “Whats Poppin” singer’s exploits on the court are no joke, as he really made an impression at the NBA's 2022 Celebrity Game. So it’s not too hard to understand why he’s right for the role of Jeremy. He shares that interest in basketball with Sinqua Walls, and it may have contributed to their off-camera friendship. That warm connection is also a major reason why their White Men Can’t Jump characters’ bond feels authentic.
But when he’s not in character and schooling people on the blacktop, Jack Harlow plays out funny scenes as Jeremy, some of which see him humorously mixing it up with Sinqua Walls’ Kamal. This is a major professional step for Harlow, and one hopes that moving forward, he’ll nail other auditions as well as he did this one.
White Men Can’t Jump will arrive on Hulu on May 19.
