Filmmaker Erick Peyton discusses Stephen Curry: Underrated

Experience the extraordinary journey of a truly remarkable individual – a coming-of-age story that unveils the life of one of basketball’s most influential, dynamic, and unexpected players in history. Stephen Curry is a professional basketball player. This feature documentary combines intimate cinéma vérité, archival footage, and on-camera interviews to document Curry’s journey from an undersized college player at a small-town Division I college to becoming a four-time NBA champion. It showcases how he built one of the most dominant sports dynasties in the world. 

I had the privilege of speaking with Erick Peyton, who currently holds the position of Chief Creative Officer at Unanimous Media. He co-founded the production company with Stephen Curry. He provided us with valuable insights about the lessons we can learn from the film, as well as additional information about their production company. 

Cox: Before we get into the documentary, I want to know what fuels you to tell other people’s stories with your production company. 
Peyton: It’s about creating something that can inspire others. There is a connection between storytelling and inspiration. And that’s how me and Stephen connected with our production company, Unanimous Media. As a producer, what excites me the most is being able to tell stories that aren’t out there yet. At Unanimous Media, we get a lot of projects pitched to us. I’m always looking for the why now types of projects. The ones that make me say “hell yeah” We’ve been around for five years now, and I can tell you that it gets harder to find that type of project. But that’s the job of the producer. 

I want to cut through the noise when it comes to the projects we produce because there are millions of subscribers on all these streaming services. So, for us, we have a mantra to help us make sure we stick to picking the right projects: If it’s not an oh hell yes, then it’s a no. 

Cox: Do you think that’s what makes you stand out as a production company? 
Peyton: I would hope so. There are different ways you can look at projects and choose how you approve them. There is no wrong way to do that. You can bring us a completely packaged project, and if it doesn’t vibe with us, we will kindly decline. That’s a bit of our superpower. 

Cox: Speaking of right now, why this project?  
Peyton: You know, the funny thing is that when the trailer first came out, someone commented on it. They said something like your question and asked what’s going to be so exciting about this since we already know everything about him and see him play two times a week on television. 

This project catches people off guard because we go all the way to an eight-year-old Stephen. People didn’t know him back then, and it was a time when he was really underrated. That’s what’s special about this, because it’s his journey from childhood. There were a lot of twists and turns that he experienced. 

Stephen Curry is already relatable, but this project makes him even more relatable to people. I took my kids to see it, and their attention spans aren’t that great. And they sat there and loved the film. 

Cox: With this project, do you feel like it humanizes Stephen Curry even more? You know, we all think we know him so well. 
Peyton: Absolutely. That goes back to your first question, and that’s the job of the producer, right? It’s about humanizing the person, and that’s what we try to do on all our projects. There is so much information out there about Stephen and all the athletes who sit down with us to pitch a project. The first thing we bring up with them is owning their story. And the feature documentary space is really one of the only ways you can do that, unless you write a memoir. 

Cox: This documentary puts the control of his narrative back in his hands, rather than the clips of him that are floating around the net or shared on social media. 
Peyton: Yes, for sure. Like the scene where the coach from Virginia Tech wanted him to walk on. You have to think about it; this is one of the greatest shooters of all time. He was eighteen and had a couple scholarship offers, but none of them were at D1 schools. This moment in the film is special to me. He wanted to go to Virginia Tech because that’s where his dad played. And we can all relate to wanting to follow in our parents’ footsteps. 

Pete, the director, really coined the film as being about a person who was unseen by a lot of people at this time, and everybody can relate to not being seen. 
  
Cox: Creating this film was a collaborative effort, I take it? 
Peyton: Yes, it was, and it really boiled down to Pete Nicks and his team. They were in there, making sure that the storylines were not just created but needed. They would question if something needed to be in the film. For example, they questioned how much basketball needed to be in it. Remember, he’s already on TV a lot playing basketball. So Pete would have these conversations with the editor and other production members regarding it and other things. 
  
Ryan Coogler, who co-produced the film, you know, makes big films. With this project, he asked us how we were going to make a film that brought people together and was relatable to everyone. That was his position on making this film come to life. 

To go back to your question, it was really a team effort. 
  
Cox: I want to go back to what you mentioned earlier about choosing a project. One of the questions is, why now? What was it for you that made you say this was the perfect time for this documentary? 
Peyton: I think it goes back to when Stephen and I first sat down to talk about his story. He mentioned a couple things that stood out, like how long it’s been since he’s seen certain people and past teammates. When we thought about how long it’s been since we were thirteen or in college, we compared timeframes with now because, with a story like this, you have to make sure you don’t do it too early or too late. 

From there, we figured, why not start with the story of the co-founder because his origin story is part of history? Then we can use it to set up the rest of the projects we have on our slate. 

Cox: What did this project mean for you all as a production company? 
Peyton: It really unlocked the way we approach projects moving forward. It became the flagship documentary for us. The response we received at Sundance helped to cement it.