Dalvin Cook meets Caleb Williams? How Tyriq Withers brought Cameron Cade to life

"OBJ. I'M HIM."

Odell Beckham Jr. was among the earliest salient athletes to state the words successful his Sept. 2019 "Sunday Night Football" instauration -- and since then, the operation has go 1 of the astir recognizable successful sports.

Now, the saying has leapt from regular sports sermon to the large screen.

"HIM," a sports-horror thriller directed by Justin Tipping and produced by Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions, uses shot arsenic a conveyance to research themes of power, obsession and mentorship gone wrong.

Marlon Wayans stars arsenic the fictional, legendary backmost Isaiah White and erstwhile Florida State Seminole walk-on wideout Tyriq Withers brings authentic shot acquisition to the relation of his protégé, Cameron Cade. The movie pushes beyond leap scares to inquire a deeper question: What happens erstwhile the pursuit of greatness turns terrifying?

That correlation -- betwixt greatness and sacrifice -- drew Tipping to the story. As an jock turned filmmaker, helium saw a accidental to merge 2 worlds that seldom intersect connected screen, but ever overlap successful existent life. The effect is simply a genre-blending movie that's arsenic intelligence arsenic it is physical.

"My archetypal connection was ball. I was an jock my full life," Tipping told ESPN. "But I besides studied movie theory. So erstwhile this thought came about, it was terrifying and breathtaking -- pulling from the connection of sports movies and the connection of fearfulness felt similar a accidental to fto them person a speech and make a caller language."

Tipping made his directorial debut with the 2016 diagnostic "Kicks." Like "HIM," the movie weaves euphony and occasionally wit into its storytelling arsenic its 15-year-old protagonist embarks connected a quest to retrieve a brace of stolen sneakers. The travel yet raises a akin question to the 1 echoed successful Cade's story: At what outgo is the extremity worthy the means?

Before launching his career, Tipping studied movie and media studies astatine UC Santa Barbara and concisely suited up for the men's shot team.

Balancing the roles of movie pupil and collegiate jock shaped his position connected show and realism. For Tipping, casting a backmost wasn't conscionable astir quality -- though Withers' 6-foot-5 stature surely didn't hurt. It meant uncovering idiosyncratic who could move, deliberation and respond similar a existent jock -- idiosyncratic who could transportation the physicality of the relation without it looking staged.

"You can't fake [athletic authenticity.] Even the mannerisms -- however you swig from a h2o vessel -- those things you lone get if you're of the world. [Withers] was bringing it each day," Tipping said.

That authenticity, helium says, was non-negotiable. Tipping recalls the agelong hours connected set, the repeated takes and the request for precision successful each sequence. He wanted each shot country to consciousness grounded successful world truthful that adjacent the smallest details would ringing existent for fans who cognize the game.

"I didn't privation to marque that 1 sports movie wherever everyone says, 'Oh, they conscionable chopped astir it.' [Tyriq] had to beryllium determination first, permission past and each time was physically demanding. I don't deliberation this show is pulled disconnected unless it's idiosyncratic who was a superior athlete."

LIKE TIPPING, WITHERS has roots successful soccer, playing competitively from the property of 4 until helium was 18. But the demands of playing astatine a precocious level began to deterioration connected him.

"As I got into my inferior twelvemonth of precocious school, the burnout began and I ended up getting chopped from the shot team," Withers told ESPN. "Out of spite for my coach, I decided to play precocious schoolhouse football."

Listed astatine 6-foot-4 and 185 pounds astatine the time, Withers joined the Paxon School for Advanced Studies Golden Eagles (FL) shot squad arsenic a wide receiver during his elder year. That lone play was capable to gain him an connection from Davidson College successful North Carolina. But aft attending the Wildcats' summertime shot camp, Withers realized the eight-and-a-half-hour thrust from his hometown of Jacksonville felt excessively acold from home.

Enter the Florida State Seminoles.

Withers credits the then-president of Florida State's Black Student Union for inviting him to their "Summer Week" programme earlier the 2016 autumn semester. He made the determination that week to transportation to Florida State. Before Withers could notify the coaches astatine Davidson and make...