Behind The Scenes at Fox Sports' Speak for Yourself with Whitlock & Wiley

Young Hollywood, what is going on? Today we are crashing the set, speak for yourself with Jason Whitlock, Marcelas Wiley. They are behind us right now. They are taping. My man, let's go over here. Come on, we're crashing the set. Come on. All right. We're going to be talking to the guys in a bit. Stay tuned.

Jason Whitlock, thank you for coming by and having us on your set.

All right, welcome to speak for yourself. I'm the very gracious Jason Whitlock here.

Very gracious Marcelas Wiley.

Tell me a little bit about this show. Why do you think it's unique and different?

You got an Ivy leaguer and a former journalist leading the discussion. It's a show about conversation, spirited debate. We're unapologetic at the same time. Quite frankly, I've always lived on the edge and and want to address the topics that some people think are dangerous. We're not going to box you in, we're not going to say you're wrong, we're just going to disagree with you respectfully and get at it. So so speak for yourself. We're trying to be smarter than everybody else. We're trying to be funnier than everybody else and we're trying to be more authentic than everybody else.

All right guys, we are going into the production control room. We're going to talk to Kyle Libby where all the magic happens. Come on, follow me. Kyle. Hey, what's up? So Kyle, yeah. Tell me where we are. What happens? Is this the magic?

This is where the magic happens. Yeah. Right here in this control room. Our director sits up front, that's Jim. I'm what they call the coordinating producer in the back here. I'm kind of monitoring what everybody else is doing, making sure everyone else is doing their job.

Dar now. What's going on? This is the man the social media manager himself. He's working. We got him live in the moment working. Right now, take a look at the screen. What do we got working right here?

We got this little graphic. It ain't done yet, but we got something fun for Twitter for later on.

This is like you, huh? This is the spot.

All right. That's my spot.

We got to we got to flex on them. Do a flex. My God. When did you bring in the flex?

Uh, see Jim Jackson, call him Iceberg Jim Jackson, um, he started actually. He he looked at me one time and and I think he made some type of joke about my muscles and my size. So I said, you know what, let me just bring the flex up here. Ever since then, every time it start, if you notice Jim Jackson, he'll look at me, he'll flex first. And then I kind of retaliate, bring the flex right back.

Talk to me about working with Uncle Jim.

Uncle Jimmy. Lord. Uncle Jimmy crazy.

All right guys, right now we are going to the dressing room of Uncle Jimmy. There he is. What's up with you, bro?

What's up? Good seeing you, bro. Yeah, yeah, yeah, about to see the making of something really, really nice. I had I got to go through my little closet here. Jim, y'all the only one to get a chance to do this here, bro. Okay, so this is Django Unchained. You don't see it yet, do you?

I see it. It's okay. Can I put this on?

Go ahead, go ahead, bro. Put it on. There we go. You see it, do you?

It's coming together.

You still don't see it. You don't see it. Don't worry, bro. Django. It's just it's Django. Django.

What is your highlight when you come to set and work?

Uh, my highlight in coming to the set, to be honest with you, I'm always looking forward and thinking about Uncle Jimmy's segment and like what the hell is he going to say? I'm preparing to give my Whitlock and then I'm mentally like, what's Uncle Jimmy going to say at the end of this show? He's something special. You know what he is? He's our wild card. He's the one that takes you to the unfiltered space in a filtered world. It's going to be ways that make you laugh, make you uncomfortable, but it's always going to bring you back to the spirit of the show which is that spirited debate, but at the same time a lot of fun, man. So I love working with him.

Dame unchained, I think is his best work. To be in terms of a take that I think will resonate. You just had a classic NBA game. Damian Lillard scores 50 points, hits a shot at the end of the game. Great shots and great moments in the NBA and sports, they all have nicknames. And so Dame unchained. That's off the chain. Because he looks a mess in anything he wears. He's actually great at impersonations. And his scar face, his Tony Montana, I can't even do it. You got it. Come on.

you need people like me so you can say that go to that guy.

You guys talk about a lot of sports topics. How do you stay current and up to date on everything, you know what I mean? There's a lot going on in the world like just how do you ever take a break from sports?

Hell no. Constant homework. Which is a good thing um to have a job that you actually are entertained and passionate about and you can just go to a sports bar, let your hair down, hydrate, have a few brews and still catch up on your work.

You can't make mistakes on television. It's very unforgiving. If, you know, you go off script a little bit or say things that aren't interesting for 15, 20 seconds, people change the channel on you.

Are the producers getting in your ear whenever something like that happens, like Jason, move on.

Absolutely. I mean, the producers are definitely in our ear all the time trying to move us to fertile ground, fertile territory. It's amazing, but it's the team, the staff, the producers, they make it look easy because they do all the hard work.

You guys seamlessly transition from this person talks to the next person talk. And you all get your points across. How do you guys know when to jump in?

Some of it's just the tone, tempo. You can feel where a guy's already struck his gold and he's coming down the hill. Eventually, you've done television enough, Marcelis and I, where we have the instincts for that ourselves as well. I mean, it's like double dutch. You just got to know when to get in the ropes. You know what I mean? If not, you're just sitting out there watching.

Uh, yeah, it it does revolve. And you can see when someone's really into something and you just let them go.

Marcelis Wiley, what do you think he brings to the table?

Intellect, playing experience, and just a cool and a hipness factor that I can't bring to the table. Marcelis's nickname is that dude for a reason.

What's it like working with Whitlock?

This dude is crazy, man, in a great way. You think that people are fearless and the way that they carried themselves and the way that they act and the way that they they do their job, but he takes it to another level, which I I really respect. He's certainly outside the echo chamber. He's not going to say what everyone else is saying, and he's going to strike differently. So it keeps you on your toes. And he also has a a strong and firm viewpoint of life that applies to everything he does. So he's reliable. He's consistent.