“Walt Disney said, ‘If you believe in a thing, believe in it implicitly, unquestionably,’” award-winning author Kwame Alexander shared, a quote that spoke to him during his five-year struggle to sell his novel in verse The Crossover, which has been adapted as a Disney+ original series. Joining the project as a showrunner and executive producer, the author was present at a TCA press conference to promote the eight-part drama series adaptation, which begins streaming on Wednesday, April 5th. “I believed in the project. I believed in the book. I knew poetry like the back of my hand. I know how kids talk… I knew that poetry would connect with young people. It's just y'all didn't know. The adults didn't know. The publishers didn't know. But I figured, if somebody gave me a chance, they would be able to see it, and we'd be sitting up here, talking about the power of poetry.”
(Disney/ PictureGroup)
The Crossover tells the story of the Bell family, with Josh "Filthy" Bell telling the story from the future courtesy of narrator Daveed Diggs. “To bring Daveed Diggs on was an honor and a blessing,” said Damani Johnson, executive producer/showrunner. Through this framing device, some of the novel’s lyrical narrative is transported to the series. “The voice of ‘Filthy,’ our main character, it's being told through him as an adult and looking back and reflecting on his life and on the lessons he's learned, and we were looking for somebody who had that gravity, who also had that sense of playfulness with the language. And Daveed Diggs has one of the best voices that you'll ever hear, and one of the cadences. Every time you hear his voice come on, it brings a smile to your face. You really want to listen to him talk all day. We would make him do extra takes sometimes just so we could hear him say it one more time.”
Playing the on-screen counterpart of Josh "Filthy" Bell is Jalyn Hall, who shared how much prior experience he had with basketball. “Growing up, before I was acting, it was football, it was baseball, but I never really played basketball competitively. It was more so for fun. So, when we first started, man, there was a little bit to work with. So, [Amir and I] had to hone those skills. But I can honestly say that we both fell in love with it every day of filming, and we got pretty good, if I do say so myself.”
Amir O’Neil plays Filthy’s twin brother Jordan "JB" Bell, who has his own twin in real life and already knew Jalyn well off-screen. “Me and Jalyn have known each other before we even started filming The Crossover,” Amir revealed. “Working with each other, we really became like brothers. And just having a twin really gives you an inside glimpse on just how close you are compared to regular siblings. So, working with Jalyn, we never really had to practice our chemistry. It was always a natural.”
“What about her dreams?”, Sabrina Ravelle said of her character, Dr. Crystal Bell, mother of Filthy and JB. In the series, her two sons are growing more independent, so she elevates her career by becoming the principal of their school. Now that they are on their way to becoming adults, she is getting back into following a path that’s right for her and her family. “We tend to put our dreams on the back burner, right? And we become the mom. We identify as the mom. I always say, ‘What happens when your children go off to college?’ That's why a lot of people really go through hard transitions when that happens. They don't know how to identify outside of that. I think where she's at right now is gaining her power in how she identifies now. What is her dreams, and can she go after that now, since the boys are growing up a little bit? Her and Chuck have a great relationship. It's, like, ‘Okay, now it's time for me.’”
“Being able to see all the different types of hats that Crystal wears and how she's able to put out these fires or be there in the stands to root ‘JB’ and ‘Filthy’ on, I think it gives the audience the kids' perspective to see what parents go through on a day,” executive producer and showrunner Kimberly A. Harrison added. “That's a path we haven't really seen. For me to sit down and watch with my kids, The Crossover, they see the different hats, ‘Oh, Mom, you do the same type of thing that Crystal does. I didn't realize that you went from work to the basketball game or to here.’ But I think it just gives that lens into how parents juggle and wear all of these different hats.”
Kwame Alexander also wears a lot of hats, not only as the writer of the source material but jumping on board the series as a showrunner and executive producer. During the panel, he shared another quote that inspired his approach to adapting the story for the screen. “Walt Disney said, ‘I want to entertain and hope people are educated I don't want to educate and hope I entertain people,’” Kwame reiterated. “Our goal is to entertain people, but we are also trying to give you a message that's full of resilience, that's full of perseverance, that's full of ‘Never let anyone lower your goals. Always shoot for the sun, and you will shine.’"
Be inspired to shoot for the sun when The Crossover premieres with all eight episodes on Wednesday, April 5th, on Disney+.