Amin Joseph plays Willie Mays Aikens in The Royal, a true story drama based on the former Kansas City Royals player. Aikens’ career as a professional baseball player took a turn in a disastrous direction when he sold crack cocaine to an undercover police officer, receiving a sentence of 24 years in prison. The Royal picks up when Aikens is released, after 14 years served, following his return to professional baseball with the help of his estranged family and friends, while ultimately achieving personal wins along the way.

Alongside Joseph in the cast are Elisabeth Rohm, Olivia Holguin, Andrea Navedo, Nic Bishop, Michael Beach, LisaRaye McCoy, and more. It’s written by Gregory W. Jordan and directed by Marcel Sarmiento. The Royal is set for a limited theatrical release and wide digital release beginning on July 15, 2022.

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Ahead of the release of The Royal, Joseph joined us to discuss the film.

Narrative Depth in The Royal

There are plenty of sports dramas out there that focus on the redemption of players or teams by winning what it is they play, however, The Royal powerfully subverts that norm by making winning about Aikens’ internal state and relationship with his family.

“It’s baseball adjacent, but this film isn’t really about baseball. It is about swinging for the fences for what you believe in and taking risks. It doesn’t help to be a big World Series hero, but more importantly, what does it look like for a father to try to get back into his children’s life after being away for 14 years, after being a pariah to your community and to the organization, and to your fans? What does it look like to get a job? When you come back, and you fell from the high graces of being a Major League baseball player, what type of jobs do these look like and how humbling is it? How much of that do you deserve? And how much of that makes your story special in a way that we want to see you overcome those obstacles and get back with your wife that you’ve been estranged from for 14 years… Seeing this person fall from grace, having his talent squandered and thrown away, and seeing them come back… that’s the winning that goes on in this film,” explained Joseph.

Amin Joseph as Willie Mays Aikens

     Samuel Goldwyn Films

Joseph portrays Aikens with complexity in the film, with a lot of the character being understood by expression. In one scene we see a moment of uncertainty about whether Aikens will continue his sobriety out of prison. Without saying a word, Joseph expertly portrays the internal battle, struggling to achieve a personal win. We asked Joseph what kind of preparation goes into perfecting a scene like that, and into remaining in heavier emotional states when several takes may be required.

“That’s the discipline and training. I’m theatrically trained, and I’ve spent the better part of my entire life training on stage and in films and television. So, I’m looking forward to opportunities to use that focus and training to make the story more impactful. For every scene like that, there were several takes and interpretations, and you know, an editor and director choose what to go with, but for each take, I’m trying to bring something new, something nuanced to the struggle of addiction,” said Joseph. “When we look at addiction, it looks very cut and dry from someone that doesn’t have that illness. But for a person that is dealing with addiction, it’s more than just temptation… it’s a psychological breakdown, a depression. It’s the former life, it’s the dreams deferred… all these cues and emotional pulls and recalls that make a person react to things the way that they do… So, it’s something I like to handle with a lot of care because these are actual people’s lives… it’s a real moment of vulnerability and transparency.”

As for working with director Sarmiento, Joseph commented, “Marcel, he’s awesome… he allowed me to do my thing… and then he would pepper in certain emotional cues to enhance or focus on… it was a great collaboration to work with him. I’m a character guy, so he was looking to capture that… The movie isn’t cinematic in the way that it pulls, the movie is pulling toward performance, toward showing what I’m thinking and feeling, and he did that with a delicate hand.”

The Royal comes to us from Samuel Goldwyn Films and is a production of Buffalo 8 Productions and Vitamin A Films.