Jonathan Lipnicki Instagram – 20 Years ago today LIKE MIKE came out.
It was one of the best filming experiences I’ve ever had, and this is how it went down:
My mom and I were trying to get the rights to this book “When Zachary Beaver Came to Town,” to produce as a vehicle for me to act in.
Unfortunately a production company beat us to the punch. we then tried getting a meeting for the movie, but I was turned down because I was too young to play the role at the time. The movie ended up running into several delays getting financing and by the time it was put together I was a lot closer to the age of the character.
I ended up getting that meeting with the director John Schultz. He is an incredible guy, and we hit it off. He said we could make the movie, but he wanted me to consider taking a small role in his next movie called “Like Mike,” so we could get a feel for collaborating with each other. After reading “Like Mike,” I signed on to the role of “Murph,” and he ended up molding a really great expanded storyline, and beautiful friendship for the characters of “Calvin” and “Murph.”
We shot “Like Mike,” and then the next summer shot “When Zachary Beaver Came to Town.” John’s background was in indie filmmaking, having his debut feature “BandWagon” premiere at Sundance. He directed a beautiful little film, and I couldn’t be more grateful to collaborate on both films with him.
Back to Like Mike:
Bow, Brenda, Jesse, and I played basketball all day on set, and I will forever have love for all of them. The filming was a new adventure each day, whether it were filming at Staples Center, or a really tough neighborhood where our on set school trailers got tagged with graffiti.
When it was time to do press for the movie, Bow and I traveled all around Europe for a summer promoting it. It was pandemonium showing up for these interviews and morning shows. It felt like traveling with the Beatles, but in this case it was my friend, a young rap super star.
Like Mike exceeded expectations and came out number 2 in the box office it’s opening weekend. Over the years it’s built a really fun fan base and I am so proud of what we did. | Posted on 04/Jul/2022 02:57:23
