BERNIE MAC MAKES THE TEAM

Bernie Mac stars in Pride which tells the story of swim coach Jim Ellis played by Terrence Howard who founded and coached an African American swimming team in one of Philadelphia’s roughest neighborhoods in the 1970s when race was still a stumbling block in competitive sports.

Bernie plays the disillusioned janitor of a defunked recreation center who becomes inspired to help Ellis bring the pool and the center’s swimming program back to life again. Bernie says growing up in the inner city of Chicago playing team sports were an essential part of his self-esteem.

“I played every sport. My grandmother kept us active. I grew up in the church. I swam. I’ve boxed. I’ve quarterbacked, guard, forward. I mean I’ve done it all. I’m very lucky. And it helped me mentally. It helped me how to share coming from a household of 12 too. It taught me how to give of myself. It taught me how to take disappointment, to learn how to live with disappointment because you get more disappointment than you do praise. So it helped me in a hell of a way and I have a lot of people to congratulate for that.”

In the film the Philadelphia Department of Recreation gets a face lift but the swim team’s name PDR stands for pride, determination and resilience.

“You can’t give up. If the first disappointing thing that comes into your life, the first thing don’t glitter you get disappointed. You’re gonna have more disappointment than you’re gonna get praise and that’s what that PDR meant. And that’s what we were trying to teach in the film. And they taught that because they didn’t take the swimming seriously. They didn’t know about being competitive. They didn’t know about teamwork. They didn’t know about work ethics and stuff like that because it’s unorthodox. It’s so unfamiliar to an inner city kid because they don’t think there’s no instant gratification. People are always going to discourage you and that’s what pride, determination and resilience is all about.”

Pride opens today in theaters.