Fans are accustomed to seeing Phoenix Suns’ guard Steve Nash in front of a camera, whether as a pitchman for Nike, guest-starring on HBO’s Entourage or acting as a correspondent for the Late Show With David Letterman.
But what people may not know is that Nash is becoming just as comfortable behind the camera as a producer and filmmaker. He has produced two commercials, Web-only shorts and a full-length documentary.
Nash made his first foray into filmmaking in 2007 when he decided to pitch an idea to Nike for his latest sneaker commercial. Nike gave him a shoestring budget and Nash gave them a spot titled Training Day, which is a personal and artfully shot look at Nash’s training regimen.
“That was my first try at it,” Nash said in a telephone interview. “People seemed to like it, so it encouraged me to keep going, and I thought that now was the time to join forces with Ez.”
Ez is Nash’s cousin Ezra Howard, who had been making commercials, shorts and music videos in England for a number of years.
The two of them combined to form a production company called Meathawk.
Their first big project was another Nike commercial last year. This one, titled Sixty Million Dollar Man, was made to promote Nash’s newest sneaker, which is made of recycled materials.
The commercial, which Nash produced and Howard directed, was a spoof of the 1970s program The Six Million Dollar Man. In the commercial, Nash has to be “rebuilt” after taking some particularly brutal collisions on the court. The commercial featured cameos from Nash’s teammates Amare Stoudemire and Raja Bell. (Bell now plays for Golden State.)
Meathawk is working on a documentary titled, Into the Wind for ESPN. The subject is Terry Fox, the Canadian icon who lost a leg to cancer and attempted to run across Canada in 1980.
As the final edits and notes for Into the Wind come in, Nash is producing comedic Web-only shorts featuring many of his teammates, like his recent video of teammates teaching Leandro Barbosa to sing the Lionel Richie classic All Night Long.
Nash has a deadpan sense of humor and is comfortable lampooning himself. Last season, he made a series of Web videos for Vitamin Water, playing the part of a celebrity with a huge ego.
“I’m just like you,” Nash says while looking vacuously into the camera. “Just 10 times better.”
Asked what was next for Meathawk, Howard and Nash said they hoped to get into full-length feature films and were working at developing screenplays.
When asked what he was up to in the short term, Nash laughed and said: “I don’t know, maybe just some more stupidity.”
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