Anthony Edwards Reveals He’s Done with Hollywood After Finding Success with ‘Hustle’: “Not While I’m Playing”

Anthony Edwards earned much praise and appreciation for his role in the Adam Sandler starring 2022 basketball movie Hustle. In the movie, Edwards played the role of a basketball player, Kermit Wilts, who’s the rival to the main character Bo Cruz, played by former Timberwolves star Juancho Hernangomez. However, in a recent Boardroom interview with Justin Holland, Ant-Man revealed that he is done living his Hollywood dream and is planning to only focus on his basketball career.

In this decision, Edwards is following the path of his idol, Kevin Durant. The Slim Reaper also tried his luck in acting in 2012, appearing as himself in the children’s movie Thunderstruck. However, Durant told Sports Illustrated in an interview after the movie that he was no longer interested in marketing himself further despite earning millions from his role.

When Boardroom co-founder and the host of the interview, Rich Kleiman, asked Edwards about his ambitions in Hollywood, the star Timberwolves guard claimed that he will not be doing any more movies. Edwards said, “Not while I’m playing. That was the first time I felt I wasn’t working out basketball-wise.” 

Edwards further said that his schedule had turned extremely hectic balancing between practice and shooting. Elaborating further, the 22-year-old added, “I couldn’t work on my game. ‘Cause, like we had days where I would report at 7 AM, and I wouldn’t leave till 8 PM-9 PM…But it was crazy!” 

Though shooting his debut movie did take a toll on him, Edwards still gave Adam Sandler his flowers for being a fun co-actor on the set. However, contrary to popular beliefs, Ant dismissed Sandler’s hooping skills and declared that he can’t hoop.

Anthony Edwards would rewrite his lines to solidify his role in Hustle

Anthony Edwards definitely nailed his role as a villain in Jeremiah Zagar’s movie Hustle last year. The movie portrays the story of Bo Cruz, a phenomenal basketball player from Spain, spotted by Philadelphia 76ers scout, Stanley (Adam Sandler), during an overseas trip. When the Sixers deny an opportunity to draft Bo, Stanley takes it upon himself to use his league connections to land this prodigious player in the NBA.

Anthony Edwards’ role is that of Kermit Wilts, a top draft prospect and one of the biggest obstacles in Bo’s way of getting drafted into a top team. To make his role seem more authentic, director Jeremiah Zagar said Edwards would often rewrite his lines to make them seem more like himself. As reported by Yahoo! Sports, Zagar told the Insider, “Anthony would rewrite his lines with Juancho on the day of shooting to make sure they felt like him.” 

Edwards’ ingenuity made his scenes an absolute stunner in the movie. Ant-Man successfully played the role of an antagonist in the film, living up to his character as a professional trash talker against the protagonist, Bo Cruz.