‘All American’s Daniel Ezra On Directing The Series Finale

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the series finale of The CW‘s All American.

That’s a wrap on All American.

The drama series, produced by Warner Bros. Television, ended its eight-season run on the CW on Monday with an emotional, moving episode directed by none other than Spencer James himself, Daniel Ezra. The rest of the Vortex had been trying to track Spencer down for the last few episodes, after Olivia (Samantha Logan) went into preterm labor with their twins. They’d thought he was tied up with a promotional photo shoot, but little did they know that Spencer was so hard to reach because he was fighting to bring his family back to Los Angeles.

He’s in a conference room urging his team’s general manager to allow his trade from New York to LA when he gets the news that his children are on the way. And, as Spencer James usually does, he finds a way. He not only makes it just in time to be there for the birth of the twins, but he also manages to persuade his team to let him go. With Jordan (Michael Evans Behling) realizing his purpose at South Crenshaw and Cassius (Osy Ikhile) sticking around Beverly, it looks like the whole family is finally back together again.

Fast forward six years, and Coop (Bre-Z) is getting sworn in as an attorney. Amina (Alexis Chikaeze) has just successfully run a political campaign to get her dad Preach (Kareem J. Grimes) elected as a local representative. Layla (Greta Onieogou) and Jordan have a daughter of their own, and the entire crew is about to go watch Spencer play in what we come to learn is his final Super Bowl before retiring — and he’ll share the field with KJ, whose made it to the NFL as well. Coming to Olivia’s aid set Khalil on a different path, and he’s now in medical school, and Tori (Lauryn Hardy) is an assistant coach for the Lakers’ dancers.

After eight years of fighting for their dreams, the series finale of All American gives the space for these characters to finally, fully realize them.

In the interview below, Ezra spoke with Deadline about directing the final episode of a series that he credits with completely changing his life and taking Spencer James with him wherever he goes next.

DEADLINE: The finale is extremely emotional. It really made me cry.

DANIEL EZRA: It was a strange experience. It was an amazing experience, but it was a strange, because I left in Season 6, and then I came back a few times. I don’t know. In my head, when I left, it was always still there. But this was the first time where we were all saying goodbye. So yeah, very emotional.

DEADLINE: I remember when you first started directing on All American, and NK really worked to find an episode that Spencer didn’t need to be in very much so you could pull it off. I know the 100th was very Spencer-heavy, but this was too. How do you feel like you grew as a director to juggle that?

EZRA: It was one of his biggest episodes, and I’m glad that this came later. The first couple episodes I directed, we were a little more successful in finding episodes that I was at least less in. NK was very realistic. She said, ‘There’s probably never going to be an episode that you’re not in, or not at least a significant part, but we can definitely find one that’s less.’ I think the first two were that. Our 100th episode wasn’t that, and we just kind of had to accept that. But this one always made sense. The way NK pitched it to me, she actually gave me a choice, and that was the only episode I felt like I wanted to do. I felt like that’s the one that felt right to do, and so I’m glad it came later. By that point, I had directed a chunk of episodes. I directed my own short film. I had had a bit more experience, and so I felt a lot more secure in myself and more confident, I think, in what I was able to do and the speed that you wish to work at, and all those things that I felt a bit more at ease with the demands of it.

DEADLINE: You spent so many years playing this character working toward a dream, and even in the Season 6 finale the dream is only just being realized. How was it to get those flash forwards at the end of the finale to actually get to live in the version of this character that had truly accomplished everything he dreamed of?

EZRA: It was weird. That scene, you’re talking about the one with me and Mike, right?

DEADLINE: That, and before that when he is talking to Nate about retiring. The twins growing up. Everything.

EZRA: I was so grateful that, even though I had stepped away, I still got a chance to come back and film those scenes. This scene with Mike — I remember in the read through, we couldn’t get through it, me and Mike couldn’t. We were just crying in the read through. We couldn’t get through it. When we got to set and to film it, we almost had to allow extra time, because we knew it was going to be tough for me and Mike. Just the way it was written, the things we were saying, and things we were talking about, it was Spencer and Jordan talking to each other and also a bit of Mike and Daniel talking to each other as well.

