{"id":21121,"date":"2023-12-23T23:44:17","date_gmt":"2023-12-24T04:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21121"},"modified":"2023-12-24T00:11:43","modified_gmt":"2023-12-24T05:11:43","slug":"the-boys-in-the-boat-press-conference-with-director-and-cast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21121","title":{"rendered":"The Boys on the Boat : Press Conference with Director George Clooney, Actors Joel Edgerton, Callum Turner, Hadley Robinson and Producer Grant Heslov\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Synopsis<\/strong> : The Boys in the Boat is a sports drama based on the #1 New York Times bestselling non-fiction novel written by Daniel James Brown<\/a>. The film, directed by George Clooney, is about the 1936 University of Washington rowing team that competed for gold at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. This inspirational true story follows a group of underdogs at the height of the Great Depression as they are thrust into the spotlight and take on elite rivals from around the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Rating:<\/b>\u00a0PG-13 (Language and Smoking)<\/span><\/p>\n

Genre:<\/b>\u00a0History, Drama, Biography, Sports<\/span><\/p>\n

Original Language:<\/b>\u00a0English<\/span><\/p>\n

Director:<\/b> George Clooney<\/a><\/p>\n

Producer:<\/b> Grant Heslov<\/a>, George Clooney<\/p>\n

Writer:<\/b> Mark L. Smith<\/p>\n

Release Date (Theaters):<\/b>\u00a0

Runtime:<\/b>\u00a0

Distributor:<\/b>\u00a0MGM<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Production Co:<\/b>\u00a0Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Spyglass Media Group, Smokehouse Pictures<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The
Thomas Elms stars as Chuck Day, Tom Varey as Johnny White, Bruce Herbelin-Earle as Shorty Hunt, Callum Turner as Joe Rantz, Luke Slattery as Bobby Moch and Wil Coban as Jim McMillin in director George Clooney\u2019s
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT An Amazon MGM Studios film Photo credit: Laurie Sparham \u00a9 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Press Conference with Director George Clooney, Actors Joel Edgerton, Callum Turner, Hadley Robinson and Producer Grant Heslov\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 You know, I\u2019ve seen a lot of sports movies, you know, all kinds.\u00a0 Rowing is not that popular among sports movies.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of hard to think of movies that center around this.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, and it\u2019s a challenge, too \u2018cause you\u2019re working on water.\u00a0 You\u2019re doing all of these things that aren\u2019t that easy from a director\u2019s point of view, I think.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 They haven\u2019t been very many.\u00a0 That\u2019s for sure. I just think it\u2019s not necessarily.\u00a0 It’s a little like F1 in a way, which is you can\u2019t see speed from far back.\u00a0 You have to be up close.\u00a0 And so, it doesn\u2019t look as exciting when you\u2019re watching it from far away.\u00a0 So, we had to come up with a math to make the rowing energetic and exciting, which we had to figure out.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Q : This was a best-selling book, true story, obviously.\u00a0 2013 it was written, and it became a New York Times number one bestseller.\u00a0 But I think it took a little bit of time, Grant, to get to the screen. There were others involved and rights and all sorts of things.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

GRANT:\u00a0 Yeah, this was a book that, when we first read it, when it first came out, we chased it.\u00a0 And we didn\u2019t get it, which is sad.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 We\u2019re still mad about it.<\/p>\n

JOEL:\u00a0 Do they know that you made the movie yet?<\/p>\n

GRANT:\u00a0 No.\u00a0 No.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 No, we haven\u2019t told anybody.\u00a0 One of \u2018ems in jail.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 Don\u2019t tell \u2018em.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

GRANT:\u00a0 So, cut to a couple years ago, George and I made a new deal over at MGM, and we were going through material that they owned.\u00a0And they had this.\u00a0And so, we thought, \u201cWell, now\u2019s our chance.\u201d\u00a0 And that was it.\u00a0 We just love this book.\u00a0 Dan Brown wrote this.\u00a0 It\u2019s a spectacular book, and I think we made it into a great film.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 It\u2019s so important.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just about rowing, obviously.\u00a0It\u2019s not about that.\u00a0It\u2019s about these guys, this scrapy team.\u00a0 They\u2019re poor.\u00a0They\u2019re coming up in the Depression.\u00a0They\u2019re basically doing this to stay in college.\u00a0And all of that.\u00a0And basically, survive, which is an interesting kind of theme to deal with here.\u00a0 Particularly in 1936 when, you know, around the time when this is set.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 Yeah, it\u2019s a Depression-era story, and we\u2019ve seen those a lot.\u00a0The truth is, you know, Washington was such a new state, was such a new part of the world that the idea that rowing was even on the map compared to these other sort of legacy schools.<\/p>\n

