Being both a sports fan and a movie fan, I have seen a lot of sports movies – and while there are certainly a lot of classic cliches, there is also plenty of variance in the genre. That being said, the new 2026 film GOAT does something I’ve never seen before: it features a young male protagonist with a female sports idol. It’s a unique aspect of the story that really impressed me, and I felt compelled to ask the stars of the movie about it when I spoke with them earlier this month.
As captured in the video up top, I interviewed Caleb McLaughlin and Gabrielle Union earlier this month during the virtual press day for GOAT, and my first question was about the special dynamic between their two characters: Will, an aspiring roarball player who gets the opportunity of a lifetime to play with his hero, Jett Fillmore. McLaughlin explained that he could very personally relate to the relationship purely because he saw his co-star in a similar light:
It was wonderful. I think it was a great take on... We're in 2026, and you could aspire to be anything you want. And Jett is someone that Will, I agree, that I'm actually inspired by. I mean, I grew up watching Gabrielle in film and TV my whole life, and I've always looked up to her and her work. So being able to work with her is a dream come true and is an honor, honestly. So it worked perfectly.
There are plenty of sports movies featuring young protagonists, but if that protagonist is male, and they have an icon they look up to, it’s always a man. It’s a pattern that echoes the strict gender divisions we see in all professional sports, but in inventing the basketball-esque sport roarball, GOAT creates its own rules, and it doesn’t discriminate based on the sex of its athletes.
McLaughlin added that he is hoping that young boys in the audience will register what the movie is going to get across in this respect and diminish any kind of immature taboo:
I feel like a lot of young boys need to see this type of film because it just shows how cool the camaraderie is and the type of connection that they have where it, it's okay. You know what I mean? Like, there's freedom in this, there's a lot of passion, there's a lot of ambition that Jett has, and I feel like anyone could look up to that and learn from that. That's very true. I've never seen that either. I've never seen that. So I think it's super dope.
Following her co-star’s comments, Gabrielle Union noted that while GOAT is special in its cinematic presentation of the relationship between Will and Jett, she has seen that dynamic play out in real life. He told me about her experiences going to WNBA games and seeing not just girls awed by the star athletes:
I mean, going to Chicago Sky games, right? Everyone's, you know, 'Angel Reese! Angel Reese!' and then after the game, you know, she stays for a very long time. And the line of kids waiting to see her who are just like overwhelmed at the sight of her; it's boys and girls. There's boys who are holding her shoe. Like, 'I got the Angel Reese shoe! I want you to sign this jersey!' And they're looking at her in awe, right? Every time it warms my heart.
A major obstacle in this conversation is the fact that women’s professional sports don’t get anywhere near the same kind of attention as men’s professional sports. But greater exposure can lead to great and beneficial change.
It’s change that Union, as a mother, wants to see in the world, as respecting women as stars and leaders goes far beyond the world of sports and entertainment:
My daughter, I'm raising a seven-year-old girl. And for her to be in the stands, watching that and watching this woman lead in such a way is huge. It's huge. So no, it doesn't matter. The genre or project or the industry, having women in leadership roles breeds more of this. And you know, I hate to use the word normalize, but I think in some circles, I think that's the appropriate word, that it's okay. Lightning will not strike you if you look up to a woman, if you follow a woman's lead, that's real.
Arriving this past weekend on the big screen and placing second at the domestic box office, GOAT is now playing in theaters everywhere.
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