Richie Merritt Talks The 'Big-Ass Kick-Back' That Was White Boy Rick

As soon as Richie Merritt first set foot into his school’s theater arts class, he wasn’t preparing for a future in Hollywood. "To be sincere he told MTV News, "I only went to that class because one of the ladies I was talking to back in the day was going, so I was like, alright, this is a good way so I can visualize her more so I’mma just get this class so we can have this class together."


Although on the day a casting agent for White Boy Rick walked into his school in the middle of a nation-wide search for their lead – a unknown teen who could play Detroit-raised FBI informant-turned-nonviolent drug offender Richard Wershe Jr. — That introduction to theater ended up being advantageous for more than just his love life.


“I was coming in late and the lady beyond the front desk, she knew me … so she proposed me [to the agent],” he mentioned. A fast introduction set into motion a month-long audition process that required him to work with an acting coach in Baltimore and make a trip to Los Angeles for a chemistry read with Matthew McConaughey (who plays Richard Wershe Sr.) In front of director Yann Demange.


After impressing all of the correct people, Merritt landed the role and was off to Cleveland to earn his first paycheck — "First job, like, actual job," he stressed. “I never worked a market before this or none of that." — Alongside a Oscar winner (McConaughey), three Oscar nominees (Bruce Dern, Piper Laurie, and Jennifer Jason Leigh), and a Emmy nominee (Brian Tyree Henry).


Despite confidently boasting to companions about being cast from the minute he met the agent, the wonder of going from public school to a movie set was not lost on Merritt. “The beginning day [on set] I was like, ‘Damn! This is one big-ass kick-back!’” He recalled. “It was hella people and, I don’t know, it’s like, I was nervous and I was scared, although I sort of just put that aside and had fun, because that’s what I’m good at.”


As he got more accustomed to set life, having fun became a mantra of sorts, with his frequent scene-partner and on-screen dad McConaughey echoing its importance while doling out life lessons like “always be myself and never switch up on my family” and “to love work” — yet the 17-year-old credits each and every member of the cast and crew with making his first job worth the 5 a.M. Call times.


“That’s how you know I love something, is If I wake up, ass-crack of dawn, just to go do it,” he laughed. “And I wouldn’t even wake up for school! I wouldn’t even wake up visualize my main go teacher.” Needless to say, it’s not like his teachers were ever letting him cut fake crack and shoot at a mischief of rats.


But it wasn’t all fun and games. The subject matter of the movie required Merritt to do some serious introspection and engage in considerate dialogue with the real Wershe — all over the phone while the 49-year-old continued to serve his prison sentence in Florida 30 years soon after conviction. The two bonded over their similar backgrounds, albeit separated by decades and hundreds of miles, making Merritt an organic at portraying Wershe.


“We both understand what goes on in the streets, like he grew up on the streets, I grew up on the streets; we both know how it’s like to be in a mixed population, like black, white, Hispanic,” he mentioned, before divulging the topic that solidified their bond and got to the core of the movie’s story: unconditional love for family member. “The only thing I had to really get from him,” Merritt added, “like, how it was being in jail.”


He very rapidly clarified that he knows what the prison system is like. “Like, my family member was really distant. My family member broke apart,” he mentioned. “I understand the feelings of abandonment and I know how it is once you miss somebody.” Merritt’s mother was incarcerated once he was a child, and immediately after filming, one of his three older brothers was locked up. “But it was more about like, finding that distance because some people will go in jail and not cry at all.”


This awareness was, naturally, entirely intentional. “They wanted somebody that was authentic, not somebody that could play they’re from the streets,” he mentioned. “I’m not saying, ‘I’m from the streets, I’m from the trenches.’ I’m not saying that, nevertheless I understand where folks are coming from because I grew up in that environment.”


It’s an environment that is vastly underrepresented outdoors of its community, and one that isn't easy to break out of. “Nobody really comes from Baltimore. Nobody. Like, everybody that done came out of Baltimore is just like...” He paused, “It’s like they perish or something.”


He’s thinking of a specific example as soon as he says this, a childhood idol and legend to the local rap scene, Lor Scoota. Merritt took note of Lor’s budding career as he gave back to the community that supported him — and he also took note whenever the rapper was shot and killed while leaving an anti-violence event in 2016. “It’s hard coming out of Baltimore," he mentioned. "Anything could happen. Anything. So it’s like, you gotta be grateful."


so far, Merritt is focused on continuing down the path began by his idols before him, attempting to do the perfect he can to create his community a higher end place, “because if I can do this and I get myself right, then I’mma have the ability to look soon after my peoples and help them do right.”