Q : And so, the fun part was that these young men, out of necessity, out of hunger, out of having nothing else, too, they were lumberjacks. They got together and, you know, it\u2019s sort of like The Beatles, you know?\u00a0 You put together a group of men who actually could be good enough to win the Olympics, you know? It\u2019s like getting, when your third-best songwriter is George Harrison, you know?\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of a magical group. And it\u2019s sort of what happened with these guys, was they ended up having these incredible men who worked as an incredible team.\u00a0\u00a0Yeah. You like adapting books. I mean, and working on material like that: Tender Bar, other things that you\u2019ve done recently as a director. What is it about?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0I don\u2019t know.\u00a0We\u2019re just always looking for good stories, you know?\u00a0I think the first one we adapted, you and I adapted together, was Ides of March from a play called Farragut North.\u00a0I think that it\u2019s fun to see, you know, when you can see how they\u2019ve written the book or the play.\u00a0It’s always interesting to try to find a way to make it a film \u2018cause it\u2019s very different storytelling.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 Yeah, it\u2019s interesting.\u00a0Well, you put together a great cast, you guys, here.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 Well, we did the best we could with what we had.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 But you wound up with these guys. <\/strong><\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 Everyone else was unavailable.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 Ah!\u00a0 Well, let me start with you, Callum, because this is a terrific job, by the way.\u00a0 But this is not easy, if you\u2019re a rower.\u00a0I think I do this in the gym, this kind of rowing machine.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s gonna kill me.\u00a0 But to do this is unison, with nine guys there.\u00a0Had you had any experience in this?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 None of us had actually.\u00a0And we turn up in February, and we get on the river.\u00a0 And it\u2019s snowing.\u00a0And we\u2019re all in the tight shorts and freezing cold and have no skill at being in the boat.\u00a0 And after about three weeks, George and Grant come down to have a look and check in on us.\u00a0And [makes noise] we weren\u2019t in a good place.\u00a0And I could see the pain behind the smile on George\u2019s face.\u00a0 [laugh]<\/p>\n

GRANT:\u00a0 That wasn\u2019t pain.\u00a0 That was fear.<\/p>\n

CALLUM : Yeah, and we were worried, too.\u00a0But that, I mean, we had to learn, one, how to learn a new skill.\u00a0But then, also be in unison.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s the hardest part about rowing is that you all have to be in complete unison.\u00a0 There\u2019s no, like, hiding.\u00a0 And if one person is out by a millimeter, the boat suffers.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 Listen, they trained all together for almost every, single day for five months —<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 We did everything. We ate together. We, you know, went out together. We, you know, exercised together. We didn\u2019t sleep together.\u00a0 [laugh]<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 That\u2019s the lawsuit that we\u2019ll be doing, dealing with later.<\/p>\n

\"The
James Wolk star as Coach Bolles, Dominic Tighe as Coach Brown and Joel Edgerton as Coach Al Ulbrickson in director George Clooney\u2019s THE BOYS IN THE BOAT An Amazon MGM Studios film Photo credit: Laurie Sparham
\u00a9 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Q :\u00a0 Well, this is in the heart of the Depression, in the \u201830s.\u00a0You\u2019re playing Joe Rantz, a real guy here.\u00a0What kind of research do you do to get into that role?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 Yo, I mean, a lot.\u00a0The book is so rich, and the story\u2019s so true.\u00a0 It\u2019s a really beautiful, you know, underdog story.\u00a0And I think the thing that got me was the moment where he comes home from school one day, and the car\u2019s running, and stepmother\u2019s in the front, brother and sister are in the back. Everything\u2019s on the top, and his dad\u2019s on the porch.\u00a0And he says, \u201cWhere are we going?\u201d\u00a0He was 13 years old.\u00a0And his dad says, \u201cWe\u2019re going.\u00a0You\u2019re not.\u201d\u00a0And he was left to fend for himself.\u00a0And I just think it\u2019s remarkable what he was able to achieve with his life.\u00a0And I loved him from that moment and wanted to represent him.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 Yeah, he lived until 2007, I think, too.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0And with Joyce, too, you know?\u00a0This is a true love story.\u00a0And with The Boys in the Boat, they rowed once a year, every year for 50 years.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that amazing?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 It\u2019s wonderful.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 That background\u2019s amazing.\u00a0\u00a0And Joyce, by the way, this is Hadley, who\u2019s working a lot in sports movies. Yeah, Winning Time on television.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

