AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
When Walt Manigan, a former boxing talent, returns to his Washington, D.C., neighborhood after years in prison, the odds are already stacked against him. He has no home, no job, and the mother of his child is barely speaking to him. But what Manigan does have is the will to fight for a better life. He gets some help from a coach at a local rec center.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THEY FIGHT")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) I watch my old boxing film, and I study my books. But what Walt got, you ain't going to find in no books.
RASCOE: That's the heart of a new movie based on a true story about a former convict who turns his life around teaching young boys how to box. "They Fight" is directed by Sheldon Candis, who also co-wrote the script, and he joins us now. Welcome to the show.
SHELDON CANDIS: Hey, hey, Ayesha Rascoe.
RASCOE: (Laughter) Tell us more about Walt and how he ends up in this boxing gym where the young boys are training. He's resistant to getting involved at first.
CANDIS: You know, I always refer to Walt Manigan, played by the phenomenal Andre Holland, as a man reclaiming his soul. And, you know, this is based off of a documentary. Walt Manigan lived and walked this Earth, and he meant something to these kids in southeast D.C., in this rec center. So with the movie, I was inspired by their lives - by Walt, by Peanut, by Quincey, by Ketta, by Wop Wop. And Andre just does a really wonderful job of - he's reentering society, but he needs help. I always say, once you believe in yourself, you still need the belief of others. And that comes through the form of Slim, played by Wendell Pierce. It's a really great story of redemption.
RASCOE: Well, Slim - he really does push him and guide him. He's the one who is, you know, guiding this rec center. Why does Slim want to give Walt a chance?
CANDIS: I think at the core of the movie, the movie is a love letter to the old rec centers of America and what these mentors and these spaces meant to all of us. But then also, it's a generational thing, right? It's like the OGs, as we say, passing along this knowledge and the sweet science of boxing to these boys and these girls. But also, Slim is another generation that's pulling the generation just below him. So you have a very generational story of Black men in America, for sure.
RASCOE: While this story centers around Walt, it's also about these kids. You got Peanut, played by Anthony B. Jenkins, Quincey, played by Toussaint Francois Battiste, and Twin played by Tory Malone. Peanut, in particular - you know, he's timid. He's new to the area. Quincey is dealing with a mother who's very sick. These kids are really carrying some heavy loads. What were you looking for when you were casting for these roles?
CANDIS: We scoured the country, just seeing kids from all over the place on Zoom. And the minute I saw Anthony B. Jenkins, Toussaint Battiste and then Tory J. Malone - to see those three kids appear - kids are born who they are, and they spend the rest of their lives becoming it. And there's something to be said about these old souls, and it's not like they're performing. They naturally are these characters on screen.
RASCOE: This is a boxing film where the main fights are between kids. How did you approach taking on this genre and making it fit this narrative?
CANDIS: I went on a barnstorming tour, and I went in to several gyms in Philly and D.C. and Baltimore, and we just put the boys through a boxing boot camp. They're such gifted, wonderful, natural actors. With all three of them, I said, listen, you guys are special finds. This is going to be a moment in your life you'll never forget, being in a movie. In order to give a punch, you got to take a punch.
RASCOE: Did you ever do any boxing yourself, or did you have to learn for this movie?
CANDIS: Well, I done seen "Rocky" hundreds of times.
RASCOE: (Laughter) Yeah, yeah, yeah.
CANDIS: So in my head, I'm a boxer. But I got to tell you, Ayesha, once you get in that ring - Mike Tyson said it best - everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the mouth. And that's also a huge parable for life, and I think that's why we love boxing movies as a collective society. Boxing movies directly relate back to the trials and tribulations and the struggles and the journey and, ultimately, the triumph we all go after and aspire to in life.
RASCOE: Well, there was that quintessential, like, training montage. But this one involved bricks.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THEY FIGHT")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) You know, one man's trash is another man's treasure kind of thing. So we got all the bricks we could find and, you know, using them to build our boys' foundations with them, you know? Lock in.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters) Lock in.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Lock in.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters) Lock in.
RASCOE: It seemed like there was a lot of symbolism in that.
CANDIS: Yeah. It is, for sure. I mean, Walt, when he would talk about shooting the jab, he would say, and shoot the brick. It's also an homage to one of the greatest high school basketball coaches, Coach Bob Wade in Baltimore, Maryland, the Dunbar Poets. He would train his basketball team with bricks. He would find them, and collect them from abandoned row houses. So in the fourth quarter, no team would be more conditioned than a Bob Wade Dunbar Poet basketball team.
RASCOE: 'Cause they were carrying the bricks. We don't have, like, a whole bunch of fancy equipment, but we can find these bricks.
CANDIS: Yeah. I mean, think about it. "Rocky" was - you know, was chasing chickens...
RASCOE: (Laughter) Yes.
CANDIS: ...And beating on cold storage, the...
RASCOE: Yeah, yeah.
CANDIS: ...Beef and...
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: You use what you got. The tires kind of showed up too. Walt is tossing them at work. The kids were also training with tires.
CANDIS: There are these touchstones of Americana or these gems of love letters of what was an old America - right? - what it was to have a hardworking job, and then how that was then matriculated and passed on to our kids.
RASCOE: Yeah. What's been the response of the real people who were depicted in this movie? Have they seen it?
CANDIS: So we were fortunate to premiere the movie at the Tribeca Film Festival, and they hadn't seen it, meaning Quincey, Peanut, Ketta and Wop Wop. I was very concerned and nervous about that because, for me, I set out to make this movie not only as a call to action and a thing to Black boys in America - that their dreams matter, that their stories matter - me honoring Walt's legacy was important. And Ketta - she walked up to me after the premiere, and she was in tears, and she goes, Sheldon, you did right by us.
RASCOE: The actual Walt Manigan has passed away. Can you tell us more about him?
CANDIS: To be completely sincere and honest about it, Andrew Renzi's documentary leaves you at a very unflinching reality of Walt's life. But what I'm most happy and most thankful for is the legacy that he has left behind and Quincey and Peanut in particular. Peanut is in the Police Academy in D.C., and that Quincey, the Quiet Storm, Williams is a professional boxer, and he is 9 and 0, undefeated.
RASCOE: That's Sheldon Candis, director and co-writer of the new film "They Fight," now showing on Hulu and Disney+. Thank you so much for joining us.
CANDIS: Ayesha Rascoe, thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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