WASHINGTON — Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr was part of a team that won an Oscar during Sunday night’s 98th Academy Awards.
Kerr, who served as an executive producer on the short film “All the Empty Rooms,” spoke with pride and passion before Monday’s game against the Washington Wizards regarding not just the happiness he felt from the film being recognized, but also the necessary work to be done in gun reform across the United States.
It’s a cause Kerr has been passionate about for decades. Kerr’s father, Malcolm, was assassinated in 1984 while serving as the President of the American University in Beirut. The film centers around memorializing the bedrooms of children killed in school shootings across America.
This is part of the questions and answers in which Kerr discussed the movie before Monday’s game. This has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity:
I know you joked that you didn’t have much to do with making the film — but what does it mean to you that the film won, especially when you’ve been so vocal about gun control?
Kerr: I want to make very clear that executive producer is a fancy way of saying I had nothing to do with it at all. But I’m incredibly honored to be associated with it. They asked me about a year ago if I wanted to be an executive producer, and I jumped at it when I read about the project because it’s such an important film. Once I saw it, I was just blown away by the beauty, the sadness, the humanity, so poignantly done. And it’s important, given my advocacy for gun violence prevention, (that) you look for ways to touch everybody and avoid the political discourse that brings the issue down.
The film perfectly threaded that needle. I’m trying to recommend everyone to watch it. It’s 35 minutes, but you should watch it. It’s hard to watch, but it’s unforgettable. And that is the issue — it’s kind of a movement that we need to shift, our country, our citizenship, we need to move the issue because it’s obviously not happening at the political level. But we know the power of protests and movements, and I hope, sincerely, that this film will help in that cause.
What would you want your average person to take away from the movie who doesn’t know much about the issue?
Kerr: You want them to understand the humanity involved. This is not a political issue. It’s a public health crisis. When you watch the film, and you see the loss, and you see these innocent lives being taken, and then you start to pay attention to the issue, you realize that there are plenty of things that we could do to save lives. It can be daunting. A lot of people say to me, ‘This is hopeless.’ It’s not. We have legislation that’s been passed frequently that is already saving lives. We know that statistically. But it’s really the movement that’s most important to me, the consensus of, “We have to get something done.”
I know that 80 percent of the people in this country believe in all kinds of common sense gun safety laws to protect us, protect each other and our children. And that’s Republican, Democrat, doesn’t matter. Eighty percent is an approximate number, but the vast majority of us believe in protecting our children. Given that, we have to find the common thread that will help us get to that point and initiate real action. And this film (will) go a long way for that.
Did you get updates as they were filming — did they keep you in the loop on what you could do from a PR standpoint?
Kerr: I had nothing to do with the production. I was more a part of the PR. I hosted a couple of screenings, one in San Francisco, one in LA, where I did a Q&A with the director, Josh Seftel. Met and had dinner with Chad and Jada Scruggs, two of the parents featured in the film. Met a lot of people at Netflix who were part of the production process. Wrote an op-ed for the LA Times a couple of weeks ago. My involvement was really putting my name on it and trying to help promote it, but it’s just beautifully done. Just how poignant it was and how empathetic and compassionate Steve and Lou were in the film when they were going into the homes. It was so powerful, and it was just beautifully done.
What was it like last night when you found out that the film had won an Oscar?
Kerr: Well, my whole family was watching. They weren’t watching our game against the (New York) Knicks. They were watching the Oscars. They’ve seen enough Warriors basketball to last a lifetime. So, they were all together: my kids, my grandkids, and I got a video of them watching the TV when the announcement was made, so it was pretty cool. I don’t actually get the Oscar. It’s not gonna be on my mantle. So, I want to make sure that my role, or my lack of a role, in that production is made clear. But I’m very proud, and I’m very insistent on making this an issue for the rest of my life.
For as long as I have a platform. It’s the No. 1 public health issue we face in this crisis. It’s the No. 1 killer of children in America, which is just a stunning thought when considering we’re the wealthiest, most developed country in the history of the earth, and we have this dramatic issue where most countries do not. So, there’s something we can do about it, and I’m just very committed to the cause. And I’m just proud to have my name on the film as an executive producer.