HADLEY:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 You played Jeanie Buss. But how did you find playing somebody from that period in this story?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

HADLEY:\u00a0 I loved it.\u00a0I love a period piece, and you know, this is a really interesting time in history.\u00a0And these people are pretty much destitute and really struggling to make ends meet.\u00a0And both of them, you know, Joe and all of his teammates, but also Joyce.\u00a0And they\u2019re all working to put food on their plates, and yeah, I loved working in this time period.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s, like, finding, like, the hope and the light within these people, even though they\u2019re going through so much.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s just, like, they have such high hopes, and they need to have light because they\u2019re in this situation.\u00a0 And yeah, I think probably one of the most interesting time periods to kind of delve into.\u00a0 Even when it comes to character study.\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

Q : Yeah.\u00a0 And, Joel, another great performance from you. I love seeing coaches like this guy, you know?\u00a0 I mean, he really is an interesting three-dimensional character going on here. He\u2019s not just a, you know, stereotype.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

JOEL:\u00a0I just loved when I first talked to George and Grant about the script, you know, and read the script that it was described as one of those coaches that I think we\u2019re all familiar with, who seems to drive zero pleasure from his job. [laugh]\u00a0 I always look at these coaches and think, \u201cWait, why are you even doing this?\u00a0 Like, you know, you\u2019re coaching your way to an early grave.\u201d\u00a0 nd I started to really realize that behind the sort of angry, blustery, red faces, they’re often, and grimaces, are just guys who care too much.<\/p>\n

And that it reminds me of, you know, the relationship between fathers and sons.\u00a0 Coaches are like dads to me.\u00a0 I had so many coaches in my illustrious, failed sports sort of attempt, who were just like tough dads.\u00a0 And I really wanted to please them.\u00a0 So, you know, I was really excited to play the coach and excited to not have to go through what Callum went through.\u00a0 Because you\u2019re getting older.<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 Joel did a little rowing.\u00a0 ou did some rowing, though, no?<\/p>\n

JOEL:\u00a0 I did a little bit.<\/p>\n

GRANT:\u00a0 Yeah, we cut that out.<\/p>\n

JOEL:\u00a0 Yeah, we cut it out.\u00a0 Not because it wasn\u2019t good.<\/p>\n

GRANT:\u00a0 No, no, it was very good.\u00a0 [laugh]<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 I have to say something also, though.\u00a0Joel\u2019s a ballsy actor, right?\u00a0 And it takes a lot of nerve to not try to cop out and show too much, show that I really care.\u00a0And you remember what, like, Danny DeVito in Taxi.\u00a0He played a jerk.\u00a0And he never sort of cheated it.\u00a0He never all of the sudden was kinda nice.\u00a0And not that you played a jerk, but you know, you never gave us the idea, for such a long period of time anyway.\u00a0 You weren\u2019t always going, don\u2019t worry, I really am a good guy.\u00a0 You let us get in slowly.\u00a0 And you know, it takes a lot of nerve as an actor.\u00a0 I remember, the studio would call after dailies and going, \u201cWhy is he so mad?\u00a0 Why is he so grumpy?\u201d\u00a0 And I was like, \u201cRelax.\u201d<\/p>\n

JOEL:\u00a0 I always feel like there\u2019s been men in my life, you know, that aren\u2019t an essay of words of love.\u00a0 But when they just put their hand on your shoulder or something in a look or just one or two words can make you feel incredibly valued and incredibly loved.\u00a0 And I think that that\u2019s what we were going for with this.\u00a0 And it was in the script, so I was really just doing my job.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 Grant, I have to ask you about the production design here, \u2018cause there is a scene where the boat is finished, and it\u2019s so beautiful.\u00a0 I mean, these boats that you\u2019ve created here.\u00a0 And the camera captures them and I\u2019m going, like, whoa.\u00a0 These are a nice piece of work here.\u00a0 Did you do that from scratch or did somebody just have these boats?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

GRANT:\u00a0 No, we had to build all the boats.\u00a0 So, you know, those old boats are made out of wood and they\u2019re incredibly heavy.\u00a0 And so, these boats were made out of fiberglass to look like wood. \u00a0But I mean, we had to make about 25 boats.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 So, those weren\u2019t all wood.\u00a0 But their boat was wood.<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 Yeah, which made it a lot harder.\u00a0When the rowers who we trained with got into out boat, they couldn\u2019t believe it, you know?<\/p>\n

