JAY HERNANDEZ (Joaquin)
Did you know anything about the real story before this film?
I knew very little. I just knew there was an old guy playing baseball.
Was your character a real character?
Yes, they were real characters - the four guys on the baseball team, and pretty much everybody in the film.
Did you meet the real person you portray?
No, we didn't get to meet them. They were trying to set up a meeting but it didn't happen.
Would you have wanted to if you could?
I would have liked to meet them. It just would have been cool to see what these guys look like, to see how their personalities are.
Did you ever play baseball in Montebello?
No, I've never played baseball in my life. It was the first time.
Were you concerned when you auditioned that you didn't play baseball?
You know what? They asked if I played baseball and everybody probably should say yes, but I said, "No, I don't, I really don't but I can do it." So maybe the confidence helped because knew I could do it. I'm pretty athletic and I play basketball a lot. I figured I'd pick it up. It isn't too hard to catch a ball, I figured.
Did you have to go through some type of “boot camp?”
Yeah, we trained in LA for a good two weeks before we went out there. Once we got to Austin, we trained pretty much every day that we weren't filming.
Who did you train with?
Jim Gott from the Dodgers was helping us out out here [in LA]. Once we got out [to Texas] there were sports coordinators who worked on “Remember the Titans” and “Varsity Blues” - they did a lot of sports films. They were sort of accustomed to training people who didn't really know how to play.
Was there a point when they had to stop training you because you were progressing too much to be a high school player?
Because I'd never played, you couldn't get that good in that short amount of time so we just continued to practice the whole time and train.
Was Dennis Quaid a mentor or teacher to the young actors behind the scenes?
Behind the scenes? I mean just from watching him, being around people who are talented just kind of rubs off on you. Say you are playing baseball or basketball, if you play a team that's really good it's going to automatically elevate your game. If you play a team that's really bad, it's going to bring it down. This is sort of the same thing.
What most rubbed off on you about him?
Well not rubbed off because I already had it, but just his professionalism, how hard he worked. I know how hard he worked on pitching and trying to make that look real. It was constant training and a constant process that he was going through. I admired that because he'd never pitched in his life.
Did you get to meet the real Jim Morris?
Yeah, yeah. He came down to the set a bunch of times. We had dinner and kind of hung out afterwards. He was a cool guy. He just came by and was just kind of blown away by the whole thing - realizing that this film was being shot because of his life story. It was pretty interesting.
Did he ever just throw the ball around?
No, he didn't. I wouldn't get near it anyways - you know 98 mph and stuff (laughing).
Did you develop some kind of camaraderie with your fellow ballplayers?
Definitely. We were out there for three months and initially that's all we had was each other because we didn't know anybody. So we hung out together, on the set we were together, and on the weekends we were together. We still stay in contact.
How complicated was shooting the scene at the actual ballpark for you as an actor?
For me, it was easy. It wasn't a difficult scene; we didn't have a lot of dialogue. We just walked out there, got the shots, and we got to watch a baseball game after that. You know what I'm saying? We were filming a movie and watching a game - not too hard (laughing).
Did you get to go to the actual town this was set in, Big Lake?
No but we saw a town very much like it - a place called Thorndale, 45 minutes outside of Austin. It's a small town and I'm sure it was very similar to the actual Big Lake, I've never been there but it's definitely got that small town feeling. One cop for the whole town and he was parked the whole time. Every time I'd go to my trailer there was a cop car parked in front of a house and I'm assuming that was the Police Station.
Did you actually bat against Dennis or was that the magic of editing?
No, we did, we did. The only thing was that when he was pitching, they had a net there so that the ball wouldn't hit him.
Were you paranoid about trying to look like a real ballplayer?
I was. I was very conscious of that because these are real people, this is a real story, and you want to do them justice. You do not want to go out there and look like you don't know how to play. You don't want to look like some actor with shiny, sparkling teeth and you're out there on the field not sweating. We wanted it to look realistic.
Does acting get easier now after having done this and “crazy/beautiful?”
Yeah, definitely. It's always challenging to go into a role. “crazy/beautiful” was a lot of dialogue, a lot of work, a lot of time on the set, and it was the first time I had been in that position. So it was really difficult. Getting through that and moving on to the next project was - I sort of understood the process and it made it that much more easier.
How has your newfound fame affected your life? You didn't plan on doing this, did you?
No, I was going to college and got discovered. The strangest thing is going out and having people recognize you and want to take pictures, and want your autograph. I'm not really used to that yet. It's a good thing because it means people are watching. People are responding to my work.
A couple of years ago you were on the “Sizzling 16” list. Did that have any impact on your career?
I don't know. Probably, it probably got me recognized. People would see me and sort of ask the question, “Who is this guy?” Now I'm doing this, and I did “crazy/beautiful.” The more I'm out there, the more people see me, the better it is for me.
What are you working on now?
There are a couple of projects that are sort of on the plate; I haven't closed any of them yet. I'm trying to figure out which one is going to be the best one for me. But a lot of doors have opened, a lot of opportunities for me because of “crazy/beautiful” and because of this. So it's heading in the right direction.
Is it difficult for you to find stuff that you want to do?
Yeah, it is difficult. Some of the material out there - I don't want to say that it's all bad - but there's a lot of bad stuff out there. You just continue reading scripts, and eventually you find something you connect with.
