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The Mighty Macs

Coverage by Nobuhiro Hosoki

Story : It’s 1971. Cathy Rush is a woman ahead of her time and she’s about to embark on an adventure for the ages. Recently hired as the coach of tiny Immaculata College, Cathy’s challenges are as imposing as the big-school teams her Macs will face. There is no gymnasium, no fan support and no money. To top it off, Cathy may not even have enough players for a team! While it appears the Macs don’t have a prayer, all hope is not lost. With the help of Sister Sunday—a spunky assistant coach—and the support of a booster club of elderly nuns, Coach Rush creates a new game plan that just might bring the team—and the school—together.

Opens Friday, October 21, 2011

Runtime:1 hr. 38 min.

Interview with Actress Carla Gugino, Actor David Boreanaz

(Q) : Since both of you play people heavily involved in basketball what were some of your real-life sports or athlete experiences that you brought to the role with you?
 
(David Boreanaz) : I've always wanted to do a sports oriented project, and when I read the script it was more than just a one line kind of theme of sports straight across the board. What was important was that there was a character here, there was development, and there was some depth to the story, and that to me is what the film is really all about, this inspirational story. So the character for me was twofold, because when I was a freshman in high school I actually used to go to Sixers games, and I used to go with my friend and he'd be like "Hey, do you want to go see the Sixers games? I can get great seats. They're right on the floor." I'm like "I'm in."

The Sixers at that time were an amazing team, '83 they just won a championship, Dr. J they had everybody. Bobby Jones. So I'm like "Yeah, I'll definitely go." Darryl Dawkins, Charles Barkley was a rookie I think that season when I was a freshman in high school. So we go with this guy and he ends up being Ed Rush. At the time I'm just like this guy is a referee with the NBA, I'm sitting courtside, I'm talking to players as they're warming up, I'm just thinking this is like the best experience. So it goes on, so I went to like three or four games with Ed. I went to New Jersey, saw the Nets, I was talking to Darryl Dawkins, I was talking to Charles Barkley, I'm like on the court with the ball talking to the players as they're warming up and I'm like drooling as a sports fan.

So cut to now I'm doing a film about Cathy Rush and her inspirational journey and going to Immaculata College, and her husband's Ed Rush. It's funny how that kind of comes across and so inspirationally for me. I'm like "Hey, I'm wearing your shoes now," and literally wore his jersey that he refed the NBA in. I wore his jersey in some of the shots that we did. So to maintain that sense of credibility I met this guy, it was kind of full circle for me. And then the story itself is just inspirational and I really believed in the story and overcoming adversity and conflict and rising above what people say you can't do.
 
(Q) : And your sports experiences?
 
(Carla Guino) : I was going to say, what's interesting about it is the two sports that I actually enjoy watching are basketball and World Cup soccer, but I'm not particularly sports oriented. I ended up learning so much about the game, mostly because as a coach it's less about obviously playing well, though that is an aspect of it, but actually really understanding the game and having a mind that can think ahead. And our players, our girls who are in the team are really good actresses but they're also predominantly really good players.

So that was cool because they actually play and everything, and because we were at Immaculata and so it all felt very authentic. But the thing that drew me to the story, and I think this is the thing I guess is a testament to a good story is that was less even that it was about sports and more that it was about, I always think a good sports movie is emblematic in the same way that a great Greek tragedy really has a certain kind of structure, or a Shakespearean play if you're looking at a comedy or a tragedy, is that these are the heights and depths of human emotion, and it's always like the stakes are so high. I get way too involved and I can't take it lightly at all.

So for me I was just really intrigued about this woman who had this very simple kind of mission. She wasn't trying to change the world, I don't think she had any sort of lofty ideals, but she really wanted to work at something, she got this job as a coach at Immaculata College. Catholic girls, they just wanted to pretty much busy their time. They were trying to sort of get their energies focused towards sports as opposed to other things. And she came in there and was like "Actually, I've got really good players. We need to keep going here," and she just wouldn't be stopped. So that was the thing that really drew me to the story.
 
(Q) : Were you both aware of the story prior to doing this?

(David Boreanaz) : I wasn't. I was surprised.
 
(Carla Guino) : Yeah.
 
