‘I stumbled into this’: Nnamdi Asomugha on swapping the NFL for Hollywood
As soon as Nnamdi Asomugha hears the question, he can’t help but light up.
The writer and director of The Knife, which premiered earlier this summer at the Tribeca Film Festival, impressive reviewswas just asked about the similarities between filmmaking and being an athlete.
“It’s so deep. There are so many ways I can approach that question,” Asomugha tells the Guardian. “It really depends on what career you’re talking about. Is it acting? Directing? Producing? They all have things that carry over from football. But they’re so different.”
Asomugha is uniquely placed to broach this subject. As an NFL cornerback, he thrived for the Oakland Raiders, who selected him in the first round of the 2003 NFL draft, before playing for the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers during his 11-year career. He was voted All-Pro four times, made three Pro Bowl appearances and is widely regarded as one of the best shutdown corners of the past 25 years.
Since his football career ended, Asomugha has moved on to Hollywood. But this isn’t the usual story of an athlete channeling his immense strength into action roles—see Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Carl Weathers—or popping up in comedies to show off his lighter side. Asomugha has appeared in, produced, and now written and directed hard-hitting, socially conscious dramas about the lives of black Americans.
He was an executive producer on Harriet and Nanny, an actor and producer of Crown Heights and Sylvie’s Love, and a producer of The Banker. With The Knife, Asomugha makes his debut as a screenwriter and director. In just 82 minutes, he skillfully writes a story about family strife, police brutality and racial prejudice.
Asomugha also stars in The Knife as Chris, husband to Alex (Aja Naomi King) and father to Ryley (Aiden Gabrielle Price) and Kendra (Amari Alexis Price), whose lives are turned upside down when a stranger suddenly appears in their home in the middle of the night. The family must quickly deal with the consequences of their choices when Officer Padilla (Manny Jacinto) and Detective Carlsen (Melissa Leo) arrive on the scene and ask increasingly insistent questions about the incident.
Originally written by Mark Duplass, Asomugha was initially approached to act in The Knife. Once he agreed to participate in the project, he was given free rein to change anything in the script that didn’t work for him, “run with it” and make it his own.
Duplass and Asomugha then went on the Hollywood merry-go-round of trying to find a director they could attach to the film, which would in turn help secure financing. “In this business, it can take 10 years for someone to agree to do something. Because every director has their own project that they’re working on. We had conversations with people, but everyone was busy. That’s when I realized it could take forever to get made.”
When asked to clarify the date Duplass approached him with the script, Asomugha can only answer as if he were in the final stretch of a crucial NFL game. “It was maybe the fourth quarter of ’21,” he says.
Asomugha was born in Louisiana to Nigerian parents and moved to Los Angeles when he was three. He grew up in Lawndale, on the border of Inglewood and Hawthorne. Instead of growing up with a camera in his hands from a young age, like Steven Spielberg or JJ Abrams, Asomugha “went out there and pretended” to be his favorite sports hero. Mainly Magic Johnson. “Sports was always the love of my life, before anything else.”
But while Asomugha played basketball and football at Narbonne High School in Habor City, and then for the California Golden Bears football team at the University of California, Berkeley, he was constantly watching movies. The first film he saw in a theater was Who Framed Roger Rabbit when he was six or seven years old, and he remembers being “blown away” by it.
It was Boys In The Hood from 1991, which an aunt secretly took him to, that had the biggest impact. “I should never have seen it. But I remember asking her all the time, ‘Are you sure this isn’t real?’ That was such a vivid memory. She told me it was just a movie. But it was what I saw growing up in LA. It just felt so real. That’s why I’ve always loved the combination of truth and spectacle in movies. That’s the perfect place for me.”
But when Asomugha retired from the NFL, he initially didn’t know what his next career would be. He tried an internship at a private equity firm, he worked to get his sales and real estate licenses, he even tried his hand at broadcasting. “But nothing moved me,” Asomugha says. “I remember someone asked me, ‘What do you like? What do you like?'” He immediately thought of movies. “It put me on the track of, ‘Well, I can try acting.’ I knew it was crazy and against the odds.”
What gave Asomugha hope was that he had already made it in an unlikely profession. He had also appeared in commercials as a soccer player, in which directors and actors repeatedly told him, “You’re really good at this.” So Asomugha gave himself six months to see if he really liked it.
It was during this time that he realized he wanted to take a different approach than other athletes who have made it as actors. “I know my limitations. I admire people like The Rock who have done a great job of making a name for themselves in the business and becoming very successful. But I just knew that wasn’t my personality. I wanted to be more than a celebrity trying to act. I didn’t want to rely on my past life to be successful. It was more about learning and seeing if I could exist. Then I would feel like I earned it.”
Asomugha initially struggled to get roles because of his football background. “I would ask to audition for even the smallest part in something that was quality and I would get rejected. I didn’t even get the audition. But I believed I could do it.” So he decided to create his own work and went into producing to find roles he wanted to do. “That’s since changed to I want to tell stories that aren’t there.”
By taking the initiative, Asomugha also became the director of The Knife.
First, his manager suggested he direct. Then his producing partner. “I kept hearing it. So when it came up, it just felt like if I didn’t direct, it wouldn’t get made.” Unlike most filmmakers, Asomugha never dreamed or wanted to step behind the camera. But he knew that by stepping down, they could make the film for a certain amount of money and move on, rather than waiting for approval from a studio or production company.
As someone who has produced several films, he also felt well-placed to direct. “I knew about shots and lenses. There was a lot I didn’t know. Like talking to actors. But I learned by fire. I’ve had examples of that in my life, especially through football. I know that’s where I do best and learn the most.”
Asomugha was the captain of every sports team he ever played on and felt at home as a leader. “You are the leader. I learned how to lead in football. I’ve been able to translate that into how I lead as a director and as a producer. It’s very much the same as in football. We are one unit. We are only as good as our weakest link. Then acting becomes about reacting. That’s what defending is all about. You learn body language. Reacting in the moment.”
Ultimately, Asomugha is shocked by how transferable his sports mentality and skills have been to film. “I’ve found a lot of ways to take the skills I used in my football position and translate them into acting and directing. It’s crazy. I never thought they would be so intertwined.”
But while Asomugha hopes there will be many more opportunities to utilize these talents, he still doesn’t have a set plan for his second career. Instead, he’s willing to stumble into whatever direction his gut feeling takes him. “Acting is always going to lead the way. I definitely want to direct again. I’ve fallen in love with it now. But you know, I fell into football by accident. I wanted to play for the Lakers. Now I feel like I fell into film by accident. None of that was the path. I’m just going to allow myself to go wherever I’m called to go next.”