The Finland game? I was thinking of when we went to Finland and we were playing the Norway team. I was like, “Yeah, there’s about three more days of film in the can from us skating that day.” There’s a couple of things, but I think the most important thing was in there and that was Rob McClanahan’s winning goal. I got to shoot that and it was fun. I’m glad it didn’t get cut out. Rob was such a big part of this team. I mean, he was the second leading scorer of the tournament for the US team, right behind Mark Johnson. I thought it was a good moment for him.
How closely did you have to choreograph the moves to what the actual moves were?
We were right on top of them. I mean, we would watch playback before we shot something. We worked on it for six weeks and we had 16-hour days. They were just incredibly long days. We had to learn those plays and then when we went to shoot them, Gavin would say, “Forget it. Forget what you just learned.” Because what would happen is that they would become mechanical. It would be like a chess game. It was like, “You go here and I go there and the puck’s going to come this way. The goalie’s going to deflect it here.” And it looked that way and these things need to look fresh, they need to look new. They need to be fluid, that’s what the game’s all about. It’s a very fast-paced game and it moves quick. So what would happen was – I thought this was so smart by Gavin - he would actually, if we got too mechanical after a couple of takes, he would stop that and he would take that camera set off the ice. He would have cameras set up around and he’d go, “Go out there and play. Remember where you come from. Play the game you know. Go have fun.” [He’d have] seven cameras and he’d burn film. He’d burn a whole roll of film. I think we shot close to “Waterworld” on this thing (laughing). We would just go play and remember the fun we would have. Then when we’d be done with that, the rolls would burn out, he’d go right back and shoot it. We’d get it on the first time.
Any time you saw us with any team on the ice, we would shoot our choreographed scenes with them. But then at some time during the day, we always had something to look forward to which was, “Alright, we’re going to go now and burn film and play.” And he would let us play. We played with every single team whatever day it was. I think it was very smart. If you need to fill something in in the movie, or there’s something there that he needed – another hit or if he needed a more dramatic moment, a close shot. There were some times in the movie where that puck hit the crossbar. Could you imagine if you were out on the ice and Gavin goes, “Okay, I need it to hit right here. I need you to hit under that score and knock that water bottle off.” That stuff doesn’t just happen. So he would capture it during these times when we were just playing around.
Did you ever have any good games going?
Oh yeah, it was awesome. I think for all the extras in the audience, the crowd, it was nice because they were there so long. They did such a great job but it kind of had to be a little boring. They had to sit up there in this cold rink all day long. So when we did play, the crowd would go nuts. They were real goals and we had a lot of real big checks. It was fun. It was like being the USA team versus Russia.
PAGE 3: Nathan West on Secret Talents and Working with Kurt Russell
ADDITIONAL “MIRACLE” CAST INTERVIEWS:
Kurt Russell / Eddie Cahill and Jim Craig / Billy and Buzz Schneider
Additional “Miracle” Resources:
“Miracle” Photo Gallery
“Miracle” Trailer, Credits, and Websites
