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By Tashan Reed 4h ago
Malik Watson’s dream was to be an NFL quarterback. After a college career that spanned three schools at three levels, he tried out for the Cowboys in 2018.
He didn’t get a job that day, but three years later, a different opportunity arose. Watson was on set of the TV show “All American,” where he’s done background scenes as a quarterback. A fellow actor mentioned that DirecTV was looking for a stunt double to play Dak Prescott in a commercial, and the idea transported Watson back to his playing days.
“I’m like, ‘Are you serious?’” Watson said last month. “It’s crazy how it came full circle.”
Watson’s agent contacted the production company, and he sent over a self-tape audition the next morning after he finished with the “All American” shoot. By the next week, he’d landed the role. He spent five days on set and soaked up the experience mingling with fellow actors, picking the brains of the production crew and director and, of course, meeting Prescott.
“I met a lot of guys that are big time, and he wasn’t like that at all,” Watson said. “Before I went on set I was like, ‘How am I gonna ask him for a picture?’ As soon as I had a chance to talk to him in between scenes, he was like, ‘Hey, man, let’s get a picture together.’ I was like, ‘What? For real?’ I was thinking, ‘This is crazy.’ … From the director to the actors to Dak to the producers and everybody else, it was definitely one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”
The commercial promoting NFL Sunday Ticket aired last month and marked Watson’s biggest career accomplishment as an actor to that point. It was a surreal and exciting moment, but the interaction with Prescott also caused him to reflect on his prior dream to become a pro quarterback, which didn’t come to an end until he transitioned to acting in 2019.
It didn’t make him feel somber, though. Rather, he felt reaffirmed that he’d made the right choice. In a short amount of time, he’d played several roles in shows, commercials and movies. The DirecTV commercial was a landmark for his early years as an actor, but he’s even more excited about what will come next.
“I absolutely keep on giving thanks to God above and making sure that I’m doing everything I can to make sure I’m honoring him with the ability that I have and sharpening my skill set as much as I can so I’m always ready,” Watson said. “Long term, I want to be able to reach the masses with who I am as a person and also be able to tell stories. However that might be, that’s up to God, but I’m going to keep continuing to work and take this one day at a time.”
Watson had it rough growing up in San Jose, Calif. He lived with mother, Nikole Brown, who had to move more than 10 times before her son was even a teenager because of financial problems, and baseball served as his escape from the realities of everyday life. They eventually settled into a trailer park in the King & Story neighborhood, which is where he discovered his love for football. Uncle Marlin Brown, who played defensive end at Washington State in the late 1980s, mentored his nephew early on and helped teach him the game.
At 12 years old, though, Watson moved to live with his father, Greig Watson, in Pittsburg, Calif. He went on to play baseball and football at Pittsburg High, and he starred on the gridiron and made the All-Bay Valley Athletic League first-team as a senior in 2011. He spent two years playing at Contra Costa College before transferring to San Jose State in 2014. It presented a chance to go back home but also opened a pathway to explore another passion.
Watson was an avid movie buff growing up and chose to major in communication studies while picking up a minor in theater. It had always been an interest of his, but he hadn’t had access to a legitimate program before. While he redshirted on the field, he enrolled in an ensemble performance class with professor Oona Hatton.
“I’ll say in general that I love to have athletes in my performance classes just because of their training, they are collaborative, they are willing to take risks and they are really good at taking criticism,” Hatton said earlier this month. “Those are things, obviously, that Malik was really good at. And he also just has a really great energy. He’s always been very grounded and very optimistic. He’s confident but not arrogant.”
Those in the class were required to collaborate to create a performance based upon research of a topic. The theme for that semester was homelessness, which was something Watson had personal experience with. He thrived in the monologues, group activities and the show to end the semester, and he was voted the best actor in the class by his peers. Watson took a performance ethnography class with Hatton the following year that required him to embody a character. This time around, he asked Hatton to work with him as an acting coach.
“(Hatton) really took me under her wing and really saw my potential and really took time with me,” Watson said. “She encouraged me to go try out for the university’s production of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ … I didn’t know if I’d be able to do it.”
