Caleb McLaughlin and LeBron James: A unique friendship unfolds

He had so much pressure, like he's the chosen one. Like people, they were comparing him to Jordan around this time. This film's about brotherhood, friendship, community. It's about the LeBron James origin story. What's up y'all, it's Caleb McLaughlin here with Whistle. This is Players Breakdown. I'm in this new movie called Shooting Stars and I play the character Little Drew, one of LeBron's teammates, part of the Fab Five. Drew is the tenacious, confident point guard that LeBron grew up with. After playing him, I left with a different level of confidence. This film is about brotherhood, friendship, community. Yeah, it just gave me a new perspective in life and just how to approach, I guess, the game of basketball. Even when it comes to just people putting me down or even people that may support me, it's all about believing in myself no matter what. It's not about what people think at the end of the day. Can win you a state championship, guaranteed. Sure, cocky little bastard, aren't you? Prior to this scene, we were actually at a different school. Drew didn't like the fact that the coach over there was like, you can play in junior varsity with the smaller guys. You know, Drew, in high school, he was like 5'2". They kind of undermined him in his talent and didn't think he was gonna be as good as the other guys. So he didn't like that, so he had to find another outlet. And, you know, as you see on the, he was looking in the newspaper, he saw that Keith Danbrot was a coach over at St. Vincent St. Mary's. And he's like, you know, I'm gonna go check him out. We had a bootcamp. We were hooping for like a month straight before we even started filming. We were hooping every single day, doing running drills. I had to work on my shot. On top of that, it's not like everyone was on my level. They were way above my level, like Scoot Henderson. That draft this year, Mookie, he's going to college play in Oregon State. So I had to take it to the next level and, you know, really show him my skills. Just want to pass it around the outside and move to the little back. They're all natural athletes, but one person I was really surprised watching was AJ. The one who plays really, like he, his skill, his IQ is on a different level, like that I didn't even know he had. I like this scene a lot because I knew how that was going to look, so I like how the transition and me getting blocked, that was really dope, but I think it was cool because it set up for what he was going to do later in the game. What did I do to get into my character, get into my role? I connected with Drew. He was actually one of the first Fab members we met. I got his number and we spoke on the phone for like hours and I was just asking about himself, his relationship with Bron, the other teammates. I looked at clips of him on YouTube, his mannerisms, his energy on the court, his confidence. I even asked him how he felt about himself. We had really good, deep conversations so that I was able to represent that on the film. Love this scene. They're not just messing up. It's like they're dealing with a lot of mental space, especially LeBron, because he had so much pressure. He's the chosen one. People were comparing him to Jordan around this time. And his friends, I mean, they were there to support him, but like you know sometimes when you and your friends ain't even cool off the court the chemistry is bad on the court. I loved how Chris Robinson was able to like bring that into the screen like they centered him on the screen and when they lost he lost you know mentally so I think that was like a really deep message. Our chemistry on set was exactly how you see it in the film and it really showed on screen like we had a real chemistry on screen and off screen. You know fun fact we actually filmed in the same apartment LeBron grew up in but Like, this is how they went to school every day. It was all together, they was all hanging out. When Khalil, who plays Shion, gave LeBron a wet willy, that was actually real, Mookie was actually really annoyed because Khalil always plays around and he actually gave him a wet willy, he's like, stop! What do I want the audience to take away from this film and what do I want the audience to understand is that basketball is more than a game, it's about support and community, it's about the team. You can't do it on your own. You have to remember your brothers, you have to remember your sisters, You have to remember the people that support you. I feel like anybody can watch this film and leave with some type of confidence or leave with a drive that they never had before. You don't have to want to play basketball to get confidence. You could be a surgeon, you know what I mean? You could be competitive in that way. It's like, let me get focused and let me get this thing done, you know? So I feel like this film is for anybody. Make sure you guys check out more episodes of Players Breakdown. You guys can follow me on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, it don't matter. Caleb McLaughlin, you can look it up. Make sure you guys subscribe to Whistle.