\"The
Bruce Herbelin-Earle stars as Shorty Hunt, Callum Turner as Joe Rantz, and Wil Coban as Jim McMillan in director George Clooney\u2019s THE BOYS IN THE BOAT An Amazon MGM Studios film Photo credit: Laurie Sparham
\u00a9 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Q :\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 Yeah, because the fiberglass boats, they\u2019re clean, you know?\u00a0 They zip through the water.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 And the oars are fiberglass, too.\u00a0 So, yeah.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 So, this was difficult, more difficult than the real [overlap].\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 Yeah, it was one of the most grueling experiences I\u2019ve ever had in my life. It really was.\u00a0 And but these guys, they set us up to succeed, you know?\u00a0 They really gave us everything.\u00a0 And they gave us an Olympic gold medal-winning coach.\u00a0You know, and our physios and therapists and nutritionists.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 Acting as consultants that you were dealing with here?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 Yeah, exactly, to teach us how to do it.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 Yeah, it was like a wagyu beef.\u00a0We were fattening \u2018em up with all the things just to kill \u2018em later.<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0And they did.\u00a0The last two weeks with the races.\u00a0We just had to build towards that moment.<\/p>\n

Q : It is said a director will never ask an actor to do what he won\u2019t do himself. So, how adept would you be behind an oar?\u00a0 And if you could be an Olympian, what sport would you bring home the gold in?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 Darts.\u00a0Well, first of all, that is such a bullshit thing, a director wouldn\u2019t ask an actor to do something he wouldn\u2019t?\u00a0 That\u2019s all directors do.\u00a0 Yeah, go jump in that mud.\u00a0Go hop off the building.\u00a0They\u2019re like, yeah, yeah, yeah, go do that.\u00a0\u00a0Listen, you know, I grew up in sports, too.\u00a0 I really loved being an athlete.\u00a0But I mean, I stood next to these guys, the actual Olympic rowers and they took a picture.\u00a0I\u2019m five, 11, and I look at [the cox?] in it.\u00a0 The picture, literally, I\u2019m like, looking at these mountains. It\u2019s just a different level of athletics.<\/p>\n

And these guys did an amazing job because, you know, people who know rowing, they got up to 46 stokes, which is what the Olympic team was doing.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t do it for quite as long as the Olympic team did it, but it doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0We did it for about four seconds.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0That\u2019s all right. It\u2019s called film.<\/p>\n

GRANT: That\u2019s all we needed.<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 There was a euphoric feeling when we did that because we were aiming towards that.\u00a0And there were so many moments, you know.\u00a0You\u2019re learning a new skill, and one as difficult as this, but you just don\u2019t think you\u2019re gonna make it.<\/p>\n

And to actually do it was, you know, a wonderful thing.\u00a0 And you\u2019re doing it with eight other people.\u00a0 It\u2019s remarkable.\u00a0 And the last row that we had was a special feeling, too, when we rowed back in and we rowed in slowly, you know?\u00a0 It was the last time we were ever gonna be in the boat together and we\u2019d achieved something.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 And they all put on 70 pounds afterwards, too.<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 I think it was about 80, 90.<\/p>\n

GRANT:\u00a0 I was waiting to see if she opened up her mirror, like, you know, Jabba the Hut.\u00a0 You know, about that, though, doing it all together, and what you have to do with rowing, it\u2019s almost unlike any other sport, \u2018cause you are in unison and it\u2019s working as one.<\/p>\n

As, like, right at the end of the movie, you see him say that.\u00a0 And I think that\u2019s a great message for right now in a very divided world we\u2019re in, that we can all work together and we can all be one.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s one of the underlying things that this movie brings out.<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 And it\u2019s just inherent in Joe, you know?\u00a0 In the beginning of the book, Dan says that he\u2019s asked to write the book about him.\u00a0 And he says, \u201cNo, I don\u2019t wanna write the book, this can\u2019t be about me.\u00a0 It\u2019s gotta be about the boat, you know?\u201d\u00a0 And I do feel that, you know, we\u2019re the actors, but I really feel that this film is about the boat and what the boat goes on to do.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a special thing that we were able to do together.\u00a0 Reading the book in prep was one thing.\u00a0 I felt like I understand it.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve been rereading it for the press, and it\u2019s just so much more profound.\u00a0 It\u2019s truly a remarkable thing.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 For Joel, Callum, and Hadley.\u00a0Unfortunately, the real-life counterparts to your characters have all passed on.\u00a0How did you go about researching who they were, their stories, and their mannerisms.\u00a0 ou mentioned some of that, but maybe your creating some for the character here and dealing with it. Let me start with you, Joel, in talking about Al\u2019s story.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

