I write and play music. I’m a very good closet guitar singer/songwriter. I play a lot. It’s one of my passions in my life. I actually develop a lot of my characters through music. I will write stuff for them, even if it’s just a rhythm or something. It’s fun for me.
What kind of music did you write for this one?
It was funny but for this one, because Gavin didn’t want the acting, I stepped back and I didn’t use any of my own kind of methods. I stepped into the shoes of Rob McClanahan and tried something completely different, which was an amazing experience for me to do.
Did the guys who had never acted before ask you anything?
Yeah, they were coming to me for a while. I was just like, “Man, I don’t have any answers for you. I wish you’d give me some.” I think everybody was pretty confident in their work and they were just willing to try anything. Gavin, if he needed something, he was able to pull it out of you. Gavin’s a very interesting director and he’s a very smart, intelligent director. He would build his relationship on set with you, which was much different than the relationship you had outside with him. You could be best friends with him but when you’re on set, he had a way of getting what he wanted out of the personal relationship he had with you. He understood you enough to pull certain things out of you, even if it had to be that he would have to get mad at you or kind of do something to trigger something. Then afterwards he would say, “This is why I did that and this.” He was very smart.
He sounds kind of like Herb Brooks.
Kurt Russell and I had a great moment in the movie in that locker room of the Swedish game. As Herb Brooks, Rob McClanahan jumped up and came at him because he got very personal with Rob. Rob McClanahan told me he couldn’t believe, actually to this day he still didn’t really understand until he saw the movie, why Herb did what he did. Because he had played for Herb Brooks for four years and he knew that Rob McClanahan was his go-to man. But Herb needed to do it because he needed a lightning bolt. He needed a lightning rod, he needed something – a fireball, a flame – to get these guys going and to realize the magnitude of this game, how big it really was. He knew because Rob McClanahan was hurt and because [of his] passion, he’d known him for so long and this guy would never sit out if he could play. What happened in that scene when we went to shoot it, what you saw onscreen was very real because Kurt decided about, I guess maybe five minutes before we shot, to start yelling at me. He yelled at me personally. He came after me like you wouldn’t believe. We went three months before we shot that scene. Every day we would come in and sit down and figure each scene out. Why would you say this? Why would you say that? We’d rehearse for an hour or two. Sometimes we’d change a line or two. We were playing with this scene about five minutes before it started and he just basically told me, “Don’t mess with this scene. You say what’s on the page and that’s it.” But he yelled this at me and I got furious, and this was in front of everybody. So what you saw on the screen is very real. Then after we finished shooting the film, he came to me and said he did it on purpose. I thought, “That is experience. Thank you.” It ended up being my performance up there.
Did you suspect at the time what he was doing?
I couldn’t figure it out. You know what? He really got into me personally and it got into my head. I was so upset, I wasn’t even trying to figure it out. I just was like, “Call ‘Action’ so I can yell at this guy. I just want to yell at him.” And I did.
What did he say that set you off?
We were working on the scene and I think it was a very big scene for Rob McClanahan. There was a point there where I started sweating the scene. I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do and I was kind of playing with it. As we were talking, we had figured something out and I started working with that during rehearsals. Trying to change up the lines a little bit to fit better, because I didn’t feel like it was exactly how it should come out. He basically just challenged my experience. Basically it felt like he was saying you’re not good enough to change this scene, just do what’s on the page so we can get this done. That’s what it felt like, but that’s not what he said. [That’s] not a quote. I really appreciate what he did. It helped a lot.
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
