'Crossover' cast tackles issues on and off basketball court

LOS ANGELES, April 5 (UPI) -- The cast of the streaming series, The Crossover, premiering Wednesday on Disney+, said the show explores how sports participants' personal lives impact the game.

Jalyn Hall and Amir O'Neill portray eighth-grade basketball players Filthy and JB Bell, respectively, one of whom will become an NBA star.

"The problems and situations that you tackle are about more than just sports," Jalyn told UPI in a Zoom interview. "That's the structure, but it's about so much more."

Those issues include JB's diagnosis of ADHD and his struggles with schoolwork. Amir said that, though he does not have ADHD, he is friends with someone who does and he researched the diagnosis before playing JB.

Amir said that research included reading and "looking up the symptoms, just the way they react to certain situations and also just reading about how they feel internally, what's going on inside of their head."

The Crossover is based on the book by Kwame Alexander, who is an executive producer of the show with Damani Johnson and Kimberly A. Harrison.

Alexander said Season 1 of The Crossover incorporates his book and embellishes characters and stories beyond what he wrote.

"We're sort of extending it and doing some other things with it, but still within the framework of the book," he said.

JB and Filthy have love lives off the court. Alexis (Skyla I'Lece) is a classmate and potential love interest of JB's.

Maya (Deja Cruz) has been friends with JB and Filthy since their childhoods, and now has a crush on Filthy. Amir said he related to JB's confusion over his budding love life.

"When you like a girl, it can be confusing trying to determine how much you like her - or if it's just like a friendship vibe," Amir said.

Cruz said Maya and Alexis support the boys' athletic endeavors.

"We don't get on the court," Cruz said. "We're cheering them on."

The Crossover also deals with Maya and Alexis' personal issues. Cruz said she related to Maya losing a family member.

"Maya just lost her mom," Cruz said. "I just was dealing with the loss of my grandma, as well," Cruz said.

Alexis has been away for years and is readjusting to moving back to New Orleans. Skyla said she related to Alexis' adjustment.

"I had just moved from North Carolina to California a year before getting this audition," Skyla said. "I think Alexis and I are quite similar."

JB and Amir's parents, Chuck (Derek Luke) and Crystal Bell (Sabrina Revelle), are trying to guide their sons to well-rounded lives. Crystal is also the principal of their school, so she steps in when JB struggles with classwork.

"I think that's her way of protecting them and making sure they survive in this world that may not be so friendly," Revelle said. "She wants them to not just have one thing, which is basketball."

Chuck coaches his sons in basketball. Luke said he saw Jalyn and Amir as his younger self starting out with the breakthrough role in 2002's Antwone Fisher.

"Crossover represents the older Derek trying to coach and mentor the younger one," Luke siad. "I always wanted to be mentored growing up."

Amir made his screen debut in the 2015 TV movie White Water, playing a boy living in the segregated South who wanted to taste water from a "Whites Only" fountain. Amir also played Marlon Wayans' son in the sitcom Marlon.

Jalyn began doing episodic television in 2017. Last year, he portrayed Emmett Till in the movie Till, which he filmed after The Crossover pilot, but before the rest of the series.

"Everybody who was involved with that [film] needed a breather," Jalyn said. "It really empowered me to continue going and put my all into The Crossover."

Basketball training was part of Jalyn and Amir's rehearsal for The Crossover. The characters also socialize at a roller rink and had to learn to skate.

"I fell on my butt so many times," Amir said. "I was just clinging to the walls."