CHICAGO — Simeon Rice is bringing the same passion to filmmaking that made him an All-Pro defensive end.
The Roseland native and former Mount Carmel, Illinois and NFL star is the director and writer behind the independent feature film "Unsullied," starring Murray Gray, an African-American actress in her first lead role.
The film, which debuts Aug. 28, is billed as a thriller based on a true story. It stars Gray as Reagan Farrow, who escapes sadistic captors and flees into the wilderness.
For information on where the film is playing, click here.
Rice, 41, made three Pro Bowls and won Super Bowl XXXVII as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Rice raised $2,370 with a Kickstarter project for the film. He had hoped to raise $100,000.
Rice told Breen he's using Kickstarter to help build an audience:
"I decided to use crowdfunding because Hollywood executives told me that I would never get this in theaters and that a African-American lead is not bankable, and I disagreed," Rice told DNAinfo in December. "With their small minds, there will always be small outcomes, and the stereotypes will always continue with that mentality.
"Kickstarter gives the audience a chance to determine what they want, as opposed to executives telling the public what is relevant and what's not. I did consider [funding] it myself; however a Kickstarter campaign helps create your audience and gives people a chance at being a part of the process."
Gray was one of several hundred women to audition for the lead, Rice said. Gray, of Houston, said she was "grateful" to act in the film, which will be released in September regardless of the Kickstarter's success.
"Simeon has been working his butt off, and I could not be more proud or more grateful to have worked with him," Gray said in December. "He's a go-getter, a hustler and executes anything he puts his mind to.
"Simeon had such a specific vision and direction, and even if we couldn't always see what angle he was trying to get, by trusting him as our director, the finished product is 100 times more flawless than any of us could have dreamed up on our own," Gray said.
Rice, of Tampa, had pondered a career in the arts even while he was drawing fictional characters, cars and cityscapes as a student at Washington Elementary on the Far South Side. But Rice was so talented in athletics, especially football, that he focused on sports instead.
Rice was a two-time All-American at Illinois before he was selected third overall by the Arizona Cardinals in the 1996 NFL Draft. He played 12 years in the NFL, compiling 122 sacks.
Check out my man @simeon_rice doing big things. Help support his movie https://t.co/uTWSVkULI3
— Eric Dickerson (@EricDickerson) Nov. 20, 2014
After his NFL days concluded, Rice went back to the arts, graduating from the New York Film Academy in 2009. He has written, directed and acted in several films in recent years.
"I am entering the movie business because it is a passion of mine to tell great stories," Rice said. "There is nothing more moving and exciting, thrilling, joyful, scary, dramatic, heroic and loving than an amazing story."
When in Chicago, Rice said he works out at the East Bank Club and frequents River North's Municipal Bar + Dining Co., where he's an investor.
In December, Rice said hasn't had much time to visit the U. of I. or Mount Carmel lately, but said of his two alma maters: "My heart is always there."
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