OF ‘YOUNG ROCK’ ON NBC

In depicting your boyhood, “Young Rock” deals with your early interest in wrestling. Is that where you wanted to place a lot of the focus from the start?

It’s truly a love letter to professional wrestling, which is a business that I grew up in and a business that I’ve loved all of my life. I learned some of my most valuable, while very unorthodox, lessons coming out of the world of pro wrestling ... so (I appreciated) to be able to highlight and showcase these men who were, in essence, my superheroes.

I will say that of the actors we cast, all of them really, truly embodied these professional wrestlers. In many ways, this is the very first time you’re seeing these wrestlers portrayed, certainly in primetime.

How did you decide on the approach you wanted “Young Rock” to have?

I thought, “Let’s not take the easy route.” It was incredibly complicated and it was incredibly tough growing up, and we specifically went with these timelines in my life that were very defining times ... at 10 years old, 15, and 18. And if we are, universe willing, lucky enough to come back for another round of this thing, there’s a lot of other things in between those years that took place.

It’s immediately clear that “Young Rock” has one of the more diverse casts on primetime broadcast television. Is that a particular point of pride for you?

It was important for us to showcase diversity, – but also, it was important for us to be real and authentic. This is my life; it is who I am. I’m half-Samoan and half-black, and that combination came together in the world of pro wrestling.

...

We have the Iron Sheik from Iran. We have André the Giant from France. We have the Junkyard Dog. We have my dad. We have the Wild Samoans from Samoa. And these are the ones that we just showcased in the pilot. There’s more to come down the road.