Trivia / Coach Carter

• Awesome, Dear Boy: Samuel L. Jackson is a huge basketball fan and had wanted to do a basketball movie for so long.
• Creator-Preferred Adaptation: The real Ken Carter was on set as a coach every day and said Samuel L. Jackson's portrayal of him was 98% accurate. Jackson had been Carter's first choice as well.
• The Danza: A very obscure case. In the scene where Coach Carter reviews his players' failing progress reports, one of the academically-challenged players is named Mario Gomez. IMDB has a Mario Garcia playing one of the "Additional Richmond Players."
• Dawson Casting: Most of the high schoolers were played by actors in their twenties.
  • Rob Brown and Robert Ri'chard (the latter of whom played a high school freshman) were twenty-one.
  • Rick Gonzalez was twenty-seven.
  • Channing Tatum and Ashanti were twenty-five.
  • Sidney Faison, who played rival player Ty Crane, was thirty.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Channing Tatum had never played basketball before, so he had to have additional training to keep up with the others. All the young actors had to train for up to twelve hours a day to prepare.
• Playing with Character Type: Samuel L. Jackson takes a break from action movies and roles that require him to be a charismatic badass. He's still charismatic but he's more of a Badass Bookworm here.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Each player's position is based on the strength of his respective actor.
• Underage Casting: Octavia Spencer is just ten years older than her on-screen son Nana Gbewonyo.

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