(David Boreanaz) : To me it was the last thing I expected. I never heard of the story and if I had it may have been through passing because of being from Philadelphia and being in that area. When I heard it was a pleasant surprise to me.
 
(Carla Guino) : For me probably being a woman and I knew that this woman had changed sort of the face of basketball. I had heard over time because some of her players also became coaches. So when the story came up I was like oh right, I've heard of that woman. But it was a very vague piece of information and the director came, I was doing a play here actually, and he came, Tim Chambers, who wrote and directed the film came and saw the play and we sat down afterwards and he sort of told me the story. And before I even read it I was like "Wow, that's an amazing story. I'm so excited to read it." And then I read it and was more excited even.
 
(Q) : Do either of you have a Catholic school experience to share with us?
 
(Carla Guino) : I don't. He has some good ones.
 
(David Boreanaz) : I was raised, born Catholic, went to Catholic schools. I mean there was an experience with a nun. I remember vaguely first grade I think I may have been a little bit taller than my first grade teacher who was a nun. Sister Stella Marie and she really was intense.
 
(Q) : Which high school? Where was this?
 
(David Boreanaz): Buffalo, New York. Nativity. No, it was in Buffalo and then I moved to Philly when I was seven. And then getting to high school, being taught by the Augustinian priests and that whole experience. But I do remember as boys especially at that age I think 13, 14, and having a specific teacher that you would kind of torture in the Catholic sensibility of where their hormones are at that time. There was a teacher that taught history, and as freshman we'd always hear yells and screams from the other classrooms.

His name was Basil Sullivan and when he talked he would clear his throat and the response from everybody in the classroom would be to attack. So we heard that form freshman year on to senior year, so by the time we got to his class we were very excited to do this roar, which we did, and he ended up leaving because not only did we roar but we ended up throwing silly putty and bouncing balls all over the place when he wasn't looking. It was bad. And it was in a Catholic high school.
 
(Q) : Was this in Philadelphia?
 
(David Boreanaz) : Yeah.

(Q) : Archbishop I hope?

(David Boreanaz) : No, Malvern Prep.
 
(Q) : People expect you to have the Catholic background.
 
(Carla Guino) : I know right, with the Italian heritage.
 
(Q) : How did you avoid that?
 
(Carla Guino) : You know it's funny, my father was born in Buffalo, New York, his parents were born in Italy, and my grandparents, Italian, full Italian, started a Baptist church in Buffalo, New York, which is the craziest thing ever. And I'm not Baptist either. And then I grew up in the '70s in Northern California and it was much more of a kind of hippie, I lived in a teepee, a whole different kind of deal.
 
(Q) : Did you have a chance to reconnect with Ed and did you spend some time with Cathy?
 
(Carla Guino) : Yeah, they were both there, which was really cool. I spoke more to Cathy than I did to Ed but I did meet Ed when they were on set together one day. I mean Cathy is just, as soon as I sat down with her it just was incredibly informative for me in terms of how to play her, because I was less interested in sort of imitating her and more interested in the way in which she went about accomplishing something so big.

And of course it is like most people do which is in very small steps, and you kind of don't realize until you look later and go "Wow. I really did something kind of amazing." And she just is very practical and very sensible and super smart and really lovely but tough. And her players, if any of you have seen the movie, there's a scene in the church where there's the row of nuns that they pan across, and those are all her players who are now many of them coaches and have been coaches, which is just so cool. And just to see how much their lives were affected by this woman was profoundly impactful for sure.
 
(Q) : I feel like there aren't many female centered sports movies out there. Why do you think that is, and is that something that drew you to this, that it was a female centered story?
 
(Carla Guino) : We were talking about this a little bit earlier, but sports still are predominantly men in terms of the attention that's given to them, so there probably aren't statistically as many stories able to be told. It's female-centric, and that aspect of it is great for young girls, because I think that's really, really important right now to just sort of reiterate that anything is possible in that regard. But I also just see it as a great sort of dramatic tale I guess, where if it were a woman or a man it's less significant except for that it was much harder for a woman at that time to do what she did.

