‘Willie’ Director Laurence Mathieu-Leger Talks About The Journey Of The NHL’s First Black Player

As is customary during Black History Month, we tend to take a cursory glance at the lives of those African-Americans who made lasting impacts on the way our nation has progressed through the generations. Sometimes in those observations we discover new stories about the better-known figures in all aspects of American culture. But the month of February is also an opportunity for many of us to put a spotlight when some individuals who may not always “get their roses” while they are still alive to smell them, if they get any at all.

This may especially be the case for those who stamps on history might have taken some time for all Americans, let alone African-Americans, to have noticed. That’s what happens when you’re the first player of Black descent – a Black Canadian at that – to crack through NHL’s color barrier.

The journey of Willie O’Ree, who suited up for the Boston Bruins on January 18th, 1958 against the Montreal Canadiens, is chronicled in Willie, which is being presented by ESPN. Directed by Laurence Mathieu-Leger, Willie goes into great depths to spotlight more than the pieces of his story which are fairly known within the hockey community. The film is centered around the (ultimately) successful campaign to have him inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame (O’Ree was inducted in 2018.) Yet, beyond watching him and his loved ones waiting for the call, Mathieu-Leger takes his journey and weaves it into the current political climate to show that O’Ree’s story is equally as American – arguably more so – as it is a Canadian one.

Mathieu-Leger spoke with Decider about the documentary’s purposeful cliffhangers, the importance of allyship in O’Ree’s life, and being one of the very few women to helm a feature-length sports documentary.

DECIDER: Why was it important to tell the story of Willie O’Ree?

LAURENCE MATHIEU-LEGER: Bryant McBride (co-producer) and I felt that Willie’s story was extremely current given the current politically divisive climate in the United States. Not only did it take 60 years to get Willie into the HHOF, but his story was largely unknown and untold south of the (Canadian) border. We saw the documentary as an opportunity to inspire young and old not only by shedding light on the importance of resilience and determination, but also to show that racism in hockey (and in sports and society) is alive and well – and we need to work collectively to bring change.

On a personal level, why was it important for you to tell it? Safe to say that there have been previous attempts to create a documentary on him, but he (and countless others) trusted you and your team to do so.

I have a background in journalism and most of my work focused on social justice (justice system, police brutality, race in America, etc.) so Willie’s story was one that touched on a lot of what I am interested in. Women are not often thought of to direct feature docs with sports theme. I wanted to change that – and tell an unexpected story that only used sport (hockey in this instance) as a metaphor to revisit history and address bigger societal issues.

So, the first Black man to ever play in an NHL game was actually blind in one eye… and he kept the blindness a secret. That in and of itself is a remarkable aspect in the legend of Willie O’Ree, but you chose not to introduce his physical plight to the viewer right away.

I think the film also sheds light on a lot of unexpected parts of the story. For people who are like literally not familiar with Willie at all, the blindness is always like the one thing that shocked people. They’re like “and he was blind? Like, oh my God, we want him to get this (Hall of Fame) call.”

But while his time in the NHL was rather short, the film tells us much more about his entire athletic career and the people who mostly helped him (as well as those who certainly hindered) along the way. That community – on either side of the border – remains behind him all these years later.

There are a lot of themes that are woven into the story. We want to talk about community. We want to talk about the theme of allyship because Willie’s friends were mostly white people and they’re older white people. And for me, it’s really important to not do a film with a white savior. We wanted the main voices to be young people of color who can share their experiences to show you that Willie was able to thrive because You he had a community of people who loved him and believed in him and 70 years down the road, they still want to see him succeed.

Though he’s 84 years young, O’Ree hasn’t often revealed much about his life beyond his hockey interactions as either a former player or his continued role as the NHL’s ambassador and diversity advocate. How did you come upon him and did you expect his story to have so many current cultural touchstones?

Bryant, who is the co-producer on the film and is also in the film, was the first African-American executive in the NHL. Bryant was my neighbor when I used to live in Harlem. I play basketball and I was coming back from an old ladies’ league game – I’m not old! – and Bryant was sitting on the stoop of his brownstone. And completely randomly, we started talking about Willie O’Ree. He started telling me that there were these efforts to get Willie into the Hall and was frustrated about why it was taking so long.

Oftentimes when you want to tell the story of a hero, that person is either gone and not able to tell a story or is retired and not doing anything. Now we have a person who is still alive – and is still working! And there is an opportunity to have a narrative arc that is active, not passive. We can do something that has a lot of verité instead of like doing a bunch of interviews and only having the archive. So, I told Bryant, “listen, we need to film this yesterday.”

Speaking of an active narrative arc, to bring back the current climate, it seemed as if many of O’Ree’s friends were aware of the racist abuse that existed, but perhaps not fully aware of how he dealt with it. Case in point, by just walking into a barbershop in his hometown of Fredericton, he integrated a place that wasn’t aware it needed to integrate. What were their recollections about the burdens he and other Black hockey players endured?

That’s a really good question. I will say that it’s very hard to talk to an older white person with good intentions about racism. I’m an older Millennial and I grew up in a very multicultural environment, but that wasn’t the case for the generations before.

One thing about Willie’s friends that I appreciated was that they were candid about their privilege. So, in Fredericton, segregation as a form of life didn’t necessarily exist, but prejudice exists. So, there’s a difference between prejudice and segregation where it’s a societal way of organizing your community. And ultimately where there is prejudice, there’s also an opportunity to reverse it. And that’s what he did by walking into that barbershop.

For older white people in these predominantly white towns (in Canada), those who are very liberal and all about diversity often have a hard time as they say the real things. And that’s because they just don’t know how to say it. For the film, we thought it was important to show like older white people that can speak about race candidly.

ESPN Films Presents: Willie is streaming now on ESPN3 and ESPN+, with upcoming airings on ESPN2. Read more about the film and the project at WillieDoc.com.

Jason Clinkscales is the editor-in-chief for The Sports Fan Journal and senior editor at Yardbarker whose work has been featured at Awful Announcing, The Week and Dime Magazine. A New York City native, he is also a former media research analyst in both television networks and advertising agencies.

Where to stream Willie