Introduction
More than the namesake of one of the most iconic sneakers, Stan Smith has lived a champion’s life on and off the tennis court. Chronicling his rise from collegiate superstar to World No.1 and beyond, Smith blazed new paths for athletes, both as a fashion icon and a humanitarian.
Who Is Stan Smith? highlights Smith’s tennis accomplishments and covers his humanitarian feats off the tennis court and how Smith’s relationship with Arthur Ashe heavily inspired his anti-racist activism, followed by his relationship with Black tennis player, Mark Mathabane, whom Smith helped escape from apartheid in South Africa. Complete with intimate first-person accounts and dynamic archival materials, Who Is Stan Smith? is a powerful and inspiring portrait of the man behind the shoe that became a movement.
Interview
Cinema Scholars’ own Glen Dower sat down with director Danny Lee and tennis legend Stan Smith to discuss their new documentary Who is Stan Smith? They spoke about teaming up with Lebron James to bring Stan’s story to the big screen, the downside of telling a story about someone who has no downside, and that legendary Wimbledon finals match against Ilie Năstase, among other topics.
(Edited for content and clarity)
Glen Dower:
Mr. Smith, what a pleasure. Hi, Mr. Lee. How are you, Gentlemen?
Sam Smith:
Hey. I like that shirt, Glen.
Glen Dower:
Thank you! I work in fitness education myself, plus I thought I’d wear my Adidas in honor.
Sam Smith:
Wow, I love it. Thank you so much. That’s excellent.
Glen Dower:
First of all Mr. Smith, I just want to ask you about being described as ‘giant’, ‘Herculean’, and ‘like a superhero’ throughout the documentary. At one point, did you think, ‘Are they really talking about me?’
Sam Smith:
Yeah, I did. I did ask that question. Who is that guy? But I am pretty tall. And I did play aggressively. That was my style of going out there and trying to intimidate my opponent, serving in volley, which is not done so much today with the invention of the rackets that make it difficult to do that. So that was the style I played. And I was trying to take it to my opponent all the time, not just stay back and hope for them to miss.
Glen Dower:
And they did on many occasions. Danny, can I ask you, how did you approach Mr. Smith with the project?
Danny Lee:
I wish I had that sort of sway to just be able to approach Stan Smith and be like ‘Let’s do a documentary’. But no, the project came from Spring Hill, LeBron James, and Maverick Carter’s company. I met with them and they mentioned a project they’d like to consider me for. And the minute they said Stan Smith, I said, hell yes. Like, of course, I was a fan of the sneaker. But like most people, I had not known the extent of Stan’s story that we unpack until I got into the research.
Stan’s peak was before I was born. And I don’t know if you could think of another icon who has this staying power like Stan. Covering many different generations with his name. It’s impressive. So, when I got the opportunity to tell the story, one, I felt very honored, and two, when I met Stan, I couldn’t believe how nice he was. It’s a rarity. I’ve worked with a lot of different celebrities across many other subcultures. And Stan, by far, was the most incredible and joyous and humblest celebrity I’ve ever worked with. So all around, it was an incredible experience.
Glen Dower:
Absolutely. And that comes across from everyone who speaks about you, Mr. Smith. Was there a point where you thought, okay, everyone’s being so complimentary? Where is the dark side or when is the downside to this story coming?
Danny Lee:
That’s a great question. Most films or documentaries, especially right now, operate on some form of salaciousness, right? You’re waiting for the shoe to drop. There’s something hidden in the closet. And with Stan, you couldn’t find it! The only thing in his closet was a myriad of different sneakers! That’s all. We go into his closet and show those in the film. So as a filmmaker, whether it’s a comedy, biopic, or whatever it may be, there’s always some tension. There’s some conflict that you have to mine to create that energy that propels the film forward.
To me, while researching, it became very abundantly clear that the tension in Stan’s story was the world around him. And he was, in essence, and I don’t want to overstate it, but he was sort of like the superhero figure, who was affecting the world and changing the world around him. And so that’s where a lot of tension came from. You had the Civil Rights Movement, you had the inflection point in which tennis became Open, and the Federation was stripped of all this power they had over the players. And Stan was fundamental in unionizing tennis.
I mean, he was the straw that broke the camel’s back. You’re talking about the Wimbledon champion of ‘72, who decides in ‘73, ‘I am not going to defend my title unless you give our players a fair share’. And also you had Vietnam, and him playing through the Vietnam War. You had him playing through the height of apartheid, where he met this young South African black tennis player named Mark Mathabane, who saw the promise in him, not only in tennis but his ambition to tell the story of what was going on in South Africa. And he helped Mark escape the regime in South Africa and helped him reset, helped him and his family find life here in the States.
There are all these, and obviously, you had his injury. But a lot of the tension, again, came from the outside world. So it was this inside-outside world approach that, from a story perspective, was complicated to weave. I mean, Stan had won so much and had so many accomplishments. A film could get very redundant when it’s like, then you won this, and then you won this, and then you won this, and then you won this…
Sam Smith:
Danny Lee:
Glen Dower:
Sam Smith:
Glen Dower:
Sam Smith:
You know, it’s interesting. Sometimes you’ll see a match that has such great quality to it, and such great shots that are hit by the players, that you appreciate that. And then it gets to be a tight match. And you appreciate the drama of such an incredible match, where they’re going back and forth with great shots and great players. Today we’ve got Carlos Alcaraz from Spain, who I think is very exciting to watch. And then you have Stinner from Italy, who is also fun to watch. This guy is a great, great athlete. There’s also Rune, from Norway. He gets a bit temperamental.