But yeah I know, you can go back to like "Hoosiers" or different movies like "Miracle" or movies that are sort of similar in tone in terms of just really authentic grassroots sports stories, and they are generally with men in the lead. And to have such a strong male presence in your character too, so there is this, you do see the perspective of that guy and how he's responding to this and how he's coming to terms with it. And he really is the eye into culturally and historically what was going on at that time, which is for a woman to kind of be like "I want to get a job" when she didn't have to was certainly notable.
 
(David Boreanaz) : A lot of obstacles for women at that time, especially in the '70s. There was so much going on, so much movement. I think it's that type of story as well; overcoming so much. Here's a basketball coach who's driven to change these kids, and everything's against her and the one person she's so close to is obviously also questioning "Why are you going to this school and coaching these kids? Why are you looking at my tapes from the NBA?" "Oh that's so cool; why would you call that move there?" And it's like wait a second. The character is like "That's my terrain. I'm not quite understanding." But he gets it and gets involved because he sees the change. And I think what's great about that character, there is a full circle to that character. He sees the change and he's on board, which I think is great.
 
(Q) : So there was a real evolution you're saying.
 
(David Boreanaz) : I think there was a big evolution for him. And especially at that time from his perspective what's going on in the world at that time.
 
(Q) : I thought the WNBA just came about in the '90s but it came about in the '70s. I didn't know anything about it. I had no clue.
 
(David Boreanaz): Yeah I didn't know that.
 
(Carla Guino) : That's what's also cool about it is that you actually really get a pretty interesting history lesson in a really entertaining way, and in a way that for the positive and the negative is still very timely. That's the thing.
 
(Q) : Do you two have a favorite sports film? You mentioned several films. Have you now felt either the obligation to go out and see them now that you've made this film or did you see ones before you made the film?
 
(David Boreanaz) : The best sports film ever made for me was "Rocky." I'm sorry but that first "Rocky" was amazing. But then if I could say any film that could ever inch "Rocky" out would be the latest film with the boxer.
 
(Carla Guino) : "The Fighter."
 
(David Boreanaz) : "The Fighter." I watched that film and was rooting for this gentleman to come off his drug addiction. I was rooting for this guy, and I would never in my mind go wait a second, this is sports, no one can knock "Rocky" to the side. And I was so moved by that film, "The Fighter." It was a really moving film, it was acted amazingly, it was directed great. It had everything to it. I felt for these people. I felt for the problems that they had, the addictions that they had.
 
(Q) : Anything you considered inspiration?
 
(Carla Guino) : "The Fighter" is one of my favorite movies for sure, just movies, period. I will say I'm a huge Hackman fan so I did love "Hoosiers." And I loved "Bull Durham." But again, I guess to me I would gravitate less to going to a movie because it's a sports movie and more just is it a really good movie, so those I think are really good movies. And I was completely taken in by "Miracle." I just thought that was such a good movie.
 
(Q) : How did you bond with those student players? Did you hang out on set or watch them practice and stuff like that?
 
(Carla Guino) : Yep, I watched them practice. We had coaches there who I was a part of all of those practices. I would then write out plays, they would write out plays and I would see how they're written and then I'd write them out and see if this is how you would do it. It was basically just a very organic process because while we were shooting we were completely submerged in that world. Which is also a wonderful challenge as an actor; you're inventing things. You're working on a green screen or you're kind of going what is their history, okay I'm going to make up the character's history. You can find great things that way, but it's really amazing when you have the place, the people, all of those things, because there's just a real feeling to it that comes really naturally.
 
(Q) : David, as a Philadelphia guy who actually spent some time in the Spectrum, I can identify with this. Were you concerned with this movie you didn't get a lot of screen time? Were you concerned you might be the Michael Nouri "Flashdance" character in this movie?
 
(David Boreanaz) : You know what, I'm just happy to be a part of the film, the story. For me I don't really compare it to anything but just being a part of the whole. In order to make things move and click you need certain aspects of it and I was just excited to be a part of working with such great people, great actors. And whether it be one scene, I don't really look at a project that way, I look at it as the embodiment of what the purpose of the story is and to be a part of the story is so important. It's like the book "The Giving Tree" and his branches get cut off, so if I play the branch I'm still part of that story. So for me it's really about being part of the whole and having a character down so when you have an opportunity to do specific scenes you know where you're coming from on all cylinders.

