Image via Netflix
Juancho Hernangomez is now a movie star. When the basketball star signed on for a part in Netflix’s basketball flick Hustle, he thought he was doing some sort of cameo—but he had no idea he was taking on the lead role. Like his character Bo Cruz, Hernangomez is also from Spain and moved to the United States to play for the NBA. While the team behind Hustle and Netflix could have easily hired a tall, athletic actor for the role—like Morris Chestnut in 2002’s Like Mike—they tapped a real-life professional athlete whose story was similar to the character instead, making the LeBron James-produced film feel significantly more authentic.
Hernangomez’s professional basketball career began in 2012 with Madrid’s CB Estudiantes. He was on the international early entry candidates list for the 2016 NBA draft and was selected by the Denver Nuggets. He has since played for other teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves, Boston Celtics, the San Antonio Spurs and is currently with the Utah Jazz. The power forward says he and his character have a lot in common. In the film, a talent scout Philadelphia 76ers named Stanley Sugarman, played by the one and only Adam Sandler, finds Bo playing basketball at a local park in Spain and convinces him to move to the U.S. to pursue a professional career. Bo is down on his luck working in construction after he gave up on his dream to play ball after having a daughter as a teenager and being financially responsible for her and his mother.
Image via Netflix
“A lot of what he’s been through, I’ve been through. Going to another country by yourself, trying to not give up on yourself, not give up on the people who trust you, pursue the dreams, chase the dreams no matter what, and just prove them wrong,” Hernangomez tells Complex in an interview. “It was the same for me. When I came to the NBA, I came with my team, drafted. I didn’t speak English. So I didn’t understand anything, just how to play basketball, the sport I love, the game I love. And that’s the reason I keep going because I love basketball too much. And that’s the reason Bo did it because he loves basketball and because he loves his family and he knows he got to do it for his daughter.”
Stanley put all of his hopes and dreams on Bo, too, risking his job and putting himself on the line. They both needed each other to succeed, and the desire to not disappoint the one person who believed in him is another reason Bo keeps fighting to make it into the NBA. That level of mutual respect and dedication is at the core of the film, and as the story progresses, their relationship deepens and so does their trust in one another. All a person needs sometimes is just one person to believe in them, and who better to have on your side than Sandler? The actor is known for his iconic movies, but one thing most people know about him outside of that is how deeply he loves basketball, and that reflects in the film. “He loves basketball. I play with a lot of basketball players, real basketball players, who love basketball [less than] him. For real, he watches basketball. He watches all my games. He texts me after the games,” the NBA star shares, adding that they’d sometimes hoop together after a long day on set. “He loves it, even if he cannot walk, he’s still playing. He’s unbelievable. And he’s really good.”
Hustle has all the makings of a sports movie—it’s inspiring, exciting, uplifting, and makes you believe that all things are possible. Hernangomez delivers a subtle yet powerful performance, as a 6’9 guy who is quiet, thoughtful, and most of all, teachable. Sandler shines in this role as well. Stanley is a lot calmer than his role as Howard Ratner in Uncut Gems, but they both share the same anxiousness and internal struggle of wanting to make something happen for themselves. Stanley’s future is riding on Bo, but he shields the athlete from feeling that pressure. Instead, he coaches Bo and supports him, showing him the kind of grace, patience, and appreciation that makes people rise to the occasion. And he does, every single time.
The film also stars Queen Latifah, Robert Duvall, and Ben Foster, with appearances from real Sixers like Tobias Harris, Matisse Thybulle, Tyrese Maxey, and head coach Doc Rivers. Complex caught up with Juancho Hernangomez ahead of the Netflix film’s release, and he talked all about his first acting role, working with Adam Sandler, what his favorite basketball movie was growing up and what it meant to have basketball legends like Julius Erving, Allen Iverson, and Shaquille O’Neal be part of the film.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
So I just watched the movie yesterday and I cried.
Juancho Hernangomez: You cried?
I did! I think people are really going to appreciate the movie. How are you feeling about it?
