![]() ![]() “This is a bigger issue that I’m trying to help fix,” Asomugha says, hoping the film will be viewed as “activism through art.” Following 13th, Ava DuVernay’s Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary, Crown Heights showcases the flaws of the United States prison and criminal justice system. It also speaks to the larger impact of this film. That’s where the real healing came from.” ![]() “It turns out Carl did more for me than I could imagine, because it was really me playing Carl that gave me the voice to speak out for all the people that have been in this situation, including myself. He initially wanted to portray Warner in the film, before auditioning to play his best friend. MORE: Dwyane Wade Is On a Mission On and Off the CourtĪrrested twice as a teen for crimes he didn’t commit, Asomugha has an immediate understanding of Warner’s story. He eventually teaches himself the law, and with the help of William Robedee ( Bill Camp), is able to get the verdict overturned. In the film, he plays Carl King, who spends much of the story banging on doors and filing appeal after appeal, hoping that someone will take notice of Colin Warner’s wrongful conviction. For it now to be three years later, it feels like I’m starting to get a little bit of momentum.” “I was able to go right into becoming a student and training and learning. “There was no real sort of focus,” he says, admitting that since retiring he’s been able fully focus on Hollywood. In the decade since Asomugha made his acting debut in a scene on the CW sitcom The Game, he’s slowly built a resume of bit roles in Friday Night Lights, Leverage and Kroll Show, all of which were filmed during off-seasons. He recalls telling them, “Just let me show you what I’m doing.” That has led him to proactively reach out to various producers and filmmakers to ask them to let him audition. “When you do that much of your life and then you want to go act, where you have to be emotive, you have to be open and you have to be vulnerable - it can be a difficult thing,” Asomugha explains. The former athlete, who retired in 2013, explains that the game requires players to shut themselves off emotionally, not to “react to the pain.” You know, like football players can’t act or you’re going to come in and be stiff,” Asomugha tells ET during a conversation at The New York Edition Hotel about the stigma facing athletes like himself who want to expand their careers into acting. “You walk into a room and there’s already judgment. It’s a powerful film debut for a former professional athlete who has spent the past decade slowly transitioning into a budding Hollywood player. Widely known as a former NFL player - notably as a cornerback with the Oakland Raiders for seven years - and Kerry Washington’s husband, Nnamdi Asomugha is about to change all of that with Crown Heights, a new film about a wrongfully convicted man who spent 20 years in prison that Asomugha both produced and stars in as the best friend who fought to prove his innocence. ![]()
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