JOEL:\u00a0 When I first spoke to George and I looked at photos of Al, it was like I was staring at my grandfather, my Dutch grandfather.\u00a0And not that that gave me any roadmap as to how to play the character.\u00a0He would be terrible with my terrible Dutch accent.<\/p>\n

\u00a0But you know, it was more about reading the book and understanding the essence of that guy.\u00a0 And you know, whenever I hear about actors playing really, really super famous icons, I\u2019m always like, \u201cGood luck,\u201d you know?<\/p>\n

And hats off to them when they do it really well, and most people have in recent years.\u00a0 But someone like Al is a real guy that nobody on the street really knows about.\u00a0 So, there\u2019s a certain, you know, amount of room to just create the coach that suits this film the best, rather than feel like, you know, his great-great-grandchildren are gonna come and kick me in the shins if I don\u2019t get rid of my lisp or something.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 You know, we\u2019ve met some family members and they all felt that, because one of the things you talked about when we first started doing it, was that stoicism and how sort of silent these things were.\u00a0And the families of Al that we met all said that that was an element that they really appreciated.<\/p>\n

JOEL:\u00a0 Yeah, and when you look at still photos of someone, that can teach you a lot.\u00a0It looked to me like he had these troubled looks that were looking into the future.\u00a0Like, you could see his cogs turning in a picture.\u00a0And so, for me, it was really just about, how do I relate to these boys in a way that\u2019s sort of tough love.\u00a0But no, I wasn\u2019t trying to pay homage to anything in particular because there wasn\u2019t a wealth of information. You know, it\u2019s just a little bit beyond our reaches of recordings that we can access.<\/p>\n

\"The
Chris Diamantopoulos stars as Royal Brougham, James Wolk as Coach Bolles, and Joel Edgerton as Al Ulbrickson in director George Clooney\u2019s THE BOYS IN THE BOAT An Amazon MGM Studios film Photo credit: Laurie Sparham
\u00a9 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Q :\u00a0 And Hadley, what about Joyce?\u00a0 What do you pick up there? You know, you read the book and all of that, but what stuck out for you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

HADLEY:\u00a0 I think it was a similar journey, actually.\u00a0 And there\u2019s so much you can take from just a single photo.\u00a0 And there\u2019s one photo of Joe and Joyce sitting on the ground and I think Joe had just proposed to Joyce.\u00a0I think he, like, pretending to be picking clovers and then he had a ring in his hand instead.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s this look of just, like, pure joy, but just a little bit of mischief in there.\u00a0 And I\u2019m like, ooh, I wanna capture that feeling.\u00a0 And I think, you know, Joe is kind of shy.\u00a0 And Joyce is kind of his counterpart or antithesis, which I think is pretty interesting, \u2018cause in life, I think I\u2019m more of the shy one and Callum\u2019s very boisterous.\u00a0 So, that was interesting to find together.\u00a0 [laughs]<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 I don\u2019t know about that.<\/p>\n

HADLEY:\u00a0 [laughs] But yeah, it\u00a0 was a similar journey.\u00a0There\u2019s so many beautiful passages in this book that I kind of directly stole from.\u00a0 Like, the first moment she sees Joe on the bus, she says he\u2019s like sunshine and it\u2019s like looking through a window at sunshine.\u00a0 And I wanted to put that into the relationship then, just these beautiful poetic moments which I really leaned on pretty heavily.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 I have to say also, just quickly about Hadley, the actress, you know, it\u2019s a tricky thing to do.\u00a0First of all, it\u2019s a period piece, which is a different style of acting.\u00a0 You know, you\u2019re not talking about your emotions.\u00a0You know, we have to see them.\u00a0We have to see the relationship between these two.<\/p>\n

And Hadley\u2019s the kind of actress that you can really lean on for those kind of things.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been lucky enough over the years to work with some young actresses sort of when they were just hitting their stride.\u00a0 Shailene Woodley and Anna Kendrick.\u00a0 And you know, Hadley has all of these same qualities, which is she knows exactly what\u2019s required.\u00a0 You know, like we\u2019ve said, there isn\u2019t a bunch of film of Joyce talking.<\/p>\n

It was 1936, and by the time they were interviewed and talking, they were much, much older.\u00a0 So, she had to create a lot of this.\u00a0 And what she took from the book and then, just whatever she figured out to make that character so whole.\u00a0There\u2019s moments in this film like when you say, \u201cI think I should tell you I love you.\u201d\u00a0 And he doesn\u2019t really register it, and he walks away.\u00a0And there\u2019s a million ways to play that.\u00a0And the hardest part and the way to play it is to make it still okay.\u00a0Not the victim, not hurt.<\/p>\n