JH: I feel great because it’s the end of two years working. The first year we made it, it was really hard because it was the pandemic, the COVID restrictions. Everybody made an extra effort, not just the actors because we kind of have the best living, but it’s just the cameras, the wardrobes, everybody, everyone on the crew. They did an unbelievable job. They deserve all the credit too because they made it work. The first year was hard, but the second we enjoyed a lot. I’m so happy because that’s the end of the movie. I mean, the movie, just the close to two hours you saw is just the end, but how we enjoyed it, how we worked the two years, the two summers, it’s the thing I’m most proud of.
That’s wonderful. This is your first movie role, right? What was it like to be in front of the camera acting?
JH: I mean, to be honest, it wasn’t that hard to act because I felt so comfortable with the director (Jeremiah Zagar), and with Adam. I prepared myself really, really [well] with Noëlle Gentile. Noëlle was my acting teacher and she was the best. I did the movie, what I did, is because of her. She got to get all the credit. We worked so hard. We did like thousands, millions, hours of Zoom. We worked on the script, we worked on the feelings, we worked on everything and that was the hard part. But I enjoyed every single day. Every single day was a different scene, different script. I didn’t feel nervous because I feel like being an actor wasn’t my dream. So I told the director and everybody, “I am going to do my best.” If I play badly at basketball, I know that’s my dream. So I’m going to be so mad, but I just did my best. So when you do your best, you cannot regret anything.
I think you captured what Bo would’ve been feeling—the nerves, the excitement, the fear, really well because everybody is relying on him to make it. That’s a lot of pressure. He doesn’t say much throughout the movie, but you can see his emotions and what he’s thinking. How were you able to do that?
JH: Noëlle helped me a lot with the character. We worked a lot. I feel like the character and me, we got a lot of things the same, a lot of what he’s been through, I have been through, going to another country by yourself, trying to not give up on yourself, don’t give up on the people who trust you, pursue the dreams, chase the dreams no matter what, and just prove them wrong.
It was the same for me. When I came to the NBA, I came with my team, drafted. I didn’t speak English. So I didn’t understand anything, just how to play basketball, the sport I love, the game I love. And that’s the reason I keep going because I love basketball too much. And that’s the reason Bo did it because he loves basketball and because he loves his family and he knows he’s got to do it for his daughter. He changed his life when he was 16 because he had a baby. So he says, “I’m giving up on my dream now because I got to take care of my family.” But that’s the reason he never trusts Stanley, at the beginning, because he doesn’t trust some people [he] just met.
You said you and Bo have a lot of similarities. Did you have someone in your career that believed in you the way that Stanley believed in Bo?
JH: Well, probably my parents. My parents, your close people, my brother the same way I believe in him or my sister, but even though they believe in me, they were so hard on us. That’s the reason when you love someone, you are hard on them because you want the best. It’s so good to see how Stanley loved Bo in the movie, how he can’t give up on his family, his own daughter, because I got a daughter. [Stanley] tried to do everything he could for me, even if he had to lie to me or lie to my family. And that’s the reason we connect so much.
Adam Sandler loves basketball. Everybody knows that about him. How was it working with him on a movie about a topic that he really loves?
JH: He loves basketball. I play with a lot of basketball players, real basketball players, who love basketball [less than] him. For real, he watches basketball. He watches all my games. He texts me after the games. We play, sometimesI wake up at five, and I go to work out. I got to do my basketball workout before the set starts. And then we start shooting the movie. So we’d probably be there for 12 hours, a long day, we are tired. So he want to play after the set, we went to his home and played basketball and hoop. He loves it, even if he cannot walk, he’s still playing. He’s unbelievable. And he’s really good.
What did you learn from him as an actor?
JH: Everything. I never acted. But the thing that surprised me is we can do like a drama scene and one minute before we were joking, dying laughing, laughing like crazy. And then Jeremiah says, “Action”. And he has changed and is almost crying. And I was like, “Wow”.
Like the airport scene, for example.
JH: We were laughing before, and then you see his eyes and they cut the scene a little bit, but we were saying like, “I love you, Stanley”. And he said, “I love you, Bo”. And it was deep.