As an actor, I was just super grateful that we did get that moment, because we didn’t get that before I left. It was just real serendipitous of NK to write a moment like that in, because you could have ended before that. There was there was about three points in that episode where you could have ended, and it would have been great. You could have ended after he ran off into the tunnel. That was a beautiful ending. Before that, with the babies being born. There’s a couple almost false endings in the episode that all could have worked, but that one just felt like that made it perfect. I thought when I was leaving Season 6, my story was complete. I didn’t realize it wasn’t until we got to those scenes.

DEADLINE: You also had most of the original cast on screen again, plus the new cast. That scene in the hospital room, it’s pretty packed. How did you handle that?

EZRA: My job was to not think about it being a finale in any way, because once you get into that, everyone’s going to get emotional. Everyone’s going to start reminiscing. Everyone’s going to start talking and crying. As much as you want to allow for that, you can’t really allow for that during filming. Me and out AD Steve, we had to be very deliberately kind of, not mean, but a bit like ‘We don’t have time for that.’ You know what I mean?

That’s all gonna come. We knew there was gonna be a party. We knew there was gonna be a big moment of celebration at the end. We knew all of that was coming, but there’s just no space for that when you’re filming, because you still have to get these scenes. We’ve been doing this is eight years, so they know how these things work. They know we never have enough time, and so you keep moving.

DEADLINE: So, when you do think it really hit you that this was the end?

EZRA: I was the one that got to say ‘That’s a wrap on All American.’ We finished with just a perfect scene. It was actually one of the last scenes, where everyone’s going off to see Spencer play his last game, and so I wasn’t in that scene. I had already changed, and I had shot my last scene as Spencer, but I deliberately didn’t have any fanfare for my last scene. We just kind of did it and moved on, and then it was it was Mike, Sam, Osy, and Angel in the last scene, but everyone stayed. All the actors stayed. A bunch of the cast that wasn’t even working that day had showed up, and you could start to slowly feel everyone kind of gathering and waiting for it. So I knew I was like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna have to say something.’ And then it finished. I checked in with NK. I said, ‘Are you happy? I’m happy.’ And she said she was already gone. She just kind of nodded through tears. And I said to Steve, ‘So let’s have everyone come in.’ Just seeing that room so full of people that didn’t have to be there, that all chose to be there…we packed out the Baker house. I wrapped Osy. I wrapped Angel. I wrapped Sam and Mike. I wrapped NK and Jamie as showrunners, and it just got harder and harder and harder.

Then, I finally said, ‘That’s a wrap on All American.’ I think that’s the moment where it was. I remember after that, it took forever to get everyone off to set. No one wanted to leave. Everyone was hugging and crying, and then it was probably an hour before we emptied that stage. It was very funny, because no one just wanted to leave. I think NK was the last one to leave, which felt right. She wanted a moment to herself. So probably that moment when it was time to wrap everyone and say ‘This is a wrap,’ which was a real honor for me to get to do.

DEADLINE: My very last question for you: How are you going to carry Spencer and this experience with you throughout the rest of your career?

EZRA: Spencer, he will always, always, always be with me. There’s some characters that, you know, it’s it’s a time. This is a job. At the end of the day, there’s some characters that you enjoy for a moment, and then you kind of move on. There’s a handful of characters that I think will stay with you forever. Maybe less than a handful. Maybe two or three. But Spencer’s definitely at the apex of that pyramid. I’m such a different person from when I started this to now. Every single aspect of my life has changed, and I like to think that playing him fed into that in a really, really big and profound way. It was a real honor. It changed my life in every way. I think the idea of showing up for your people, the idea of showing up the people you love and the people you care about, chasing dreams, all those things — I think he really hammered home a lot of those lessons, and he was just so fun. He’s just such a fun, real, multi-dimensional character to play. So yeah, he’ll be with me forever.