The struggling actor is a quintessential American hero, living and dying for his or her art and the art above all. He or she bounces from audition to audition, from rejection to rejection before the big
moment arrives. They take different jobs to make do: as a waiter, a bartender, a dog-walker. Harrison Ford was a carpenter, Brad Pitt was a chicken restaurant mascot. Whoopy Goldberg was a beautician. Then they became stars.
And Forrest Weber was — and is — an equipment manager for the Brooklyn Nets. As Brian Lewis reports Tuesday, his big moment came recently in the Netflix hit series, “Black Rabbit,” a Jude Law/Justin Bateman vehicle centered on a hip New York restaurant.
The two stars play brothers, Jake and Vince Friedken. Law’s Jake is a rising star in the hospitality business and Bateman’s Vince a degenerate gambler. Weber’s Junior Mancuso plays a hitman who’s trying to get Bateman to pay off gambling debts he owes Mancuso’s mob boss father, played by Oscar winner Troy Kutser. It’s a star-studded cast and Laura Linney, Bateman’s co-star in “Ozarks,“ directed several of the episodes.
Despite that success and two subsequent movie roles, Weber is sticking around HSS Training Center and Barclays Center. He’s been in the NBA since joining the Spurs in his native San Antonio as a teenager. Indeed when his agent suggested he could now concentrate on acting, Weber said no. “I like my day job.”
“It’s been a juggling act for my whole career,” Weber told The Post in an exclusive interview. “Luckily for me, when I was hired by the Brooklyn Nets … and I was speaking to them about chasing these acting dreams and I said that’ll always come first for me — that that’s my main passion and drive in life — they were incredibly understanding.
That was 10 years ago.
“They’ve been malleable and flexible and supportive of my acting career,” Weber said of the ensuing decade. “So any time I’ve got a random gig that takes me to Chicago or Utah or South Dakota or any of the places I’ve filmed and I tell them I need a few weeks off, they’ve been very cool about it. I consider myself very lucky to be able to bounce back and forth between the two biggest passions in my life, sports and acting.”
Now, of course, things have changed. He has had small roles in “Law & Order,” “The Blacklist,” “Gotham” and “The Knick” and received New York Innovative Theatre Award nomination for his work in “Plan G.” But now, he’s established and “Black Rabbit” is garnering Emmy buzz.
“It’s definitely changed my day-to-day. ” Weber, 36, said. “A Celtics player (Josh Minott) asked for a photo with me on the court after the game. That’s been fun seeing the NBA players’ reactions as they come into town and piece it together. It’s been life-changing, for sure. It’s led to two feature films that I’ve filmed already that were only made because of ‘Black Rabbit.’ … I’m taking a few selfies every day with people on the street that recognize me from the show. So I’m definitely grateful.”
The “juggling,” as Weber describes it, has led to some interesting intersections between the jobs. For example, early in the series, Law’s character takes his son to Barclays Center for a game, his son dressed in a Nets’ jersey. He even says, “We love the Nets.” Casual viewers might have seen that and knowing Weber’s connection thought producers had chosen Barclays instead of, say, Madison Square Garden. Not so.
“When I saw what was happening, I told a few people at Barclays, ‘I hear there’s a show filming here Monday,’ and they were like, ‘Yeah. How do you know about that?’ I was like, ‘Well, I’m in the show,’” Weber told Lewis. “I don’t think anyone realized how big it was. They know I’ve done little things here and there. I don’t think anyone realized how crazy that moment was except for me.
“But yeah, in hindsight, now everyone’s been like, ‘Wow, that was crazy. What are the odds that you ended up filming at Barclays?’ Between that and the character knowing ASL (American Sign Language,) it was really one of those meant-to-be things.”
Weber’s big scene is when Junior Mancuso tries to convince his father to let him kill Vince Friedkin, Bateman’s character. Kotsur, the actor who plays the mob boss, is deaf as is his character. Weber, as it turns out, is fluent in sign language (ASL.) Weber’s sister Crystal uses it to communicate with family members and Weber’s mother uses ASL professionally. The sign language adds to the scene’s authenticity.
[Crystal] has been one of my biggest supporters from afar, for sure. It’s been really lovely,” Weber said. “Most of my family binged [the show] the night it came out. And both my mom, who is a sign language interpreter, as well as my sister were both very helpful any time I had a question in terms of ASL, dialect or tendencies.”
It was also one of those moments when Weber understood that, yes, he had arrived.
“Those scenes in that basement … That was super-special, just because of how full circle that moment felt getting to use ASL,” Weber said. “Acting with some of the biggest names in the industry, that was a ‘pinch me’ moment.”
And just as the Nets weren’t aware of his role, Bateman and Law didn’t know about his Nets connection until he told them. Nets fans in the know also enjoyed how Bateman’s character lost all that money betting on the Knicks. At one point, Law’s character realizes the extent of his brother’s gambling and exclaims “you all of Mom’s money on the Knicks,“ to which Bateman’s character notes with disgust and an expletive that it was Julius Randle’s fault. (Some Nets fans may have been able to stifle a laughing fit. Not this one.)
Weber also admitted to Lewis how he was able to get Nic Claxton some notoriety.
“When we are on set in the [Kotsur character’s basement] … obviously he’s running an illegal gambling operation,” Weber said. “There were player names up and down the board that our designers and production crew had decorated, and there weren’t any Nets players listed. So I said, ‘Hey, any chance we can slip a little Easter egg in here for my boy Nic Claxton and get his name on the board?’”
Weber is also not reluctant to express support for his team and his bosses, engaging in some back-and-forth with our Anthony Puccio a few months back, saying of the Knicks trade in June 2024, “[Sean] Marks ran a master class on the Bridges trade” and at another point noting, “Sean and Jordy are incredible leaders. I get what it looks like, but only time will tell, my friend.”
For the moment, at least, Weber is still working with the equipment crew, happy to continue as a Nets employee AND an actor. He even notes that there have been moments where the two overlapped. The Nets may not have known about his “Black Rabbit” role but since he joined them in 2014, they’ve known about his acting jones.
He recalled how once they were shorthanded on a West Coast trip and Weber happened to be filming a pilot in Los Angeles so he pulled double duty going to then-Staples Center.
“There were definitely some crazy days where I was spending eight or 10 hours at one location filming, and then doing another eight or 10 at the arena,” Weber said. “It’s been a juggling act for sure.”
But better juggling than struggling.
- Meet the longtime Nets staffer who’s also stealing scenes as a Hollywood actor ($) – Brian Lewis – New York Post
