Saniyya Sidney discusses how she became Venus Williams for Teen Vogue

Saniyya Sidney who plays Venus Williams in the latest biopic to hit screens, "King Richard" recently shared the cover of Teen Vogue with Jaden Michael who portrays a teenage Kaepernick in "Colin in Black and White." The film hit theaters and HBO Max just last week and is already receiving terrific reviews from the critics and audiences worldwide.

In the interview with the lifestyle magazine, Sidney opens up about her journey of becoming Venus, working with Will Smith, the audition process and what the movie means to her. The teen had to go through rounds of auditions before moving into a chemistry reading with Smith. She had no idea at the time, but this was her last audition and the two actors were natural and meshed well together. Later that day she received a call from her agent that she landed the role, and she burst into tears and uncontrollable excitement.

Sidney, who is just 15-years-old has already secured multiple major roles before becoming Venus. She starred as a young Kizzy in 2016's "Roots," and also appeared in "Fences" and "Hidden Figures." She certainly had an impressive resume, but no roles in the past would push her harder than this. In this role, she was not only required to maintain her acting, but also learn a sport and be able to play tennis as well as Venus.

The teen star shared her training routine during the interview which was a very rigorous one that required dedication and lots of time on the court. Sidney went through a stretching series, warm-up, drills, a hitting series, and finished with an hour of working on perfecting the Venus serve. Following a long day on the court, her work was still not done. Sidney would go home and watch two matches of Venus every day to study the evolution of her game from when she was young to when she won her first Wimbledon title in 2000.

Sidney and Demi Singleton who plays Serena in the film didn't get too many on-court pointers from the sisters, because they wanted the girls to find them on their own and create them on their own. However, they did get some feedback from the iconic sisters and this feedback was very important for Sidney who wanted to tell their story flawlessly. Not to mention, Sidney is left-handed and had to learn with her right-hand to match Venus.

"It was very important for Demi and I to make sure we did get feedback, because we want to do justice by their story and we want to do justice by the girls," Sidney said.

According to Sidney, Serena cries every time she watches "King Richard" and Venus is very proud of Sidney and the film as a whole. Looks like the long hours on the practice court paid off. Sidney can be found on the big screen right now, and is also set to play Sasha Obama in Showtime's "The First Lady" series.