How I Became Venus Williams in 'King Richard'

I definitely took on little quirks

and certain movements of Venus.

When she plays tennis, especially when she does

a backhand, for her, she breaks her wrist like this.

So I played tennis like this, instead of like that.

That's something that I practiced over and over

and eventually was just in my muscle memory

and now I can never play a tennis

without breaking my wrist.

Hi, I'm Saniyya Sidney and this is how I prepared

to play Venus in King Richard.

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My first audition for King Richard was probably late 2019.

Oh, one of my first scenes I had to do

was probably the scene between Will and I at the net.

So Venus and Richard are talking about, she's asking him,

why can't you let me play?

Why aren't you gonna let me play?

Venus Williams, what you want?

Let's how all of these people that I can handle

what's coming.

[sad music] ♪ They're so good to me ♪

It's a very emotional scene.

I'm crying and Mr. Will's crying.

And that was probably one of the first like real scenes

I did out of the script.

I'm not gonna let you down.

How could you?

Ooh, what, meeting Mr. Will was at the chemistry read.

So it was the whole process of auditioning.

And then I met Mr. Rei and then I had a chemistry read

with Mr. Will.

I didn't know yet, but that was my last audition.

And I was like, oh my goodness,

Mr. Will's so cool.

His shoes are dope, head to toe, so awesome.

And he made me feel so comfortable and I loved him for that.

And we had such great chemistry and I didn't want

to leave the room.

I got a call from my agents and they told me like,

hey, um, so they want you to play Venus Williams.

And I was like, what?

And I started crying and I was just so honored and proud.

And then immediately I was like, oh my gosh,

I have to keep practicing tennis.

Am I gonna have like tennis lessons?

And they were saying like, in a few weeks,

you're gonna start training.

And I was like, wow, it's real now.

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I trained for tennis probably like six months.

I'd never played tennis before.

The element of training that was most challenging for me

is learning to play tennis right-handed

because I'm left-handed and Venus is right-handed.

So I had to learn how to play tennis with my right hand.

Practice was every day, Monday through Friday,

and then Saturday and Sunday we had a break.

So a typical day at practice, probably wake up around eight

and then travel to tennis.

At that time, I'd listen to music,

get my head in the mode,

I'd be drinking a protein drink

and something you don't really want to drink

in the mornings,

but I had to make sure my stomach was ready for that.

I'd have a little bit of breakfast

and then I'd go get to practice.

And first it was just warm up,

run around the court, warm my body up, stretch.

And then we do drills.

And drills would probably last about 20 to 30 minutes.

And then we'd go into just hitting,

a rallying back and forth

and it would go from, you know, forehand, backhand,

and then up to the net, volleys.

And then probably towards the end of practice,

it was an hour of just practicing serves.

And then after that, I went straight to physical therapy.

I'd come home and probably watch like two matches.

Each match would be different years.

So I'd watch a match in 2010 or I'd watch a match in '98.

And you would see the evolution in her tennis

from when she was a young girl to a woman in 2000,

when she won Wimbledon.

You would see the difference in her tennis

and her competitiveness.

And her serve and Serena's serve is similar,

but different.

Serena's serve is really powerful,

but she has a different motion.

Venus, she starts off slow and then as soon as

she gets to top, it's a fast motion, like most serves,

but she has this specific way she does it.

She starts here.

Then she goes back and then she pops her foot

and it's up like this.

And then she goes into the motion.

We broke it down every week.

Okay, today we're gonna practice being behind the line.

And then now we're gonna practice the foot,

and the popping of the foot.

Now we're gonna practice bringing the racket around

and then popping the ball.

So for months I started serving with air.

I didn't even use a tennis ball for a long time.

And then I put the tennis ball in and I was like,

[laughs] you expect me to hit this ball how fast?

I believe that Serena and Venus kind of stepped back

'cause they wanted us to find them on their own,

create them on our own.

So we got a little bit of feedback and it was very important

to Demi and I to make sure we did get feedback,

'cause we want to do justice by their story,

we want to do justice by the girls.

We just kept practicing and practicing.

And eventually Venus was like,

we're gonna have to go on the court,

see what you're made of.

