For Jay Ellis, constructing on screen chemistry with Running Point costar Kate Hudson was nothing wanting a slam dunk.
“Kate, to begin with, she’s such a straightforward person to be around,” Ellis, 43, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting his Creative Spirit Challenge for Aspiring Filmmakers with Rabbit Hole Distillery. “She’s funny, she’s kind, she’s a little bit of a sensible ass. You get all sides of her at the identical time. Also, she’s, like, walking around singing on a regular basis. She’s serenading you with this mermaid-like voice. It’s beautiful.”
The duo play colleagues on the sports drama, which premieres on Netflix on Thursday, September 27. Ellis portrays Jay Brown, the top coach of fictitious NBA team the Los Angeles Waves. Hudson, meanwhile, plays Isla Gordon: a former party girl who finds herself thrown into the role of team President when her older brother Cam (Justin Theroux) heads to rehab to are likely to his drug addiction. Together, they’re tasked with proving that the Waves have a “winning roster” with the hodge-podge group of players they’ve assembled.
Ellis said that while he had no “expectation” going into working with Hudson, he knew the pair would have multiple scenes together — and was glad to find how well they gelled as actors.
“There’s just a few people you only click with. I feel fortunate to have worked with someone like Kate,” he continued. “I feel like acting is always giving gifts to any person. I’m providing you with a present and you then’re reacting to it, and you then’re giving me a present and we’re going forwards and backwards. And I believe once you’re locked in, it’s magic and also you create something that hopefully people really feel and relate to…. And that was working with Kate.”
While starring alongside Hudson was clearly a high point of attending to work on the series, Ellis was also excited to bring an enormous a part of himself to the role — apart from his first name — by utilizing his expertise. While attending Concordia University in Portland, Oregon, the actor was a member of the basketball team, graduated Suma Cum Laude and served as student body president.
“It’s crazy that I got to bring this much of my personal life to a job each day. It was sort of wild,” Ellis told Us on the Running Point premiere in Los Angeles earlier this month. “It definitely took me back to that point, which was a variety of fun obviously. It was great. I thought of my teammates. I thought of injuries, guys who had gotten hurt. I thought of my very own selfishness or my ambition of wanting to be one of the best player on my team. I believed of all of those things and the way that relates.”
Ellis added that there have been differences from his own basketball profession, too, which made for an “interesting experience.” He told Us: “I’m a coach on the show, having to seek advice from these younger players. And [my character is] only also a 12 months or two faraway from playing [himself].”
That competitive spirit that Running Point entices, Ellis said, also felt relatable. “I find myself always wanting to best the last item or push just a little bit further,” he explained of his own competitive nature, which he says he directs mostly at himself. “That may very well be from a workout to a job to my next take, to be honest with you, after I’m on set. A part of that I believe just lives in me innately. And I believe one other a part of it has just been sort of conditioned through sports.”
Perhaps Ellis’ love of competition will lend itself useful when serving as a mentor to an up-and-coming filmmaker for his Creative Spirit Challenge with Rabbit Hole Distillery. The partnership features an exclusive contest for aspiring filmmakers and the launch of a limited-edition distillery series whiskey release.
“I’ve said this before and I’ll say it until I can not say it: the filmmakers of tomorrow are making short movies today,” Ellis said of his decision to partner with Rabbit Hole “They’re making their first projects today. And I believe if we aren’t finding a strategy to support emerging artists, then we’re only hurting ourselves in the long term. … So I believe any opportunity we now have to get on the market and help folks get their start and give you the option to inform their story and from their standpoint is something that we ought to be doing as artists.”
Ellis added that he particularly enjoys working with corporations like Rabbit Hole due to how much they “support the humanities” and “realize the importance of storytelling in our culture at large.”
This 12 months, Rabbit Hole is showing that unwavering support by teaming up with Ellis to ask emerging filmmakers to enter the Creative Spirits Challenge by submitting a video sharing their story and why they should win. The grand prize winner will receive a professional-grade Canon camera and a one-on-one mentoring session with Ellis, while three runners-up will even receive professional-grade Canon cameras. A collaborative whiskey release will follow in spring 2025.
Ellis is hyped to steer an emerging creative, but just hopes the lucky winner is able to get right down to business.
“There’s an entire syllabus for these guys. They’re gonna go to sleep. I’m gonna, slap the ruler and wake ’em up, and we’re gonna undergo it again. There’ll be a pop quiz,” he joked. “ You recognize, I believe there’s so many things that go into having the ability to make a profession doing this. Obviously there’s passion, there’s creativity, there’s standpoint in your individual storytelling, [but] there’s [also] the marketing aspect of it, there’s the self-confidence aspect of it, there’s the craftsmanship of writing, the craftsmanship of filmmaking, the craftsmanship of having the ability to seek advice from actors and direct while also knowing lighting and camera lenses and all of those things. So I actually hope that if I’m not able to present them all the things that they’re searching for by way of questions or guidance or advice. I would like to give you the option to point them in a direction.”
For Ellis, knowledge is power. “I actually imagine in information and I actually imagine that nobody person has the reply,” he told Us, before adding with fun, “I just really hope that whoever this poor, poor winner is, I actually just hope that they walk away with understanding their story matters. And that we would like their movies on the planet.”
Running Point premieres on Netflix Thursday, February 27.
