“Maverick Carter Didn’t Want LeBron James Portrayed as Injured Athlete”: Why Bill Hader Changed Trainwreck’s Script According to Lakers Star’s Wishes

LeBron James was widely ridiculed for the nature of his movie Space Jam: A New Legacy. But there was a point when we had hopes for his acting chops, based on his hilarious cameo in Trainwreck. However, James might not have even appeared in the movie if it wasn’t for a script change his camp demanded.

At the outset, you wouldn’t really think of LeBron James as a natural actor – he is only a sportsperson after all, with no history of doing theater in his school years.

James has some corny and memorable moments in front of a microphone during interviews. But by and large, the man isn’t nearly eloquent enough to find himself doing bits on a green screen.

However, we were all treated to a pleasant surprise when he did make his acting debut in Trainwreck (2015). James definitely outdid himself when he contended that Cleveland and Miami are both great party cities.

Bill Hader and Amy Schumer changed the script for LeBron James at Maverick Carter’s behest

LeBron James and Maverick Carter found themselves interested in the movie mainly because Bill Hader – one of the stars – had worked with James on SNL. Hader’s role in the movie, however, wasn’t enough of a draw.

The original script had LeBron cast as the patient for Hader’s character. However, Carter wanted a change in optics, given his robust health till that point. According to Brian Windhorst in LeBron Inc:

“LeBron and Carter didn’t love it at first. The script called for LeBron to have a relationship with Hader’s character, a doctor, because of knee surgery. Maverick Carter didn’t want LeBron James to be portrayed as an injured athlete in the movie; he’d never had knee surgery.”

“Apatow and Schumer changed the script and made LeBron a best friend character to Hader. Amar’e Stoudemire, who did have a history of knee injuries, had no issues playing the injured athlete.”