Actor and Comedian Martin Lawrence has admitted to Real Wisconsin News that he is in fact Serena Williams, and has been playing her for years. He also plays the role of Serena’s father Richard Williams, as well as Oracene “Big Momma Brandy” Price, Serena’s mother. Lawrence says that he meant no harm by entering the women’s tennis arena. In fact, the entire concept was to provide young tennis phenom Venus Williams with an instant family, but the ruse was simply taken too far.
“Venus was playing very well, and the WTA wanted to promote her as one of their stars, but they were worried about her not having a family,” said Lawrence, working out in New York for the U.S. Open. “They asked if I’d play her father during the matches, so I became Richard.” The WTA then created a backstory that involved a divorce so that Martin could also play Big Momma, and never required the two characters to be together in the stands. However, the attempts to create a family for Venus led to a slip up that created the current state of affairs.
“We were doing a photo shoot,” admits Lawrence, “and I decided to play around with a younger look. Then we gave birth to Serena.” The photos were all superimposed to create a family portrait, but the press began to ask about Serena, and whether a second Williams sister could compete for glory. “Honestly, the first time I put on the girly outfit and played in a tournament, I just wanted to meet Monica Seles because I thought that scream she did when she hit the ball was sexy. I sucked at first, but I eventually got the hang of things. Then it got kind of sketchy as to how I was going to get out of tennis, so I pretended to have a nervous breakdown to get out of acting and comedy in order to focus on my tennis.”
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