He has no formal professional acting skills. But that didn’t prevent Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Greg St. Jean from
putting on a slam dunk performance during his brief role in the critically acclaimed movie, Hustle.
Released last month on Netflix, Hustle centers on Adam Sandler’s character as an NBA scout trying to get relatively unknown Bo Cruz of Spain – played by Utah Jazz forward Juancho Hernangomez – a spot in the NBA. Eventually, Hernangomez winds up on an NBA Draft Combine team that’s coached by St. Jean, who is a hard-nosed coach that answers to no one.
The movie is produced by Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James. And St. Jean got to know James when St. Jean worked as a player development coach and advance scout for the Lakers from 2019-21, and that opened the door for him to be part of the movie.
“That was a really unique opportunity and something that came about when I was working with the Lakers,” St. Jean told Mavs.com. “Long story short, SpringHill Entertainment (which is owned by James) is the co-producer for that movie, which LeBron is a part of.
“Originally, I was a consultant on the movie and read the script and was a part of that, and over time created a relationship with some people involved in the film and they decided to have me play a small little cameo. I did some bad coaching in it and the rest is history, but it was a really fun experience.”
It was all happenstance that St. Jean was even in the movie.
“It ended up being a situation where the main character, Bo Cruz, which is played by Juancho Hernangomez, has to go play in the Combine,” St. Jean said. “When I was originally asked, ‘Hey, who should play the role of a Combine coach,’ I gave them a couple of names. They said, ‘Hey, do you want to just play yourself? You’ve coached in the Combine before. Would you be willing to do it?’ I said, ‘I’ve never acted before.’
“They said, ‘Hey, just come in, and we’re not sure if you’re going to have any lines.’ “
As St. Jean quickly discovered, the folks involved with Hustle gave him some lines to say. A key part of the movie occurred when Cruz was struggling mightily on the court during the Combine, and Sandler was all but begging St. Jean to take him out of the game.
However, St. Jean — he played himself in the movie – adamantly disregarded Sandler’s request.
“Once they got me there they force-fed me a few lines and it just ended up being a lot of fun,” St. Jean said. “Adam Sandler plays the role of Stanley Sugarman, who is a scout for the (Philadelphia) Sixers, and during that scene I’m coaching Bo Cruz. And as that’s going on, Stanley comes out of the stands and basically tells me to take his guy out.’
“He and I have a little altercation. I give him a little Heisman and tell him we’ve got it under control. Clearly, we did not have it under control. After that, our player, Bo Cruz, ends up getting into a little altercation with the character that’s played by (Minnesota Timberwolves forward) Anthony Edwards. It was a fun scene.”
Edwards, also a neophyte actor, talked so much trash to Cruz that the two eventually got involved in a skirmish.
“That was one of the things that stood out to me,” St. Jean said. “I was just so impressed by the job that Juancho and Anthony Edwards and
some of the other non-official actors did.”
Hernangomez was so convincing as an actor that he even fooled St. Jean’s mother.
“I took my mother to the premiere and she thought he was just a professional actor,” St. Jean said. “When she walked away from it, I said, ‘Hey, he actually plays for the Utah Jazz. We just played them in a playoff series (and won in six games).’ And she was like, ‘No way! He did a great job.’ “
St. Jean saw Hernangomez put in the hard work on the set while perfecting his craft.
“I got there at 8 a.m. and I watched him leave at 9 p.m. and he’s there all day acting,” St. Jean said. “So the commitment level that these people put into acting is incredible, and to watch him do it so successfully was really impressive. He was phenomenal.
“Obviously, my interaction with him — I’ve coached against him for years, and I know him a little bit through some mutual friends. He’s a really good person to be around, but as far as his acting skills, he blew me away. A lot of these guys you see want to get involved in music, they all want to try to become a hip-hop artist or a rap artist or a singer in some capacity. It’s pretty cool to watch somebody whose day-to-day craft is about basketball and doesn’t have to take a summer and dedicate that to acting. He did a great job before and after on these long days working on his game, still.”
St. Jean’s part in the movie was filmed last September in Philadelphia. Spain and New York were among the places where other parts of the movie were filmed.
“They started filming, then they had Covid, filming shut down and then they re-started the filming,” St. Jean said. “It was kind of all over the world.
“They started filming in 2019 — that’s when I started with the Lakers. They already had a script and everything already written by then.”
Mavs point guard Luka Doncic, governor Mark Cuban, and former Mavs players Dirk Nowitzki and Boban Marjanovic had cameo appearances in the movie. St. Jean said: “So that was fun to have some Mavericks’ family be involved in that together.”
As far as reviewing his own performance in the movie, St. Jean wasn’t ready to give himself two thumbs up. Neither were the Mavs’ personnel, who offered their own brand of good-natured ribbing.
“It’s been mixed reviews,” St. Jean said. “Some people enjoy giving me a hard time about it.
“I’ve got a few staff members that daily make me recite my lines, so that’s been fun.”
Despite his success in Hustle, there’s no way St. Jean has been bitten by the acting bug. After initially saying: “I’m open for business” when asked if he would one day pursue a career in acting whenever he’s finished coaching, St. Jean got serious and said:
“I think I’ll stick to the hardwood. I’ll stick to my day job. But that was a lot of fun and that was an easy little cameo. I’m super grateful for the SpringHill people and Happy Madison (Productions). They were awesome to work with.
“They did a great job and it was just really, really impressive to watch the entire movie come together.”
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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