From the gridiron to the screen, Davis has found a new calling

Vernon Davis spent years hauling in passes from NFL quarterbacks. Now five years removed from his football career, the District native has found a new calling — sharing the silver screen as an actor alongside A-listers like John Malkovich, Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman.

When Davis retired during a Super Bowl commercial in 2020, he knew what his next journey would be. But acting wasn’t always calling to him. It started with an improv class. He enjoyed that enough that he took another class.

The new career has seen Davis start his own production companies and land more roles with a host of different collaborators. As he spoke with The Washington Times, the Maryland alum was reviewing footage from the set of “Silt,” his latest film.

Five years into his post-football life, filmmaking suits Davis the way football pads used to.

“When you’re passionate about something, you really love it; nothing can stop you from pursuing it. Like football. I was passionate. I wanted to do it, and it was nothing that could take me from it,” Davis said. “That’s how I feel about creating. Creativity, to me, is a beautiful thing.”

But the passion is something to harness. The energy that bubbles around Davis can be laser-focused onto this one outlet, he said.

“It creates this beautiful place for you to be able to come up with ideas, explore with whatever it is that you create,” Davis noted.

Mining emotions

In the NFL, the former first-round pick had a bit of a reputation for his emotions. San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Singletary went on a now-famous tirade after a sideline altercation ended with Davis sent to the locker room in the middle of a game.

“It is more about them than it is about the team,” Singletary said of Davis and players like him. “Cannot play with them. Cannot win with them. Cannot coach with them. Can’t do it. I want winners. I want people that want to win.”

Davis was 24 years old at the time. His reputation shifted dramatically over time.

By the end of his career, the D.C. native was widely regarded as a culture builder and locker room leader with the then-Washington Redskins and Denver Broncos.

“I learned so much from football, and football made me resilient. Football taught me how to be patient,” Davis said. “It taught me how to be selfless. All the great qualities you can have as a leader, I learned from football.”

In acting, Davis found an outlet for the well of emotions that had bubbled inside. Other actors have trouble tapping into that vein, finding the exact feeling and bringing it to life in a character.

Not Davis. At least, not the Davis that has been honing his craft for several years.

“There’s some actors who start crying and can’t get through a scene,” he said. “I go back to those moments, and I’m like, ’There’s some deep stuff here.’ But now, five, six years into this stuff — it’s nothing to me. Any actor should be able to go into a room and tap into this space.”

Getting started

The first classes with acting coach Kevin Benton weren’t easy. In 2020, Davis walked into a hotel conference room and stared at a wall, per Benton’s instructions.

He had no idea what to do next.

Catching a touchdown in double coverage in front of 60,000 cheering fans is one thing. Acting exercises are another beast.

His first task with Benton? Imagining that he was stuck on a deserted island, desperately signaling for rescue. His second challenge required him to embody a defendant in a courtroom. If Benton gave a thumbs down, Davis had to evoke the emotions of a man headed to death row. A thumbs-up and the former pass-catcher would embody the jubilation of a newly free man.

“I was looking at him like, ’This is crazy. How do I even do that?’” Davis said. “I was willing to try it. To tell the truth, I was kind of bashful. I wasn’t as vulnerable as much as I should’ve been.”

The intervening five years have seen the two-time Pro Bowler become as comfortable in front of a camera as he was on the gridiron.

If Davis was nervous during those initial classes, Benton couldn’t tell.

The coach, a former Division II basketball player himself, had experience working with athletes as a basketball coordinator on films like “Blue Chips,” starring Penny Hardaway and Shaquille O’Neal. He said Davis is on a different level, though.

“His ability to just be authentic stuck out for me from the beginning,” Benton said. “He’s always kind of been in a showmanship relationship in his sport; he was just able to transcend that. His life experience was the difference.”

Refining the muscle

Davis had a promising start, but nobody starts at the top. The film world is similar to the NFL — talented prospects have to prove themselves.

The beginning of Davis’ acting career has seen the former athlete star alongside titans of the industry. The bad news? His roles, often as muscle-bound antagonists, have come in direct-to-streaming fare that flies under the radar.

“The Ritual Killer,” “A Day To Die” and “Gasoline Alley” received shrugs and yawns from critics and small audiences.

That hasn’t stopped Davis from attacking each role the way he attacked opposing defenses in the NFL. Now that intensity mirrors Academy Award winners instead of Pro Bowlers.

“It’s been just a joy working with him, with his commitment level and his discipline for the medium of acting and creativity,” said director Joslyn Rose Lyons, who directed Davis in the 2025 short film “The Masquerade.” “I think it really comes from how refined that muscle is for him, from being so disciplined as an actor.”

“The Masquerade” gave Davis one of his juiciest roles yet: an illusionist named Elijah Veil. It’s one of the most integral parts in the film, moving other characters through time as they reckon with gentrification and the cracks within a city.

“We created this beautiful character, took him off the page and gave him real life,” Davis said. “I love it so much.”

Davis and Lyons have worked together on other projects — both scripted and unscripted — through the former’s production companies. But the former athlete was so excited for his role as Elijah Vail that he would slip into the character’s whimsical tone during unrelated calls.

“He really embodies the character and lives with that character,” Lyons said. “He really goes there in the same way that the best actors I’ve ever worked with have. It’s really impressive.”

Davis is bringing the same energy to his next role in the psychological horror “Silt.” Originally titled “Lake Vernon” — an intentional wink to Davis’ name — the project is one of the artist’s most personal projects yet.

He helped pen the script, which follows a fractured group of friends who gathered for a lakeside retreat for the weekend.

Davis headlines the cast alongside Tommy Wiseau, the midnight movie auteur behind “The Room,” which has developed a cult following.

“Tommy is a beautiful human being. I love his personality, his charisma. He was great,” Davis said.

But he showers similar effusive praise on most of his collaborators. They return the favor.

“He’s a name already,” Benton said. “But the work he’s doing, I don’t know how many people with his status would be willing to do it. I’m just impressed that he’s become such a well-rounded artist.”

“He brings a real, true — not just spirit to his pieces, but heart,” Lyons said. “He brings his whole self to the piece.”

Football had a finish line for Davis. Eventually, his 4.38-second 40-yard dash time slowed. He’d have to hang up the cleats at some point.

Retirement isn’t on Davis’ agenda for this gig.

“I’m going to do it for the rest of my life, be in the creative space for the rest of my life,” he said. “That’s one thing I love about this space: you can do it for as long as you want. And for me, it’s like therapy.”