but he was still working hard.

This man slept at the gym so he could wake up the next morning

and continue training.

And with that type of work ethic,

you can make it anywhere.

[THEME MUSIC]

Hello, everyone.

I'm Uche Agada.

I play Giannis Antetokounmpo in the Disney+ Original movie,

"Rise."

And I'm Ral Agada, the real-life brother of Uche,

and I play Thanasis Antetokounmpo,

the second eldest brother the Antetokounmpo family,

in "Rise."

Thanks for joining me here on "Disney+ Voices"

to discuss the power of perseverance

and the universal impact sports narratives

have on their viewers.

Excited to be here, man.

There's no doubt that Thanasis is proud of his brother's

accomplishments. Rather than me bragging

about you, which I can,

you should tell the audience about your journey.

How'd you land the role?

And what did you learn?

Well, I mean, I landed this role just off of Twitter.

Giannis put out a tweet saying that

he's looking for people to play him and his

brothers in a Disney+ movie.

And I said, why not?

Let me go for it.

I sent in a self tape.

And a few months later, I got a callback,

and here we are today.

With this being my very first movie, it's been a blast.

So what about you, Ral?

How'd it happen for you?

And what'd you learn?

Man, you already know how it happened for me.

You threw me the alley, so to speak.

You called me up, said, "Hey, man, they

asked me if I had any siblings that want to play

the older brother, Thanasis."

And I was like, "What?"

So I went through the process, and then I eventually got cast.

They told me I'm going to Greece to shoot

a movie with my brother.

It was a great learning experience being

on set for the first time.

For me, it was weird.

It was like-- like, the very first time

we walked on to set, like, when we were walking there,

it was nervous.

But, like, as soon as we got to the actual set,

and you see all the people, I don't know, for some reason,

that all went away.

The most nerve-wracking scene for me

was probably the injury scene.

I'm just yelling and screaming.

[LAUGHS]

All of the sudden, you stop with a straight face.

That good? That good?

What were some of the challenges

you faced while filming in Greece?

How did you lock in your Afro-Greek accent

to bring this role to life?

We worked with a dialect coach.

We worked for months, the entire time we were shooting

and even a couple of months before we

even started shooting.

In the beginning, he said to me, "Uche, one day,

you'll be able to just get into this accent.

It'll feel very natural."

I didn't believe him.

But with repetition, I got to that point.

Yeah, I definitely didn't believe him either,

but he was right.

It was a lot of hard work, a lot of repetition,

a lot of feeling like I don't know how I'm going to do this,

but eventually figuring it out, right?

And I'd say that just the experience of walking

the streets in Athens for the first time,

looking at the buildings and seeing

how different it is from America, that

was pretty incredible.

It was the same way that Giannis and Thanasis

saw New York in the movie was the same way I think Ral

and I saw Athens for the first time.

People in Greece, they love, they love this family.

And--

(LAUGHING) Yeah.

--knowing that made it even more fun creating or just

filming it because we knew how important it was to the people

who actually lived there.

We were in one of the stores.

And we weren't shooting that day,

but the younger versions of us were shooting in one

of the-- in Monastiraki Square.

And the lady at the store was like, "Yo,

they shut down the place over there.

They're filming a movie about the Antetokounmpos."

And we were like, "Really, they are?"

Because you could see the excitement when she said that.

It was just incredible just knowing what it means to them.

They see someone who grew up in Greece, went to America,

and then now look at this man.

This man is doing things.

Honestly, I think the fact that we filmed on location

in the real places that the brothers grew up and played

basketball in, I feel like it makes the film

so much more authentic.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

How did it feel working with our director, Akin Omotoso?

With his close connection with Nigeria,

did it help tell this story authentically?

Everything felt very homey in a way.

You know what I mean?

I remember Akin, he was--

he used to say, we're going to make the most Nigerian

Greek film you'll ever see.

And he definitely delivered on that.

He knew what he was doing.

I feel like representation is important in all aspects.

This is a story about Nigerians.

We got a whole Nigerian cast.

Our director is Nigerian.

