Sanaa Lathan Recalls Filming Final “Love & Basketball” Scene During an Actual WNBA Game: ‘We Had One Take’ (Exclusive)

“I was so nervous because they allowed us to get the real stadium and the real players,” Lathan tells PEOPLE

When Love & Basketball director Gina Prince-Bythewood shouted “action” while filming the final scene for the 2000 cult classic, actress Sanaa Lathan had only one chance to get it right on the basketball court.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the star of The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat reveals that she got “one take” to film the romantic sports comedy’s closing scene, in which her character, Monica Wright-McCall, takes the court at a WNBA game as a player for the Los Angeles Sparks.

The scene takes place after Monica marries Omar Epps’ character, Quincy McCall, and the two have a baby girl together.

“When we shot that last shot where Monica is in an actual game at the end of the movie where Quincy and her daughter are sitting courtside, that was an actual L.A. Sparks game,” Lathan, 52, recalls.

“We had one take,” she remembers of the scene featuring Sparks player Lisa Leslie as her teammate and Lakers legend Magic Johnson as a fan.

Related: Sanaa Lathan Says Her Directorial Debut, 'On the Come Up', Is 'a Tribute to Black Women and Family'

“I was so nervous because they allowed us to get the real stadium and the real players. One take, because it was in the middle of an actual game,” explains Lathan, who wore a No. 32 Sparks jersey with Wright-McCall emblazoned on it as an announcer introduced her for the on-screen game.

Prince-Bythewood, 55, recently reunited with Lathan when she invited her to the Aug. 15 WNBA game between the Sparks and New York Liberty.

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The reunion came 25 years after filming their WNBA scene for Love & Basketball, which in recent years has achieved several milestones.

In 2021, Love & Basketball was added to the Criterion Collection, and in 2023, the film was selected for the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry for its “cultural” and “aesthetic importance.”

For her Love & Basketball role, Lathan won best actress at the BET Awards and the NAACP Image Awards in 2001. Since then, the actress has received a Tony nomination in 2004 for her role in A Raisin in the Sun and earned an Emmy nod in 2022 for her guest role in HBO’s Succession.

Lathan made her directorial debut with On the Come Up in 2022.

Now, she’s starring in The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat — alongside Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Uzo Aduba — which is streaming on Hulu.

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