But you’re seeing today umpiring, you really can’t go on and on and on. Like Năstase, who used to argue for like two or three minutes, or McEnroe. And now the umpire says, ‘Well, you can do whatever you want for 25 seconds, but let’s play’. And I would have loved to have seen that! Instead of sitting there waiting for Năstase to finish his monologue with a linesman or an umpire. So, I think that today the game is in pretty good hands with these new guys coming along. And we’re losing the great icons of Nadal and Federer. And Djokovic, of course, is still out there. Even Andy Murray is still playing.
But we’re getting a good young crowd of young players, both on the men’s and women’s side. You’ve got Coco out there and Jesse Pugula, who is one of the older players. But you’ve got some good young women playing, very athletic women. You can appreciate as you’re in fitness education, Glen, how athletic some of these guys and girls are, much more so than some of the past. We’re not seeing the guys throwing their gloves off like they would in the NHL. But you’re seeing the players going all out and tremendous athletic moves on the court.
Glen Dower:
As we see in the documentary itself, you’re involved in the coaching of these young people as well. I like your quote that some of them get involved as soon as they’re out of diapers. We can imagine, one of the first toys they get is a tennis racket.
Sam Smith:
Yes, that’s true. They’re studying much younger than when I played. You know, I didn’t get a new racket till I was 12 years old. So I started a little bit later. I played other sports: football, basketball, baseball, track and field. And I think that helped me in many ways because it developed my whole athletic abilities. But you’re seeing the kids start very young. We have an academy, where we’ve got about 45 kids from age 12 to 18, and then a couple of younger ones that are doing a couple of days a week.
A lot of kids have to specialize, whether it’s in tennis or soccer, or baseball or basketball, they have to specialize very early, at least they think they do because the coaches are encouraging that and saying ‘you gotta do it’. But I don’t know. I think you can still do these other sports, at least for some time, and then specialize, maybe not quite so early. That’s just my opinion.
Glen Dower:
Great advice. To quickly go through the chronology of the film, there’s a really interesting point right towards the end, I sat back and went, Whoa! We talk about the Davis Cup, then go to 1968 and the assassination of MLK. We go to 1971 and the US Open triumph, 1972 and winning Wimbledon. Then jump to ‘73 with the Wimbledon walkout and the formation of the ATP, etc. Then boom, we find out today, that Mr. Smith has a family of four children! We meet the wonderful Margie, Mr. Smith’s wife, early on and witness the love story developing, of course. Was that a deliberate creative choice to leave the reveal of this huge, beautiful family to the end? A way to focus on his achievements professionally, and then bring in the crescendo of family life towards the end?
Sam Smith:
Well, I was in Danny’s hands. So, Danny, you go through that.
Danny Lee:
Yeah, that was a tricky one. I mean, again, Stan’s entire story was tricky, probably the trickiest one I’ve ever told. And of course, I didn’t do it alone. We had two great post producers, Rebecca Halpern, and Blake Brunson, also a great editor, Kelsey Santee, and we all had great archival producers, Vanessa Ruskin, and Ruby Linnae. And, you know, a lot of it was challenging. I struggled with figuring out where to introduce the kids. If you introduce them too early, it starts to divert your attention from the core narrative.
And then you also have on top of Stan’s life, you have the sneakers life. There’s so much going on! How do we manage all this and make it not confusing for the viewer? I think seeding Margie’s story, the love story early on, because that became very clear to me, or me personally, and I had to fight for this internally, and the love story felt like the B story. For a long time, it was a footnote. And it became clear that Margie was, in many ways, equally important to the story. And so hopefully, that’s seeding the idea of this family.
For me, the opportune time to bring in the family was similar, to when Stan’s career started to get into his sunset years, and he got injured. And at the same time, he’s having these wonderful kids that are traveling around the world, and they became close with the Ashe family. But I don’t think you could introduce that story any earlier. It’d be like, what? Winning Wimbledon? Sneakers? And oh, my God, kids, what? What can the man not do? So, um, it was a concerted effort to make sure we got through the core story before introducing a whole new slew of characters.
Glen Dower:
Yes, I think it helps end the film at a real high point.
Sam Smith:
And there’s nothing phony about that. They’ve been a real joy to have to see those…now it’s 17 that we have to keep track of! But it’s been fun to see them as they’re growing up and getting interested in all sorts of different things.
Glen Dower:
I just want to say one last question, Mr. Smith. I think some of our readers have followed your career way back to the ‘60s, ‘70s, through the ‘80s. And as we can see in the documentary your physical wellbeing is important to you. Can you give some advice to your fans who may be of a similar age to you, and how can they stay fit and look after their physical well-being? Do you have a golden rule?
Sam Smith:
If you’re doing physical training, it’s movements, it’s just movements. You just can’t become a couch potato or be on the computer, you got to be out, and you got to move. Then the more you can move, it does so much for you. And of course, trying to stay as fit as you can and keep away from gaining too much extra poundage. But, you know, it’s a fairly simple thing of just moving and being a little more disciplined with the knife and fork. Those are the things that have helped me to be consistent. Consistency in life is my philosophy really, it is the key thing. And you gotta keep moving.
Glen Dower:
There we go. Sage words, indeed. Gentlemen, thank you so much for your time. Mr. Smith, it’s been a real pleasure to meet you, and best of luck with the film to you both.
Sam Smith:
Thank you very much, Glen.
