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Oracene Price recently shared she was very protective of spilling all the secrets to daughters Venus and Serena Williams’ tennis success for the film King Richard.
As the mother to two of the sport’s most premier champions, Price said during King Richard‘s preparation and development she feared revealing too much about the ins and outs of Venus and Serena’s training.
“We didn’t want to reveal all the secrets of how they trained and how mental tennis is — which I see a lot of kids don’t really understand if you see what’s going on in tennis today,” she explained during an interview with The Movie Report. “I was always afraid of giving away the secret. And so we never really rushed into it.”
When asked why she thought last year was the right time for a movie documenting her family’s story to be told, Price interestingly mentioned, “The girls were coming to the end of their careers.”
As for additional reasons she supported the film, she described the actress who played her, Aunjanue Ellis, director Reinaldo Marcus Green and writer Zach Baylin as “honest [people who] wanted to get the full story.”
Price and her daughters sat down at the Red Table Talk set ahead of King Richard‘s release to chat with the film’s star Will Smith about the movie and Price’s significant impact on the family’s trajectory.
“Now [it] would be impossible for me if my husband [Alexis Ohanian Jr.] were to tell me that,” Serena said of her father telling Price he was going to quit his job to train his daughters in tennis full-time.
“She had to support seven people — it was a family of seven,” she added of Price’s strength. “And so to have that faith and to have that backend support — we wouldn’t have survived without that.”
“My mom was really the guiding force, and you can see that with her words — they’re wise and full of fun,” Venus said of her mom. “She’s very witty.”
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