00:00You know, I think in general, boxing stories are interesting and they've always been a
00:05piece of cinema history.
00:07But it's less usual to pick up the story of a boxer after his career is over, when he
00:14is dealing with all these hardships and still trying to have the strong spirit of an athlete
00:20and someone who longs to be in the ring.
00:23So I was really drawn to this period in his life.
00:27The challenging part was getting the movie made, obviously, early on.
00:34And then once we got it made, it seemed like I had a lot of time to focus on Willie and
00:38who he was and what his exteriors were, what his interiors were.
00:43Because he's very difficult, he's very complex, you know, I say it all the time.
00:48Inside the ring, he's a winner, right?
00:50Outside the ring, he's got a lot of things falling apart, his family, his finances, can't
00:55find a job, his friends are going, money's going, father's sick, son is not well, marriage
01:01is falling apart.
01:03So I pull from experiences, I'm a little older now, so I pull from personal experiences that
01:10happened to me.
01:11I feel like there's a lot that we have in common, me and Willie, coming from the East
01:15Coast, being smaller guys, maybe being bullied a little bit, having to fight your way to
01:20the top.
01:21So we had a lot in common with that.
01:23As far as the training and the aspects of trying to get Willie, that's difficult because
01:29there's nobody like Willie, there's never going to be anybody like Willie.
01:32He was that special, that unique in his boxing skills, that's why he lasted so long, because
01:40he did not get hit, he was more of a defensive guy.
01:44So I trained the way I thought that Willie would train in the 1950s and the 60s, which
01:49is a lot of road work, a lot of running, a lot of skipping the rope, a lot of speed
01:53bag.
01:54I wish I would have done a little more sparring, but I didn't.
01:58But I just put the hard work in, I was dedicated, and I had a great team around me that pushed
02:03me, including Robert, Claudine, Steven Loft, the writer-producer, Bennett Elliott, Robert
02:08Green, everybody, our friends at Appian Way, you just kept on going.
02:13I wasn't going to give up, I kept Willie Slogan in the back of my head, which was keep punching.
02:20The year 1964 is so important to Willie's story, he had been retired for 12 years by
02:24this point.
02:26He's running out of money, and he feels like he still could do something in the ring.
02:31He still feels relevant, you know, as an athlete, as a man.
02:36So to be able to set the story at this crux point in his career and his life felt vital
02:43to the story.
02:45In terms of personal fascinations, the 1960s are such a vibrant period for film, indicative
02:53of change and new waves and new modes of language of cinema.
02:59So to be able to work within that aesthetic and pay homage to some of the markers of cinema
03:07that are so important to me was really important and exciting.
03:13I think we tried to weave as much of this kind of classical aesthetic while allowing
03:20an elision of new and incisive modes of storytelling.
03:25Robert Kolodny, the director, and I had worked on a couple of very small projects, like a
03:30music video, and he had a couple little script ideas.
03:34And when he was approached with the script by Steve Loft, he called me up on the phone
03:38and he was like, I think there could be a really amazing part for you in this.
03:43And so he sent me a copy of the script.
03:45I sat down with it.
03:47And I mean, just very first cursory read, I was like, oh, I love her.
03:52I absolutely adore her.
03:53I would be so excited if I got to play her.
03:57So yeah, I mean, I think for me, it's always like a very character driven approach.
04:00And I just I fell in love with Linda on the page and yeah, it was it was kind of a dream
04:06come true part.
04:07What have you learned from Linda, from your character?
04:11Oh, what have I learned from her?
04:12Oh, that's an excellent question.
04:14I think.
04:16Linda is all about having the courage to pursue the things that are meaningful to you, despite
04:24the odds against you, right, I think she's a very brave character.
04:31And I think that type of bravery, especially as an actor, is something that like you need
04:36to have in yourself in order to continue, you know, pushing really, really hard for
04:42the thing that you love to do.
04:43And I think Linda in this film is exemplary of that in a lot of different ways.
04:48I think she has a lot of tenacity and a lot of determination to achieve her dreams.
04:54And so it was nice to live in a character that I could so personally relate to in terms
05:00of the aspiring actress angle.
05:03But there's a nice parallel structure to Linda looking at the documentary crew in the film
05:09as an opportunity for her big break.
05:11And me, Ruby, looking at my friend Rob and my friend Adam behind the camera and thinking
05:17that this film could be an opportunity for that type of break in real life.
05:20So that was that was a good, good casting on that, I would say.
05:25I didn't want the audience to feel from jump that they were watching a couple at the end
05:34of their relationship.
05:35I wanted people to be able to root for them and and hope that they might be able to work
05:42it out.
05:44And so, you know, I think.
05:47When I was imagining the character of Linda prior to the events of the film, I was thinking
05:51a lot about how Willie would have represented to her everything that she wanted from her
05:58life.
05:59He has like this this amazing career.
06:02He is like beloved of his community everywhere.
06:05He would have gone in New York where him and Linda fell in love and met would have been
06:09exciting and like representative of this life that was so out of her reach as like an aspiring
06:16actress at the time that they had met.
06:19And it's not necessarily that I'm saying that, you know, I think she was only interested
06:23in him from a status perspective, but I think everybody who we talked to in Connecticut
06:27that talked about Willie said that he was like a larger than life type of person.
06:32And I think that that spark would have been so attractive to her to be sort of.
06:38In somebody's light that also in that illumination makes you brighter.
06:42I think that that was probably like a pretty addictive component to their connection early
06:46on.
06:47I don't know if I've said enough good things about working with Rob.
06:49He truly is an actor's director.
06:51I know that that's a good term that sometimes gets thrown around, but I think Rob is the
06:56best example of that that I have ever seen in practice.
06:59He is so character driven in his approach.
07:03He has thought out the character motivation of every scene from every different possible
07:09perspective.
07:10And he is both willing to offer his interpretation to you to the extent that it is useful and
07:15where it differs, allow you to play and bring your own thoughts and ideas and energy to
07:19the table.
07:20And that kind of synergy is like really, really exciting on a set.
07:24He also encouraged us, you know, he would do this thing that I think for this film shot
07:28in the documentary style where we would lead with sometimes, you know, five, ten minutes
07:34of improvisation before we entered into any actual scene work or anything that was on
07:38the page.
07:39And having the space to play was so exciting.
07:44And I think there were other actors in the film who were very daunted by that.
07:48But I have a theater background and this was my first movie.
07:50So to me, it didn't feel so different than being in a rehearsal room and getting up on
07:54my feet and playing around.
07:56Even though if somebody had asked me before we made this movie, are you an improviser?
07:59I would have been like, absolutely not.
08:01It was a very safe environment to be able to do a lot of improv and a lot of exploration
08:07and find the character through these mock interviews that Rob had set up.
08:11And he would ask these questions that some were related to the story, some were completely
08:17tangential and you would really find meaningful things about the character through those conversations
08:22with him.
08:23So I thought that was really, really exciting.
08:24And he is so supportive and he is so sharp and bright and brilliant and collaborative.
08:31That's the number one word I would use for his sets.
08:33They're a totally collaborative experience, top to bottom.
08:37I'm very grateful to Rob because he created the conditions that I think made us able to
08:42come and do the alchemy of our jobs too.
08:45So yeah, he's great.
Comments