Just like, you know, we\u2019re gonna be okay.\u00a0 And then when he comes back, it pays off.\u00a0 And it\u2019s such a fine line.\u00a0 And when I\u2019m sitting in the editing room, it makes life so easy when you\u2019re working with an actress of her caliber.<\/p>\n

HADLEY:\u00a0 Thank you, George.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 You\u2019re welcome.<\/p>\n

HADLEY:\u00a0 There was also great direction, though.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 How \u2018bout that, huh?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

HADLEY:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0That moment, though, you helped me get to that moment.\u00a0So, I mean, I think you should take some credit.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 That was our Covid day.\u00a0\u2018Member, everything who shot that day got covid.<\/p>\n

HADLEY:\u00a0 Oh no. [laughs]\u00a0 Oh no.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 Yeah, didn\u2019t you go down first?<\/p>\n

HADLEY:\u00a0 Yeah, I think that was my fault.<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 That was your first of [overlap].<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 No, that was a pickup.\u00a0 We had to shoot this.\u00a0I was directing from an iPad in home, in bed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 Oh, my gosh.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 Do it again.\u00a0Which by the way, I think I\u2019m gonna continue to do.<\/p>\n

Q: It\u2019s not easy directing from an iPad. How did you decide on the casting, and especially Callum?\u00a0 Was there a big process on this?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 How did you guys decide on not having Elizabeth here in the room interviewing us?\u00a0 We love her. Hi, Elizabeth. Wait, how did I decide on the casting?\u00a0Well, lucky enough, there\u2019s a lot of jokes we could make, but the truth is, we got everybody, the first people we wanted to work with us.\u00a0 You know, Grant and Joel and I have been trying to work together for a long time.\u00a0 We had the Yankee Comandante we tried to do together.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve been trying to find something to work together for a long time.<\/p>\n

Hadley came in and read and the minute she read, you know, we sent it off to the studios and said this is the right person.\u00a0 And then Callum was the one actor that we thought would be, you know, a perfect Joe Rantz.<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 I was waiting for the joke there.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 I was gonna do it.\u00a0I was gonna do all the ones like, we went through 20 and, you know, all of it.\u00a0 But the truth is, it\u2019s early in the morning, I\u2019m feeling sort of generous.\u00a0 We saw, you know, it was all on tape, the auditions.\u00a0 And you know, you kinda watching and watching.\u00a0 And then we saw his and we just looked at each other and said, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s the guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 And the rest of the casting, all the crew, all the guys, they\u2019re all different.\u00a0They all pop off the screen in their own way, you know?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

GRANT:\u00a0 And it\u2019s challenging because they had to be the right size, you know?\u00a0 They had to be tall enough and believable as rowers.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 We literally said to them, on the tape, we just said, \u201cAre you athletic?\u201d\u00a0 And we said it like, \u201cLook, this is really important, because if you\u2019re not, we\u2019ll have to fire you.\u201d\u00a0 \u2018Cause we\u2019re not gonna be doing head replacements and things like that, so this is it.\u00a0And luckily, they all were incredibly athletic.<\/p>\n

\"The
Callum Turner stars as Joe Rantz and Hadley Robinson as Joyce Simdars in director George Clooney\u2019s
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT An Amazon MGM Studios film Photo credit: Laurie Sparham \u00a9 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Q :\u00a0 When you were coming up as an actor and director said, what would you say?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 Are you athletic?\u00a0 Well, \u2018cause I was athletic.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 Let\u2019s say if they say\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

JOEL:\u00a0 Can you breathe fire riding a horse with your eyes shut?\u00a0 And you\u2019re like, I can do it.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 By the way, if there\u2019s any actors watching this, you know, on your resume, it\u2019ll say special skills.\u00a0And you always do, every dialect, I do.\u00a0And I ride horses.<\/p>\n

JOEL:\u00a0 Unicycle.<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 Juggle.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 That\u2019s right.\u00a0Juggle.\u00a0And it\u2019s always just bullshit.\u00a0You just lie through that.\u00a0 And then you get the job and you have to learn it really quick.<\/p>\n

JOEL:\u00a0 You know, there\u2019s that aspect, and I\u2019ve been through it before, where you know, there\u2019s certain jobs you can fake.\u00a0And you know, as an actor, you\u2019re approaching a story and you go, well, I could fake that.\u00a0I could turn up on the morning and learn one or two things and I can sell the trick.<\/p>\n