Performing well in class was one thing, but excelling at a role in a play was another. Hatton suggested that Watson try out for the character Lysander, a young man competing with another to court a young woman. She picked a monologue for them to practice after class. Hatton gave mostly positive feedback, but Watson wasn’t happy.
“You could be giving me more feedback than you are,” Watson said. “You don’t have to be giving me positive feedback. Give it to me straight. Don’t just say oh, great job. Tell me what I’m doing wrong.”
Hatton began giving Watson honest line-by-line feedback, and the two repeated their evaluation sessions in the weeks leading up to the audition. Watson got a callback after auditioning the first time, then landed the role. From there, he rehearsed with the production team and leaned on Hatton for help for months leading up to the play in April 2016.
Watson became a more specific and intentional actor. He always had good focus, but it improved. He committed himself to the craft and approached it with a controlled passion that allowed him to be specific. Through time and practice, he matured as an actor. It was demanding having to learn and recite more than 200 lines, but Watson had fun with the challenge and performed well in the play.
“It’s really on Malik because he really sought me out to say, ‘Hey, I’m really interested in this. I want to know more about this. I want to work harder on this,’” Hatton said. “He was really motivated and had a great attitude and a great work ethic as well as getting more and more comfortable with acting.”
After graduating in May 2016, Watson transferred out of San Jose State. In his two years there, he had sat out one season as a redshirt and served as the No. 3 quarterback as a junior, seeing brief action in three games. He was positioned to be a backup again as a senior.
Watson briefly enrolled at Hampton University, returned to California for financial reasons, then started the 2017 season at Dixie State. Throughout the next couple of years, he explored professional opportunities with the National Gridiron League, Canadian Football League, Indoor Football League and XFL in an effort to get to the NFL.
“I know that football, just like acting, you can’t do it halfway,” Hatton said. “With either of those, I don’t feel like as a mentor it’s ever your job to say ‘give up’ or even ‘keep going.’ Those are both really personal decisions that someone has to make on their own.”
Football didn’t pan out for Watson, but he already knew what his backup plan would be. Though Hatton didn’t make the final call, of course, she helped guide him to his current path.
“(‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’) really helped me fall in love with acting,” Watson said. “And when we actually performed back-to-back nights and that whole run we had and got some positive feedback from critics, that really helped me out.
“That’s when I knew, if football doesn’t work out, ‘This is what I want to do for sure.’”
Watson has no regrets about his football career.
“I learned so much, and as a young man I believe that it really shaped me into who I am today,” he said.
Still, he needed to make a living. He moved to Los Angeles in 2019 and decided to pursue an acting career.
It took time to make connections, but he started work on “All American” in 2019 and landed a role for “Colin in Black & White,” a six-episode Netflix biographical drama co-created by Colin Kaepernick that premieres next month.
“I’m still starting out,” Watson said. “I haven’t really done most of what I want to do yet, but I’ve been extremely blessed to do what I have been doing.”
Watson remains appreciative of his progress. In a Geico commercial that debuts Monday, he’s an on-camera principal, which is someone with a speaking role on camera. That might seem like a small difference, but it means a lot to him and those who have seen him grow.
“I mean, in a way, it’s maybe like a parent watching their child play football,” Hatton said. “He has such a beautiful soul. You always worry that part of them is going to be kind of destroyed by (the acting industry), but it’s been great. When I talk to him, he just sounds so happy. He’s so motivated and he’s still really grounded. I think he has a good support structure around him.
“He’s such a good person. He’s got so much humility and so much heart and an abundance of love. Watching him have success, I feel a tremendous amount of pride and happiness for him. He’s gone so beyond what I can teach him, and he’s learning other things now and I’m excited to see it be learned.”
Watson wants to take on more challenging roles and works with commercial acting and theatrical acting coaches. He still harps on his preparation process leading up to auditions. It’s all a part of his effort to keep getting better.
“So, when an opportunity presents itself, I don’t have to get ready; I’m already ready,” Watson said. “I’m still working on being the most complex I can be and making sure everything’s sharp and that my whole package that I present is the best I can. As long as I put my maximum into everything, I want to make sure that’s what comes out. I want to make sure I’m ready, and I keep on learning in the short term.
“And, hopefully, I keep on getting work like it seems I’m blessed to be able to do right now.”
