JAY HERNANDEZ: I think this is a lot of pressure on these kids. We are a little older. We're not in high school anymore and we've had a little more life experiences to help us better understand what were going through in terms of stardom and recognition. And these kids were 17, 18, somewhere around there, and they had a lot of pressure. They had this whole town pushing them to succeed and to win. And if they didn't win, they were failures and were just forgotten as quick as that. And that’s a lot to have on your shoulders. How are you going to concentrate on academics when you have all this pressure? I mean, it's pretty impossible. But it's part of their culture and the small town of Odessa. They didn't have much more to sort of uplift them. When you go there, you kind of understand why there was so much pressure to succeed on the field.
How was working with director Peter Berg?
DEREK LUKE: Peter was intense, man. There was never a loose moment, a loose ball that he didn't count. You know, on camera I mean. Every time that I would come in
and I would have my objective about Boobie Miles, for just that day, he
would always intensify it. Even if I was just standing on the sidelines he
was like, “No, it was more than that. It's Football. It’s war, it's war!" I'm like, “No we're not, man, we're playing football.” No, I didn't say that, but he was so intense. He would have one end of the field… He would have me and Garret [Hedlund], our characters, he would have us fighting and then as were fighting, we were getting into it, he was like, “Shut up, shut up, shut up.” Then he would pan down to the rest of the field.
I was like, “Yo man, hey man, I’m method - I'm getting into the fight.” He
was like, “Look man, I got the shot. I'm moving on.” So it was intense.
JAY HERNANDEZ: Yeah, he answered it man. Peter is pretty intense and the thing is he's an actor so he has a different perspective than somebody who is behind the camera their whole career. He'll kind of just throw things at you and keep the camera rolling and say, “Now do this.” And you kind of do it on the fly. I think it keeps it sort of raw and real, and that's I think what he was shooting for on this film. That's the story, it's raw.
What attracted you to your character?
JAY HERNANDEZ: I read the book initially. I just connected with it. I thought it was a
unique story. It was based in reality so it wasn't like it had to be worked
on. It was truth already. So that, and then after meeting Peter [Berg] and
understanding what he wanted to do with it and how he wanted to make it as
real as possible, and just how it all came together. It seemed like a good
role for me. Brian Chavez was kind of a unique character, I think, because
everybody seemed to be hurt in some way by the football phenomenon out
there. [Of] all the players on the team, he was the one guy who was able to
see beyond football and be able to achieve a higher level of education and
really do something with his life. Not that the other guys didn't. But for
him there was more to life than just football. I thought that was cool.
Did either of you take any hits?
JAY HERNANDEZ: I took all my hits.
DEREK LUKE: You got hurt.
JAY HERNANDEZ: Yeah, I got hurt. I was I think the only one. Oh, you kind of got a knee injury. One of the biggest guys out there, this guy O.J, he just - I don't know what happened. It was kind of a scuffle that took place after a play and he fell on my leg and I heard a big pop. I thought it was broken because this guy was just massive. And I ended up getting x-rays and it was alright - just had a pretty bad sprain.
Did you see stars from the hard hits?
DEREK LUKE: I did. But it was only when I fell by myself.
JAY HERNANDEZ: You know what? That turf was so hard. The turf is horrible to run on.
DEREK LUKE: It's like asphalt. I was running and I thought I was making this great play, and there was nobody bothering me and I felt there was like a ditch in front of me. The ground and me met, face-to-face. And that was the hardest hit I [took while] we were on the field.
These two characters have an entire town on them about their performances
on the field. How do you think acting would change for the two of you if you had that kind of pressure on you for each performance to be perfect?
DEREK LUKE: I believe that pressure and intimidation [are] always present. I think how you yield to it is something totally different. I believe not that pressure is
healthy, but I believe responsibility and a commitment is healthy.
JAY HERNANDEZ: For me, I think that I don't like feeling pressure from outside sources. I'd rather put the pressure on myself and push myself to do it as good as I can.