But there are some things like this that you just can\u2019t fake, unless the studio is willing to pay a gazillion dollars in face replacement and all that stuff.\u00a0 But watching these guys go through it, and together, and watching the evolution, watching them change in the way that they worked together.\u00a0 And their physiques changed and they looked like rowers and they worked like rowers.<\/p>\n

And it added this dimension which happens with those scenarios after months, where they galvanized as a group and had relationships that really suited the film.\u00a0 And it was a real pleasure to watch that from the outside and watch that evolution.\u00a0And I just remember thinking, through all that pain is gonna come so much benefit for the movie and pleasure for them having been through the experience.\u00a0And it was very impressive.<\/p>\n

Q : Amazing. Okay, from John Flynn at Row2k.com.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know, is that a rowing site or something?\u00a0 For George, it looks like some of the cinematography, like the shots of the coxswain in the boat during the race, were an homage to Leni Riefenstahl shots in Olympia documentary.\u00a0 Did you draw on her work and the actual event in planning those shots or others in the film and on other rowing films when thinking about how to capture the sport?<\/strong><\/p>\n

GEORGE: Well, yeah.\u00a0 You know, we like to use Nazis whenever we can for filming. There is that shot of them leaning into the frame that she did in the boat.\u00a0 Yeah, that is certainly an homage, if that\u2019s the word we wanna use.<\/p>\n

GRANT:\u00a0 I think steal is a better word.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 Stealing is better word.\u00a0What we learned from other rowing movies in general, and it\u2019s no knock on them.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a long period of time and there haven\u2019t been very many, is the things not to do.\u00a0 \u2018Cause it\u2019s hard.\u00a0 You know, the oars are, you know, 15 feet long.\u00a0 And then the boats are 40-some feet long.\u00a0 So, you can\u2019t get close to the boats with the camera.\u00a0 And you can\u2019t get side by side or ahead of the boats with your camera boat, \u2018cause you\u2019ll capsize the boat.<\/p>\n

So, we had to come up with a design to get in tight enough to make it exciting.\u00a0 You have to have some foreground action in the front.\u00a0You have to be on a super long lens.\u00a0 Meaning, we\u2019re on an 80-foot arm on the boat with a three-hundred-millimeter lens, two-hundred-millimeter lens, down low, getting wet, trying to hold focus while you\u2019re doing that.\u00a0So, there was a ton of, like, math to try and find a way to make those things exciting.\u00a0So, there was some of the films that we looked at, we looked at for what not to do.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s not an insult on them.\u00a0The technology didn\u2019t exist then.\u00a0But there was the idea of going, okay, we gotta get closer, and we gotta get inside the boat somehow.\u00a0 And that was a trick, you know.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0Shout out to your cinematographer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0Oh, Martin Ruhe is one of the greatest cinematographers in the world.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 Beautiful looking movie, what he\u2019s done there.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 He\u2019s unbelievable.<\/p>\n

\"The
Director George Clooney on the set of his film THE BOYS IN THE BOAT An Amazon MGM Studios film
Photo credit: Laurie Sparham \u00a9 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Q :\u00a0 How was the physical preparation of the actors as rowers integrated into your preproduction and production process?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 Two months of training.<\/p>\n

GRANT:\u00a0 It was two months of training.\u00a0 But then as we were shooting, we would wrap at, like, three, 3:30, and then they would go back out and row and train more.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 We would go have a nice, like, a pinot.<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 And we would row past him.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 Hadley and I and Grant and Joel, we would all go out, have a nice dinner, and these guys are in their short shorts.<\/p>\n

HADLEY:\u00a0 I had no idea this was happening, by the way.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know.\u00a0No, I would go home.\u00a0Make a little supper.<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 Have a nice time in London, walking around town.<\/p>\n

GRANT:\u00a0 And we scheduled it so that we shot the training stuff first, so that they could still be kind of figuring it out.\u00a0 And then we shot the races all in order.\u00a0 So, by the time we got to Berlin, they were really at the top of their game.\u00a0 [Even Callum?].<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 For Callum and Hadley, Joe and Joyce have that love story that is very old Hollywood, especially their kiss at the train.\u00a0Are there any couples of that time that inspired you besides Joe and Joyce, like Lombard and Gable?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0CALLUM:\u00a0 You look at any of that?<\/p>\n

HADLEY:\u00a0 No.\u00a0Maybe, like, all of them combined.\u00a0Not a specific.\u00a0Wait, what were the movies, though?\u00a0 In the book, Joe and Joyce.<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 What they would go and see.<\/p>\n

HADLEY:\u00a0 They would go and see, like, 15 cent movies together.\u00a0 And do you remember?<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 You put me on the spot there.\u00a0I can\u2019t remember.<\/p>\n