Why did they cut it?
JH: I don’t know.
What did it mean for you that they chose to hire an athlete to come in and play this role?
JH: I didn’t know too much about acting before, so probably they trusted me. They trust or they see something in me because I never acted, for me, I was trying to do my best, I enjoy every single day. But when we did the casting, I guess they see something in me and they see some kind of talent and we just developed the talent, but I was surprised at the beginning. Then when they sent me the script, I was kind of the main character. And I was like, “Wow, this is big.” Because I didn’t know the role. They said, “Yeah, you’re going to be in the movie.” But you say, “OK, I’m doing a small scene and go home.” But it was like, “I’m in Bo’s movie.” So it was huge.
We really see the relationship between Stanley and Bo progress and deepen. You see that the trust is building between them. What did it mean to be able to show that relationship grow throughout the movie?
JH: I think Bo didn’t trust him at the beginning because he didn’t have a father and his father left him alone when he was young and his father destroyed him and he want to raise his daughter to not be like his father, you know what I’m saying? He wanted to be the role model for his daughter and his father showed him the example to not be like him. So then [Stanley] is a man who wants to be kind of like his father or his role model and Bo was really hard on him at the beginning. I didn’t believe him at first. He comes to your home and offers you crazy money and dreams come true and American dreams and all this stuff, you are not going to believe that.
We are living in the real world, as Bo you got to wake up at 6:00 a.m. to work 14 hours to make $500 a month to try to raise your kid. So that’s the reason I think Bo didn’t believe until Stanley saw him, that he truly believed in him. He bet on him, he can be the father he never had. And when Bo had this feeling, when my mom in the movie talked to me and he said like, “OK, you give up the dream, but don’t give up Stanley. He saw you like you saw us.” That’s when I truly believe, OK, let’s go against the world. You and me. That’s the reason. That’s the reason I get so mad at him during the movie when I feel like he lied to me because I really trust, I put my trust in him after I never had a dad.
The story is really important for people who have dreams and shows them not to give up on themselves. Is that the message you hope fans take from the movie?
JH: I feel like it’s not just in basketball, it’s in every job, the dream of every kid. Even if something goes wrong and even [when] it’s so dark, the light is coming next day. That’s the message I want to send to everybody, you got to keep going, keep believing in you, working on you and at the end, things are going to be good. Get people who trust in you. Take away the people who don’t trust in you, and really enjoy the journey, too. I enjoy every single day. When I was working out with Stanley, running up the mountains, get five seconds less every single day and see the progress like, “Oh, we going to bet. We’re going to bet on this.” But we are going to be all in.
You guys got the who’s who of the NBA to participate in this movie. Do you think that makes it even more special?
JH: Yeah, for sure. I mean, adding crazy names like they have, it increased the timing of the movie. Even Anthony Edwards did a phenomenal job, Kenny Smith, they did a great job doing the roles and the cameos are huge. I sing with Dr. J and Dr. J was Michael Jordan before Michael Jordan was Michael Jordan. Then when you see Allen Iverson and Shaquille O’Neal, that means they going to know who I am. So that’s huge. I enjoy every single scene. Even when we are playing in the streets with the street ballers on the A1 league or with the famous guys, like the professor and these guys, it was huge.
People are really going to love that.
JH: Even the cameo of Dirk Nowitzki. Dirk Nowitzki was my favorite player ever. I got his jersey, he signed it and his German jersey, he signed it. He’s from Europe. And he was the best European ever. He texted me and tweeted, “Hey, I just need my cameo.”
There are so many great basketball movies, He Got Game, Above the Rim. Did you have a favorite one growing up or what was your go-to?
JH: I like all of them, [there’s] not one I don’t like. Probably the most impactful. It was the Looney Tunes one in German. Space Jam. But the first one. I was a kid. I watch it there and everybody wanted to be like Mike. It was huge.
Will we see more acting from you in the future? You’re good at it.
JH: I guess we never know.
Hustle is now available in theaters and to stream on Netflix.