‘HIM’ director Justin Tipping digs into the dark side of pro sports

El Cerrito native Justin Tipping is kicking it in the big times now and credits his first indie feature s Oakland-set Kicks with Mahershala Ali for paving the way to his biggest career milestone yet directing and co-screenwriting the provocative new horror film HIM a dark look at American football and fame The reason I m here is because Jordan Peele saw Kicks and loved it Tipping declared during a phone interview Around the time that was being disclosed he had won an Academy Award best original screenplay for Get Out and had just started Monkeypaw Productions He yearned to meet young filmmakers and craved to meet me So the seed was planted Then came a nearly decade-long gap with Tipping venturing into various projects in the streaming and TV universe When HIM originally titled GOAT hit Peele s desk the stars aligned and Tipping s attention was piqued Since he had participated in basketball baseball soccer and gymnastics while growing up in the East Bay he instantly responded to the film s crazy sports-themed plot in which up-and-coming football contestant Cameron Cade played by Tyriq Withers goes on the mend and trains at veteran football icon Isaiah White s Marlon Wayans freaky Southwest desert sports compound after an attack by a deranged fan Little does Cam know he just stepped into a Dantean lair religious allusions and all Related Articles Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk hosting spooky screenings throughout October Photos Actor Jason Schwartzman lists California cottage for just under million Robert Redford actor director environmentalist dead at What to watch father-son story hits home in Paper Bag Plan Review Long Walk is a brutal and riveting adaptation of Stephen King novel HIM opens Sept in area theaters What also drew Tipping and Peele to the HIM was that it explored particular of the same themes including those pertaining to the concept masculinity that Tipping had raised in Kicks a personal film centered on a Richmond teen going to dangerous lengths to retrieve a pair of Air Jordans that had been violently stolen from him Tipping based Kicks in part on his own teen experience While the two films do overlap on certain hot-button topics they diverge in other avenues Tipping says Kicks explores toxic masculinity and society s expectations and the dark side of that and what comes with that Tipping stated HIM does too but I would say in a slightly different way The shoes in Kicks were the commodity and that was the symbolic thing of commodity fetishism where we covet these items and put our entire personhood into them In HIM the commodities take flesh-and-blood forms I came in and notified Jordan that this movie is exploring the absurdity of toxic masculinity but within an institution Tipping explains And for me this was Let s make the horror centered around what happens when we make the athlete the commodity And if an athlete gets injured he or she is disposable You re basically just a warm body used as a puppet And if we can make that film then we re onto something Critical to pulling off an authentic sports movie involved casting actors who looked like athletes The biggest question mark that hounded everyone was who the hell is going to be able to pull off playing Cam Enter Withers a former Florida State Seminoles Football participant and I Know What You Did Last Summer heartthrob After being proposed by casting director Carmen Cuba the -year-old Withers swayed Tipping with his athletic background and previous performances including an episode of Atlanta as well as with an Instagram post in which the actor gave a memorable wrap-up speech Withers came across as so soulful and sincere that Tipping realized he d ascertained his Cam Also benefitting the process were Withers and Tipping s athletic backgrounds Both understood the mindset and rigorous training schedules that come with big-time sports It s invaluable to just know what goes on in the locker room and what it takes to wake up at a m and run and train for two hours and then go to school and the dedication that takes Tipping mentioned Although Wayans wasn t a certain athlete the comedian and actor known for Scary Movie and multiple other films including was sports drama Above the Rim was at the top of Tipping s list to play Isaiah In a bizarre coincidence Tipping notes that he was on his way to watch Scary Movie in Emeryville when he was robbed of his Air Jordans Marlon had the same experience just working in comedy and working in entertainment where he ll go six months without a day off It s a very similar way of life to that of the professional athlete where there are no days off he mentioned You re just training every day While the original title had been GOAT a project by a real-life Bay Area GOAT Golden State Warriors Stephen Curry led to making a fast break from that title By the time that we were gearing up to go into preproduction and officially making the movie Universal realized in the meantime that Steph Curry bought the rights to Goat and every combination of Goat for an animated feature that the decorated athlete is co-producing and voices one character Tipping revealed I was like a week away from getting on a plane and going to make the movie and Jordan called me and was like We should talk What are we going to call this thing now Ultimately it led to HIM Tipping certainly prefers the title HIM since it ties in religion with football a main point of the film And there are absolutely no hard feelings that Curry used the original title Tipping considered the Warriors star to be the kind of GOAT all of us can admire I think he at least from what I know debunks the myth that you have to be kind of an expletive or a bad person or sacrifice XY Z to achieve greatness he commented Having grown up in the Bay Area and watching his career it has perpetually felt like he s never really lost his humility Fame in sports can come with a serious cost Tipping says not just for the athlete but for fans who invest too much into their heroes We put all of our hopes and dreams and joys and how we re going to feel that day into the hands of like one random wide receiver on a fantasy football club Tipping observes But if he drops the pass it s going to ruin someone s life I think that is the dark side when we don t keep ourselves in check as audiences and fans where there is a thin line between supporting something and worshiping something