HADLEY:\u00a0 I think it was, like, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, yeah.<\/p>\n

GRANT:\u00a0 Fred Astaire.<\/p>\n

HADLEY:\u00a0 Yeah, those were the movies they would see.<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 I would look up people like Gary Cooper, you know, and how stoic he was.\u00a0And High Noon was especially a great inspiration.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 Absolutely. And Grace Kelly in that movie, too. There was an issue. Remember, she was, like, 19 and he was, like, 60.<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 That was her first movie, no?<\/p>\n

GRANT:\u00a0 A lot of them were like that at that time.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 She won the Oscar for it.\u00a0 Yeah, but that\u2019s true, too.\u00a0 See, there\u2019s room for me, still.\u00a0 I still have it.<\/p>\n

GRANT:\u00a0 You can\u2019t get away with that anymore.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 No, you don\u2019t.\u00a0 But we talked about it, remember?\u00a0 And we talked about this, you guys, about that kiss at the train.\u00a0And I said, \u201cThis is an old-fashioned movie kiss.\u201d\u00a0 You were gonna come out and he\u2019s gonna come off the train and there\u2019s gonna be the big score going.\u00a0And I said, \u201cSo, this has to be like a 1940s movie kiss, too.\u201d\u00a0Which is, you kissed differently then.\u00a0You know, you kinda mash your faces.\u00a0Remember, we tried it.\u00a0 ‘Cause you can\u2019t have, like, your tongue going like this.<\/p>\n

HADLEY:\u00a0 [laughs] It was, like, the neck.\u00a0 We kind of did a spoof of it for a while, ’cause it was like, \u201cAll right, you just grab me and then I\u2019ll dip my neck.\u201d<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 We trained for the row and we had to train for the kiss, as well.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 Yeah, you trained for the rowing and you trained for the kiss.\u00a0What can this film teach to today\u2019s young people about the value of grit and determination to overcome obstacles and disappointments.\u00a0Anybody?\u00a0 Joel?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

JOEL:\u00a0 Well, I think you\u2019ve summed it up perfectly.\u00a0 You know, one of the cool things about this film, I think, is that, you know, rowing is, like certain sports, still quite elite and something that not everyone can access.\u00a0And the idea that within this story, these guys are at a school that isn\u2019t known for this, that they\u2019re really sort of up against it, and that they are underdogs.<\/p>\n

And I think the idea of working hard to achieve your goal and pulling things out of yourself that you don\u2019t think you\u2019re capable of.\u00a0 And then beyond that, doing it as a group and learning to kind of move as one and move as a family, I think says a lot.\u00a0 And dedicating yourself to a group.\u00a0 I mean, does anyone wanna add something?<\/p>\n

CALLUM:\u00a0 And being responsible.\u00a0 Being part of a team, you know, and you\u2019re a cog in a system and you can\u2019t let other people down.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 And I think what you\u2019re talking about is early, at the very beginning of this, is kind of the truth, too.\u00a0 Which is, you know, we\u2019ve shown this movie and it\u2019s like, you know, I don\u2019t know, people are screaming and standing up in the chairs and cheering and stuff.\u00a0 And what you get the sense of is that, you know, this is a very polarized time in our country.\u00a0 Probably, you know, not since certainly the Civil War has it been this kind of anger.<\/p>\n

It feels like it\u2019s all the time.\u00a0 That\u2019s also because we see it on television and we\u2019ve lost perspective.\u00a0This is still the fringes.\u00a0 Most people in our country and around the world, most people wanna get along.\u00a0Most people wanna live a normal life and raise their kids and life to go well.\u00a0 And they want that for their neighbors, as well.\u00a0And so, what we felt like with this film and coming up on Christmas was that it\u2019s also a film that talks about the idea that we\u2019re all in this together.<\/p>\n

GEORGE:\u00a0 And probably the only way we\u2019re gonna make it out intact is with one another and in supporting one another.\u00a0 And the better everyone else is is the better you will be.\u00a0 And so, I liked that theme for this film.<\/p>\n

Q :\u00a0 I do, too.\u00a0 And I think Christmas Day is the perfect time to open this movie, and that\u2019s what\u2019s happening.\u00a0 And hopefully, everybody goes to see it.\u00a0 Thanks to our journalists out there.\u00a0 You did great.\u00a0 And thanks to you guys, too, for joining us today.\u00a0Boys in the Boat\u2019s the name of the movie.\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out more of Nobuhiro’s articles.<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s the trailer of the film.<\/strong><\/p>\n