Learning the Fundamentals

In the new romantic drama “Love and Basketball,” actress Sanaa Lathan confidently dribbles down court and pulls up for a jump shot. Wearing the women’s uniforms of Crenshaw High and later USC, she crisply passes the ball around the key, fights for loose balls, plays tough defense and even does a little trash-talking. It looks like she’s got game.

Moviegoers might think the filmmakers discovered the athletic 5-foot-8 Lathan in a gym somewhere and gave her acting lessons. But Lathan had never played before “Love and Basketball.” Prior to months of rigorous training for the film, she can’t remember ever making even one basket.

“It was awful, oh my God!” says Lathan of her basketball tryout for writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood. “It was so embarrassing because literally I didn’t know how to dribble. I didn’t know how to hold the ball. But I’m proud of how it looks [in the movie]. I had no idea I would be able to do it.”

Lathan’s performance as a young woman wanting both a loving relationship and stardom as a professional player is creating a buzz around New Line Cinema’s “Love and Basketball,” which opens Friday. Lathan’s love scenes with co-star Omar Epps, combined with her moves in the basketball sequences, impressed audiences and critics at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

In “Love and Basketball” Monica and Quincy (Lathan and Epps) have been next-door neighbors since they were youngsters. Now they’re young adults playing sexy one-on-one basketball games and juggling an on-and-off romance with their dreams of turning pro.

With no big-name stars and a relatively low budget--between $10 million and $15 million--”Love and Basketball,” produced by Spike Lee’s 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, is the latest African American-ensemble movie aiming for crossover success at the box office. Recent films with primarily black casts include 1995’s “Waiting to Exhale” ($67 million at the box office), 1998’s “How Stella Got Her Groove Back” ($37 million) and 1999’s “The Wood” ($25 million). But none of those films was able to attract crossover audiences in a major way.

“We’re certainly trying to get the full urban audience, and then we have several hundred theaters totally devoted to crossover,” said Jay Stern, New Line executive vice president. The film will open on at least 1,000 screens, Stern said, and marketing is focusing mostly on women under age 25. He said the studio hopes to get white and black audiences through TV ads during pro basketball games.

Warm receptions at film festivals don’t guarantee box-office, but “Love and Basketball” did well at Sundance even though, Lathan notes, “we were the only black people there.”

“I was nervous because for other screenings we always had like a 99% black audience,” says Prince-Bythewood by phone from New York. “So here’s 1,300 people in Utah. At the end of the movie it was so quiet. I thought, wow, they didn’t get it. Then people started applauding and it got bigger. I was so happy for Sanaa [pronounced Sa-NAH] and her standing ovation because I knew how hard she had worked for this role.”

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“Love and Basketball” gives Lathan her first lead film role. She had smaller parts in “The Best Man” (1999) and “Blade” (1998). It’s also the directorial debut for Prince-Bythewood, a former TV writer (“A Different World,” “Felicity”) and a high school basketball player herself.

“She’s this woman who’s stormed onto the scene and risen above so many other people,” said Prince-Bythewood of Lathan’s blossoming career. “I’m proud that I gave her her first starring role.”

Lathan almost didn’t get the chance. Producer Lee and director Prince-Bythewood couldn’t agree on the casting of their female lead. In “He Got Game” (1998), Lee cast in a co-starring role Ray Allen, a University of Connecticut first-team All-American who now plays for the Milwaukee Bucks. Lee thought Prince-Bythewood needed an experienced player.

“He had strong opinions about it, but at the end of the day it was my movie,” says Prince-Bythewood. “You can fake basketball but you can’t fake a close-up.”

Lathan, 28, is the daughter of TV producer-director Stan Lathan (“The Steve Harvey Show,” “Roc,” “Fame”), and her mother was an actress and dancer. The younger Lathan holds an English degree from UC Berkeley and a master’s in fine arts from the Yale School of Drama, but she didn’t know a crossover dribble from a layup.

“She trained so hard, six days a week,” Prince-Bythewood said of Lathan. “She just captured the mannerisms and the voice. I made her carry a basketball everywhere. I saw over 700 people for the part--actors, ballplayers, people who had never acted before in their life. It finally came down to Sanaa and Niesha Butler [a star player at Georgia Tech and 1999 Atlantic Coast Conference rookie of the year]. I put Sanaa with a basketball coach for two months and Niesha with an acting coach.

‘I Finally Realized It’s a Love Story First’

“There were a lot of sleepless nights,” adds the director, who, like Lee, originally wanted to cast a real player. “Is this a love story or a basketball story? I finally realized it’s a love story first. It doesn’t matter how great the basketball is if you don’t care about the character or the love story.

“It was like learning to walk,” said Lathan, relaxing recently at a Hollywood coffeehouse. “The ball has to become a part of your body and it was not. It’s just a basketball to me.” She got tips from coaches and players, college and pro, and in the end surprised herself. “When I looked at the screen, I said, ‘I can’t do that. I don’t know how to do that.’ ”

For her next project, Lathan is again being directed by Prince-Bythewood, this time on “Disappearing Act,” a love story with Wesley Snipes, currently filming in New York.

“I’m excited by these new black voices that are coming out,” said Lathan. “It always comes down to money, we know that. Hopefully these movies will do well so that people will make them. Hopefully it will inspire people to write.”

Opportunity is knocking for Lathan, but she wants to accept roles for their character, not money. “You can’t rise above your choices,” she says.

But since she comes from a show-biz family, she’s well-grounded in Hollywood realities and knows it can be awhile between gigs. “You have to be smart. That’s why I’m still driving my ’91 Honda.”