So it's a very authentic way to tell the story instead

of having people who don't really, truly understand

this story tell this story.

And they know what they're trying to create.

You know what I mean?

And they-- it's great to have those people there

because they understand it.

Yeah, they know the story because they've lived

through it just like them.

Exactly.

RAL AGADA: Yeah.

It's very--

I'm very blessed for it to be that way because it

could have been different.

But I'm glad that it-- that they chose this route.

And we got to immerse ourselves

more in our Nigerian culture.

Absolutely.

It was an amazing experience.

I don't think it's in the movie,

but there's a scene where we're eating.

We saw-- we had a beautiful view.

We had actual Nigerian food.

Yeah, the fufu, some jollof rice.

Was there some pounded yam?

Oh, my goodness.

It was fantastic.

What was it like to portray the real-life people who have

gone through such hardships?

And what did you learn?

We've known who these guys were for years, years

prior to this even happening.

I remember just watching over the years how they pronounced

his last name whenever--

I remember there was a--

I think it was his rookie season.

He shoots the three.

The guy-- he's in Miami.

The guy says, Aretokumbu for three.

Way off.

[LAUGHS]

When we were watching the premiere--

we had two premieres-- and knowing that Giannis.

the best player in the world, is watching you,

and you're playing basketball on that screen,

you just really wish that you tightened

up your handle a little bit, even though it's not bad.

Like, the average person is going to watch and be like, "OK,

this is great."

But that's not the average basketball player, you know?

You just wish that you were in the gym for, like, 16

hours a day, just trying to--

but it is what it is.

Portraying somebody that you were always a fan of,

I feel like there's a big responsibility there,

especially when it's a story that

was as heartbreaking and tough as theirs was at certain times.

It was definitely a big responsibility,

but I think we stepped up to the challenge well.

A lot of people look up to Giannis,

and I think showing where he came from

would also inspire all these people who look up to him.

It'll show them that they came from absolutely nothing,

and they created what they have now.

And if he can do it from nothing, no matter

where you are, as long as you persevere,

you can create the same thing as well.

I hope that's the-- that's the image that I'm

hoping to bring to people.

I remember when we first started filming,

and I first read the script, I was like, wow,

I knew that they had humble beginnings,

but I didn't realize just how difficult things were for them.

I knew that they were immigrants from Greece.

I didn't know that when they were living in Greece,

they were undocumented.

So that was a big thing to learn for me.

And it was hard for them to hide,

too, because, obviously, they're big-- they're very tall.

So that's one thing.

And two, they're Black in Greece,

so it's not easy to blend in.

Kostas was saying that scene in the movie

where he runs from the police--

they all run from the police-- he said

that happened more than once.

That happened multiple times.

To actually go through that, I can't even

imagine what that was like.

Thanasis, Giannis, Kostas, and Alex have achieved so much.

And with each triumph comes more and more inspiration.

What impact do you hope this sports narrative

will have on the audiences?

A few things, honestly.

Not only the importance of perseverance and working hard

and sticking with your family, but also,

like, showing the immigrant side of the story sometimes.

We don't get to see that part of the story as much,

but I'm glad that we got to show it.

They have done so much, man.

The three of them are NBA champions.

They made NBA history with that.

And honestly, it just really shows

that no matter where you come from, no matter what you look

like, you keep on persevering through those hardships,

and eventually you can have whatever you want.

Especially when you have your family by your side like that,

and they're all pushing you and rooting for you,

it's hard to feel alone.

Yeah, no one knows that better than us.

[LAUGHS]

I feel like the immigrant story is one that's not really

told very much in, not just the U.S., just

in general, across media and whatnot.

Usually when you hear it, it's, oh, they're

coming to take our jobs.

They're-- it's all of this negative.

But it's not always the case.

Sometimes it's just bad circumstances that led somebody

to have to enter another country "illegally"

to make a better life for them and their family.

I'm glad to be able to show how things were

for the Antetokounmpos because it's

the total opposite of the stigmatized story that

goes around so often.

And let people know that if you want

to go and achieve amazing things, that's possible for you