We are so very lucky to have had Chris lend his skills to our little picture. More notes on cast from the edit room soon….

Rosanna absolutely brought it and the Francine I’m seeing on screen is more than I ever hoped she could be - Rosanna tore this role up. Believe that.

Kim Hidalgo

Kim is wonderful in the film - she proved to be the perfect blend of teenage anxiety, teen confidence and earnestness to pull of one of Sticky’s saviors. We look for Kim to make some moves once our film hits the streets.

Starting with the one and only Sticky, I present to you the cast of BALL DON’T LIE…

Sticky was indeed portrayed by Grayson “The Professor” Boucher.

Please look for him on the current season of STREETBALL on ESPN2 and at a court near you as he tours the world this summer and fall.  Grayson proved to ease all fears and brought a truthful, earnest, deep performance and I know that folks will be checking for him in other films in the near future. He put in the work and it panned out (plus, he was smart enough to bounce energy off the other amazing actors in the film….

Check back tomorrow for another cast member unleashed.

For two years (yes, two years), I’d been running around town (well documented on this blog) preaching that Grayson was the only dude that could play Sticky. I convinced everyone and anyone with whom I could get an audience that he was Sticky and that Sticky was him, this includes Grayson Boucher himself, financiers, other actors, agents, managers, Michael Roiff, Matt de la pena, and, most importantly, my own damn self, among many, many others. I preached so much, I got tired of my own preaching.

A window of negative opened for me and I let other, non-believing folks start to dictate whether the idea of a kid from Salem, OR with no acting experience taking the lead in a project so important to so many of us was a good idea or not. I let self-serving individuals start to dictate whether this could or couldn’t happen. I let narrow-visions get in the way of my vision. I started to have doubts. I began to have second thoughts. I wondered what the agenda of the “Professor” and his “people” really was. I wondered if this kid was committed. I wondered if the “Professor” moniker could be shed for a skin named “Sticky.”
Then do-or-die day showed up and so did Grayson Boucher. There was no “Professor” on set except when kids screamed it from a passing car on Lincoln Blvd or grown folks stood near our camera trying to cop a photo with him. There was only Sticky. Sticky-icky. Truth is, Grayson delivered. He came with energy, enthusiasm, and ambition. For that, I’m grateful. There will be no lines like “Tell Me When I Have a Bad One, sucker” in this film and that is less on the writing and more on the performance that will be projected on the screen. Grayson surprised many of us, but I’d like to think he proved my first instinct right (another lesson in trusting that sense) - the instinct that said he could be Sticky. He taught me a lesson in perseverance. For that, I’m grateful, too.

I guess I’ll just start at the end. I want to thank everyone who worked on, acted in, supported, felt, believed, sweat for, lost sleep over and continues to breathe BALL DON’T LIE. We were blessed with an unbelievable cast and a simply incredible crew, both of which supplied us with relentless energy, pure passion and a firm belief in a simple little tale that struggled to let the world know what it truly means to be 3 stones back. Thank you from the pit of my heart and from the hearts of Michael, Smitty, Matt, and everyone else who’s been fighting for Sticky for what amounts to years. It means a lot that so many people rallied to care about a project that so many others hadn’t ever given a chance. We have a chance now and, for that, I’m grateful. It’s up to us again to make this thing soar….

Lotta folks slept, but we’re still awake. Always awake… Watching, waiting, prepping to claim this world as Sticky’s….