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Serena Williams ‘cried the whole time’ upon seeing late sister Yetunde Price depicted in new film

Price was shot and killed in 2003

Clémence Michallon
New York City
Thursday 18 November 2021 11:30 EST
New trailer for King Richard starring Will Smith

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Serena Williams says she was brought to tears upon seeing her late sister Yetunde Price depicted in a new film.

Price was killed in 2003 during a shooting in Compton, California, aged 31.

She is portrayed by Mikayla LaShae Bartholomew in King Richard, a biographical film about Serena and Venus Williams’s childhood and rise as tennis champions.

Will Smith, who plays the sisters’ father Richard Williams in the film, asked the family in a new episode of the talk show Red Table Talk how it felt seeing Price depicted on screen.

“Oh, I think I cried the whole time. Whenever she came on film, I just – personally, I just started, like – I mean, even still,” Serena Williams said.

Yetunde Price and Serena Williams during the 2003 ESPY Awards on 16 July 2003 in Hollywood, California
Yetunde Price and Serena Williams during the 2003 ESPY Awards on 16 July 2003 in Hollywood, California (Vince Bucci/Getty Images)

Oracene Price, the siblings’ mother, added: “It was a quiet moment I think. Because we know how it was, and then how it – you know, it just – it was just something that you kind of try and put in the back of your mind and don't want to remember.”

“And she loved to have fun too,” Venus Williams said. “She knew how to have fun. She was original Team V. Before there was a Team V, she was Team V.”

King Richard stars Aunjanue Ellis as Oracene Price, Saniyya Sidney as Venus Williams, and Demi Singleton as Serena Williams.

It will be released in the US and in the UK on Friday (19 November).

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