The
“Hit the Floor” Interview
with
Kam Williams
A
Timely
Tête-à -Tête
with
the Creator of Hit BET Series
James
LaRosa is the creator, showrunner and executive producer of Hit The
Floor. Not only does he run an all-female writers' room but he
directed and appeared in several episodes this season.
Born
in Boston, Massachusetts, James knew at the age of 9 that he wanted
to write for TV. He began his assault on Hollywood as an assistant to
former Saturday Night Live writer Margaret Oberman.
He
got his first break on the Dick Wolf-produced WB series D.C. From
there, he wrote made-for-television movies for CBS, MTV and VH1, as
well as pilots for ABC Family, MTV, NBC , Sony and FOX.
James
earned a Daytime Emmy nomination in 2001 writing for MTV's Spyder
Games. In 2007, he merged his passion for tennis and writing and
began blogging and reporting for Tennis Chanel, Tennis Magazine and
USA Today. He also co-wrote young adult novel The Academy: Game On.
A
graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public
Communications, James currently resides in Los Angeles. Here, he
talks about the new season of Hit the Floor. The show airs Tuesday
nights on BET at 10 pm ET/PT.
Kam
Williams: Hi
James, thanks for the interview.
James
LaRosa: Nice
to speak with you, Kam.
KW:
Congratulations on the fourth season of Hit
the Floor. What
inspired you to create the series?
JL:
Thank
you. Early in my career, I was writing what I thought people would go
for and I didn’t like what I was doing, but you want to pay your
bills and you want to launch things. You’d hear that a network was
looking for a hospital drama or a certain kind of show and everyone
would get the same message and everyone would develop the same show,
and I was on that track. too. So I’d just finished a show that
wasn’t my passion project. It didn’t feed me, although I had fun
writing it. And afterwards, I needed some sort of a palette cleanser
and I decided I’m going to just write this one show without paying
attention to what people are asking for, or asking myself is this
what’s hot and what’s selling, or what will my agent or the
networks think of this. And I sat down and wrote an original pilot
that hasn’t been made yet, but has gotten me every meeting I’ve
had ever since. My career did a total 180 when I started writing what
entertains me and what I find fun instead of stuff that was just for
the paycheck, because that kills you.
KW:
How
would you describe the show in 25 words or less?
JL:
Behind
the scenes professional basketball through the eyes of the players,
dancers and managers. It’s sex, drama, dancing, and sports!
KW:
Have
you spent a lot of time around any professional players and
cheerleaders?
JL:
Yes,
I researched the show in order for the characters to be real, and I
spent time speaking to players and dancers, and I definitely have my
moles. [Laughs and looks around] They absolutely love the show
because they watch it and know the stuff really happens. The best
part is when I talk to a player or a dancer who I’ve never spoken
to before and they ask, “Who have you been talking to? Are you
inside the locker room hiding in someone’s locker or speaking into
the big flower because you’re getting all the scoops." So when
players spill all the tea, I’m there with a cup going, ”I’ll
catch it, I’ll catch!”
KW:
In the
past, your groundbreaking series has explored a variety of timely
themes, like LGBTQ issues. Can we expect it to continue to be on the
cutting-edge this season, even though the show is moving from VH1 to
BET?
JL:
The
short answer is "Yes." We will continue to value diversity
on the show, LGBTQ issues for sure and many other issues. Whether
it’s about gender or race, we’ve done all sorts of storylines and
will continue do so 100% in season four. In season two, we had a
storyline where one of our dancers got married to another of our
dancers because she was undocumented and the marriage allowed her not
to be separated from her kid. At the time, I was thinking “That’s
interesting storytelling,” and then welcome to 2018 and look what’s
happening. The
bigger answer is that in today’s climate, it’s pure theater and
we are all puppets and they’re basically pitting us against each
other like little marionettes saying, "You hate this person and
you hate that person because they’re taking this from you and
giving it to them.” I’m not into that. So this show has as many
different kinds of people as it can. They may try to push you off the
balcony, they might try and steal your man or steal your position on
the dance team, but everyone’s from the same world and on equal
ground.”
KW:
How
many episodes will you write and/or direct this year?
JL:
This
season, I wrote three and directed four. In the season finale, I have
six credits:created by, executive producer, writer, director, actor,
and I also wrote a rap for one of the songs.
KW:
Wow!
How many episodes do you appear in?
JL:
I
act in three episodes.
KW:
Ling-Ju Yen asks: What
is your earliest childhood memory?
JL:
My
earliest childhood memory is using my imagination at about the age of
3 while playing with a Batmobile and a little blue Batman and a
little yellow Robin.
KW:
What is your favorite dish to cook?
JL:
My
favorite dish to cook? Hmm... There’s a giant assumption in that
question! [LOL] Well, I’m really more of a baker. I can bake a
whole bunch of stuff: cupcakes and anything with sugar… I’m a
sugar fiend. And I do it up, I'll put flower petals on it and all
kinds of decadent embellishments. I really want people to eat it and
enjoy. But as for cooking meals, if I was on “Survivor,” I would
die.
KW:
When
you look in the mirror, what do you see?
JL:
Oh
my God, aging!
KW:
If you
could have one wish instantly granted, what would that be for?
JL:
To
completely change the political climate that we are in right now. I
would love for people to open their eyes and get information from
places that are legit and practice a little bit more of the kindness
they would like to receive themselves. And a Lamborghini!
KW:
Is there any question no one ever asks you, that you wish someone
would?
JL:
Wow!
Great question. Let me think… Where do you get your creativity
from? I get it from my mom. When I was little, she would tell me
these off the cuff little stories that were nonsense, but they were
really entertaining. And because of her, I thought I could never be a
writer because I could never be as quick as her. But the older you
get, the more you work that muscle. You get quicker, you get more
reference points. But my mother is no longer with me and so my
instinct is to keep her alive, like by making her the question no one
ever asks. She’s been gone for a couple of years now and she was a
big fan of Hit the Floor, and the last conversion we had was after
the season three premiere. She was very sick at that point and very
weak, and she said “I just want you to know I know I saw it…”
And that was the week she passed. So, I’m incredibly excited to be
doing something she was excited about and to use the gifts she gave
me, that I hope I’ve got enough of to keep her alive forever.
KW:
I'm
sure you will. Finally, as Samuel L. Jackson asks: What’s in your
wallet?
JL:
Let's
see... [Begins pulling cards out of a compact wallet] Oh my gosh!
Hold on… Okay, here’s a credit card, another credit card, ATM,
driver's license, Starbucks card, health insurance card, another
Starbucks card, auto insurance card, and another Starbucks card. So,
anyone will tell you I’m over-caffeinated. The fact that there’s
so little in my wallet is because I used to be a hoarder. I used to
collect every issue of TV Guide, every issue of Entertainment Weekly
and then it came to a point where I was like "It’s not cute”
and I threw it all out, ten paper bags full, and it felt great. I
recommend to anymore to just get rid of your stuff. [Whispers] And
now I have this tiny little wallet with 3 credit cards and 700 coffee
cards. You know I was really hoping there’d be something really
nasty in my wallet, but yeah, that’s everything.
KW:
Thanks
again for the time, James, and best of luck with the new season.
JL:
My
pleasure, Kam.