And I was like, okay, sure.

We'll see how it's gonna go [laughs].

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Dialect coaching, more just how soft-spoken she was.

I can already connect to that because I can be

quite quiet myself, but at the same time,

she's very shy.

When she was kid, when she was really little,

she was very like, you know, hiding into her dad

or she would talk very softly.

And it's very like, hi, I'm Venus.

And then eventually that voice became a young woman voice

and she was speaking her mind,

but at the same time she's very elegant.

So that soft spokenness was very important

I know I can beat her.

She would just keep that answer.

And then you have to continue

because she knows what she wants and she speaks her mind.

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Her walk is very important because Venus is quite tall.

So she walks very lanky and very like this.

And she's, but she stands very tall.

When she was a kid, she was just a kid, you know,

she'd move around like this,

but 14 and up, when she was a young woman, it was different.

You know, she held her head high.

Her posture was amazing.

She always walked kind of, not on her tippy toes,

but almost like she was standing on her tippy toes.

Very competent, a very fierce walk.

And I had to embody that and that's what I did.

I practiced that for a long time,

but then eventually I started continuing to walk like her

and my dad was like so now you're walking like Venus.

[Saniyya laughs]

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Costuming is helpful to get into character

because it's also a different time.

It was in the '90s and I didn't grow up in the '90s.

So music was different. Cars were different.

Clothing was different. Shoes, everything.

It's different because I was a ten-year-old Venus

and I was the 14 year old Venus.

So when I put on something, I would become her.

It was more probably holding her racket.

Whenever I had her racket and I would get on the court,

I would have that eye of the tiger like her.

So that would put me in the mode of her.

And then as I got older in the story,

it was the Reebok pumps.

But those shoes are so tight, y'all.

Everyday, I was just like, oh my gosh,

can I please have this?

It was so cool.

Whenever I put those on, I would pump them up.

I was like, oh my gosh, this is so cool.

So those would definitely get me in the mode.

And she had those Reebok pumps when she played

her first two professional matches.

So that was like, all right, it's time to go.

I'm a pro now.

That walk in that moment, Oakland was very important

because not just the walk, it was,

we're reeling the beaded look.

Most people, when you think about Venus and Serena,

you think about when they were in their beads.

I remember when they're in their beads, I was like,

mom, I want to rock that.

Let me get some beads in my hair, please.

Everyone was doing the bead look.

So that was important itself.

I will never forget that day, that moment.

I don't know, it just, something came over me

when I was walking in that hallway

and it was an overwhelming feeling,

but a good overwhelming feeling.

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There's a scene at the end that was very emotional for me,

but I'm not gonna say it because you have to watch

the movie to find out, but it was very emotional

and it challenged me as an actress.

There was this one line that I had to say over and over

and I had to connect to, and I remember shooting that

and being so nervous and saying like,

Mr. Will, how am I gonna connect to this line?

And he told everybody, give me space.

And he was just like, trust yourself.

You're an artist. It's what you do.

Venus and Serena came on set and surprised us.

And that was the first time we met them in person.

And we were talking about childhood

and they were saying how thankful they were for, you know,

us telling their story and just how amazing

it's going to be.

And then they're like, all right, when you're this age,

when you're 16, when you're 19, don't date this person,

don't date thick neck.

They have like code names for certain guys.

And they're like, don't date this guy.

He's not gonna want you. This guy's not gonna want you.

And we're just dying laughing as if we were really

just like the younger versions of them.

So they would say that, but Venus would always say, like,

be who you want to be and, you know,

be a beautiful woman in this sport.

But at the same time, know who you are.

I was quite nervous, you know, to figure out

what Venus thought.

I am portraying her, so I didn't know

what she was gonna think,

but she was very proud, which again means so much to me.

And that's very important.

And Serena cries every time she sees the film.

Venus is so proud of it.

I am gonna keep playing tennis. It's cardio.

It keeps me in shape.

I will never switch to my left hand

because I'll look so wonky.

And that would be so hard to just to try to start over

and learn with my left hand.

So I'm just gonna stick to playing like Venus.

Now I know how to play like her and break my wrist like her,

so I'm already ahead of the game, I think, you know?

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