Newsletter

Disabled actors shine in basketball comedy ‘Champions’

the new comedy “Champions” is starring Woody Harrelson y Kaitlin Olsonbut veteran actors have stiff competition for the spotlight with some charismatic newcomers.

Harrelson plays a short-tempered college basketball coach who faces jail time or community service for bad behavior. To avoid punishment, he finds himself coaching a basketball team of young adults with intellectual disabilities, who help him rediscover the joy of the game.

Harrelson’s agent and another producer wanted to make a remake of the original film, called “Campeones,” Spain’s biggest box office hit of 2018, and thought the actor and basketball lover would be a perfect fit. Harrelson loved the story and signed on to star and executive produce, hiring his old friend Bobby Farrelly to direct.

Casting was challenging, as the producers wanted the athletes to be played by disabled actors, who also needed basketball skills. They auditioned hundreds of people before finding the top 10 personalities that make up the Friends basketball team.

Harrelson says he wasn’t sure what to expect on the first day of shooting. “Once I got in and met everyone and we started, I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be so much fun!’ And it really was,” Harrelson told the Associated Press. “They taught me that they can nail the lines, no problem. But they also taught me the great fluidity of being who they are.”

The 10 actors have different intellectual challenges, but many found their comedic chops on screen.

“Everyone brought something so unique and different,” Olson said. “And parts of their real personalities shined through, which is probably why…they got the part in the first place. There were a lot of… wonderful performances, but there’s also a lot of wonderful things just being themselves, and it gave us a chance to play off of that.”

The film was an opportunity for Harrelson to collaborate with Farrelly again after making the bowling comedy “Kingpin” in 1996. The director said he believes audiences are more open to disabled actors on screen and to seeing their stories. He recalled making the 2005 movie “The Ringer” with his brother, Pete Farrelly, where Johnny Knoxville infiltrated the Special Olympics. Farrelly said back then they cast non-disabled actors in disabled roles.

“We would never do that today, so the world has changed in that sense,” Farrelly said. “We played that much wider. It was…much more of a goofy kind of comedy. This one here is set in reality. These are all very real people. We didn’t think anything about it before. It was just what people were doing. Dustin Hoffman played ‘Rain Man,’ you know? But nowadays I think we’ve realized that disabled actors have a hard time getting roles…so the roles they have in the world of Hollywood should be for them.”

Some of the actors who play the Friends crew attended the film’s New York premiere last week and for many it was their first time on a red carpet. Special Olympian basketball athlete James Day Keith, who plays Benny in the film, said he likes to set a positive example for other disabled actors. “I see myself as a role model because seeing what I’ve done will probably make them want to do it themselves because there’s no limit to success,” Keith said.

Casey Metcalfe, who plays Marlon, said she hopes disabled actors will have a place in Hollywood in the future. “The more people we have in this industry who are diverse, like me…not just racially diverse…but neurodiverse. I think that’s exactly what the industry needs,” Metcalfe said.

Some of the actors, like Madison Tevlin, who plays the only woman on the team, said that learning the basketball moves was more difficult than acting.

“I’m very natural on camera when it comes to acting, but with basketball, I’ve never played before…so the team helped me a lot.”

Olson, who gave all the Friends big hugs at the premiere, said working with them was “really inspiring.”

“They showed up every day, 100%. They are ready to work, ready to do their best, ready to receive all the information. And it was really beautiful,” Olson said. “Sometimes you work with a lot of people who say, ‘This is just a job and they’re doing it.’ These guys were like, ‘We’re here. We are ready to milk every last drop.”

“Champions” is in theaters Friday.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending