Derrion Elmore
photo by Kyle Hess Photography
Is Derrion Elmore an actor? Or maybe he’s a gamer?
In reality, he is both. Elmore can dart around picks as a virtual point guard as easily as he can portray a fictional floor general on-screen. Long before he was a 23 year old professional video game player for the Atlanta Hawks NBA 2K affiliate (called ‘Talon GC’), Elmore was honing his skills as an actor, taking part in church plays from a young age.
“It was a small little play at my church, and that’s what got my foot in the door,” said the Atlanta resident about his first experience with acting. “And my mom kept pressuring me, and I was young so I was like ‘If my mom is asking me to do something, I better say yes, or there’s going to be an attitude.’”
As he grew up, the aspiring actor also became an avid fan of the NBA 2K video game series. He started out just playing with his father on the Xbox, but eventually developed an appreciation for the competitive scene.
“I was playing with some people I just knew, and I was like ‘I’m trying to be like this,’” said Elmore about the time he first saw professionals. “So I ended up getting into the Pro-Am, and my first team ended up being called the Headhunters.”
After playing in multiple tournaments, Elmore eventually got on with the Hawks Talon GC practice squad. After spending a season on the practice squad in 2019, Elmore was drafted by the big team in the fourth round of the 2020 NBA 2K League Draft.
While he became more and more comfortable with playing competitively, Elmore began to take roles in movies and TV shows. His first credited role came as “Young Hunter” for the 2017 drama “Domestic Seduction”. Several of his roles involved being killed, which is something many would consider easy. After all, how hard is it to not move? More difficult than one would think, Elmore says.
“You gotta hold your breath, because if they see that you’re breathing, someone’s gonna say ‘He’s still breathing! So he’s still alive,’” said a laughing Elmore. “You’d think that’s the easiest thing in the world, but it’s really one of the hardest. There’s a lot of cameras on set, and a lot of people in character. They’re shaking you and everything, and you gotta do everything you can to not break character.”
When Derrion is focused on Talon GC, he helps his team prepare for upcoming games by watching film rather than acting in it. Known by the name “Arkele,” his role is centered around versatility. As the sixth man of the team, Elmore has to be capable of filling any role the team requires on a moment’s notice. With players making a base salary of anywhere from $33,000 to $37,000 during the season and spending several hours a day practicing, being part of Talon GC is a full-time commitment.
“If I have to take someone’s spot in the starting five, I have to know how to fill that role like it’s real life basketball,” said Elmore. “If you get subbed in, you are expected to play the same role and with the same energy as the starter you’ve replaced.”
Speaking of “real-life basketball,” that is something Elmore has plenty of experience with. He played in point guard in AAU, middle school, and high school basketball, which gives him a unique perspective on what he sees in the digital format.
“It’s a little easier to grasp than regular basketball,” said Elmore. “In real basketball, it’s harder because you’re using your body and everything like that, and having to make split second decisions. In 2K you do the same thing, but you can see the whole court, and I want to say that I thank God I played actual basketball.”
While the members of Talon GC usually train together in person and travel to New York to play games against other squads, COVID-19 has forced everything to be remote. Because of this, Elmore says the team has used group-texts, video calls, and discord servers to stay on the same page. Meanwhile, the games are no longer hosted in a single location, as each player now operates from their own residence.
Because his job as sixth man involves playing so many different roles, perhaps it should come as no surprise that Denzel Washington counts himself as one of Elmore’s role models. The award-winning actor has played dozens of different characters over the course of his illustrious career, and done so flawlessly.
“Just watching him and seeing what he can do, learning from him is my main point,” said Elmore. “Denzel can get in and out of character with the snap of a hand, and you can see that with different roles and movies.”
Elmore may not be Denzel Washington as an actor (yet), but his coach Wesley Acuff has no complaints about the versatility Derrion brings to the team on a daily basis, both in practice and during the games.
“We can put him in at any moment and he’s ready to go and play,” said coach Acuff. “Outside of that, it’s about keeping the team morale high and pointing out things, watching film, coming up with different ideas. And he’s a great teammate and great person to coach.”
Elmore says that balancing an acting career and a fulltime gig as a member of Talon GC can be a challenge at times. Some acting opportunities have to be put on hold because of his commitment to Talon GC.
“I still have directors who are still messaging me, and I told one a few days ago that I’m in-season,” said Elmore. “So he ended up saying that we can get together in the offseason, which is August and September. It’s always hard to stop doing one passion to do another.”
“But hey, it’s a great problem to have.”
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Are you interested in E-sports? You can contact the author at Joseph.A.Dycus@gmail.com