Dick Vermeil’s Got a Reputation for Being Quite Emotional: Almost every clip of Vermeil played on ESPN over the years shows the coach getting worked up emotionally – often to the point of tears. Invincible doesn’t include any such footage and Kinnear explains why: “The truth is, if you really look back at the NFL films and really, really study Dick Vermeil’s legacy, what you’ll notice is the guy will hold a 45 minute press conference and he’ll choke up for 30 seconds, and then ESPN and everybody else will throw that up on the satellite that night and report that.
Dick Vermeil spent most of his time not crying, and he spent most of his time strategizing and always had that great intensit0. Certainly that was kind of an obvious way to go and everybody asks that, but I don’t know. Ericson [Core, the director] kind of felt like it was just too on the nose, and I kind of agree. I also don’t want to add to that silly notion that that’s what Dick Vermeil was all about. He is an Italian American guy. He’s very emotional and he does get choked up, but I hung out with him for about three days up in training camp and he seemed to have his emotions under control. A few times the guys told me in Kansas City that he’d lose it a little bit. But I think the important thing with him was just to try and get that intensity down, and try to get that sense of his obsession with finding the best in people. I think that is a real thing for him.
I really liked the guy immensely, I have to tell you. He’s a family man. He’s a good guy. The only thing that had changed when I was up in that training camp is instead of him just being in there by himself, he’s in there with all his grandkids running around, playing with the tape and grabbing the video monitor.”
Rating Mark Wahlberg’s Performance as Vince Papale: Kinnear said, “I would have to tip my hat to Mark on this movie, I really would. There were plenty of places where he could have passed the ball off to a stunt double or they could have CGI’d certain neck twisting events, and it would have been just fine, and he was out there more often than not. Never complained, it was unbearably hot, not as hot as being in the green polyester pants that Dick Vermeil was in, but hot, and he really was out there taking it constantly. There are a couple of times where we all sat around the monitor just watching it over and over again when he was taking a good pummel, and just be like, ‘Ahhh!’ So I really thought he stepped up and really earned the respect of all the players out there really quickly. Who the hell was insuring this movie? I have no idea. I didn’t know you could do this.”
Kinnear was very impressed by Wahlberg as an actor, but wasn’t surprised by his terrific performance. “I wasn’t surprised by it, I don’t know why. I don’t know Mark really that well; I’ve met him a few times. But I’ve always thought he was a good actor. I think that actors commit themselves to what they do, and so I wasn’t surprised that he was like that. And yet I did sit there amazed more often than not saying, ‘Why is he doing that when you can’t see his face when he’s in a helmet?’ I think he likes it, quite frankly. I think if he hadn’t been an actor he said he would have liked to have had an athletic career.”
Kinnear Gets in on a Little of the Football Action: Kinnear actually went out and took a few snaps himself. “I did, plenty. The pressure always was in between [takes]. We’d be in that stadium, in Franklin Field, and have 4,000 extras. All of a sudden a guy would be like, ‘Hey, Kinnear, go out.’ [Looking up and pretending to catch the ball], ‘Oh God, oh God, please don’t drop the ball.’ And if you dropped it they would be, ‘Boo!’ You didn’t see all the foibles in between the shooting [that] were magnificent on this movie.”