To me that is really why I love the opportunity to do anything like this. It's exciting. I just shot a film over the summertime with some really great actors, and it's like I worked four or five days, and one actors responded to me like "It's these types of films that you wish you were shooting 20 days or two months, and you do a big budgeted feature and you're like 'Oh I just can't wait to get home' after the second day." So to answer your question, I like to work, and whether it's coming in and having one line it doesn't bother me.
 
(Q) : Is it nice to have a contrast to doing TV?
 
(David Boreanaz) : You know what, again, it's the same. It's just a different animal; it's a different way of approaching working. You stretch your characters as much as you can. I'm very fortunate to be on a show that's very great for me for seven seasons. It's all about character work, and if I don't have that with Emily and I don't have character work with the person I'm working with, when I went into this film with Carla it was important to sit down and talk about the character development and where we are with it and really rely on that. To me it's character driven stuff and that's really what I base it on.
 
(Carla Guino) : For sure. But I do find different mediums. For a long time I've done film and television and theater, and each one informs the other in a really cool way. And also one is more of an actor's medium and one is more of a director's medium. You do different things, certainly. In film you definitely kind of give your gift and then they do with it what they will, versus theater or even television with something like you've been living this so the character begins to be informed by what you're discovering, which is a cool process too.
 
(Q) : Do you have a preference, Carla? Stage or film?
 
(Q) : You did a great job with that TV series that you did.
 
(Carla Guino) : Oh thank you.
 
(Q) : It wasn't on that long.
 
(Carla Guino) : I know, it was not. Yeah that was a big transition time for them for sure. But yeah, that was a special, special character to play. You know what, I would have maybe had an answer for that, like I would have picked one possibly maybe five or 10 years ago, but I have to say I really kind of love them all for different reasons, I really do. I mean I'm coming back to do Broadway this winter and I'm so excited about that.
 
(Q) : What are you doing?
 
(Carla Guino) : I'm doing Athol Fugard's "Road to Mecca" with Rosemary Harris and Jim Dale. I'm really excited about that. And then I'll sort of be hungry to do something different after that. I think for any artist and in any artistic endeavor any of us do an human beings you just want to kind of get better and better and expand your horizons, so all of them have value for me in that way.
 
(Q) : Could you talk a little bit about the "Bones" upcoming season? There are a lot of changes going on.
 
(David Boreanaz) : It's great to be able to get into a whole new different relationship and being with the two characters and having them have a child together and how they deal with that. I think what's really going to be great for people to see is it's a whole new dynamic right off the first episode. We've done six and we're on a little bit of a baby break right now for Emily, and you'll see the relationship is even stronger and better because of what they're dealing with.

It's some really unexpected turns and twists and I don't want to get too much into it but it's going to be very surprising. Our characters don't agree on certain things, she probably wants to have the baby in a hut in Africa and I'm like wait a second no. It brings up a lot. We jumped the shark I think last year in the show, so we feel really good about that.
 
(Q) : Carla, you mentioned before that you didn't want to do a complete imitation of Cathy, and with both of you playing real-life people, a lot of actors they say that one of the most difficult things and one of the best challenges that they have is playing real-life people. They want to get as much as they can right but they want to put their own spin.
 
(Carla Guino) : Absolutely.

(Q) : For both of you personally, how important was it for you to get that tone right?

(Carla Guino) : It was extremely important, and I think that when I kind of found out that Cathy was excited about the direction it was going in and how it was coming out that was sort of the stamp of approval that I needed in terms of knowing that I was going in the right direction. But yeah, very, very important. It's just that what I mean by that is that if you come at it from an external standpoint, if you try to imitate a voice or a thing, that's only interesting if it informs something of the person's inner nature. Otherwise you're just watching someone do a cool impression. So it was super important to me and when I've had those experiences, like doing "After the Fall" too, based on Marilyn, it's sort of about how you get inside and see from inside of them. So when I was able to meet her that helped me tremendously.
 
(David Boreanaz) : You get a sense of understanding them by meeting them on the set. How they have a cup of coffee, where they're coming from, you get some insight. How they drove over there, how they walk, what they're wearing. You look at everything, you're constantly looking at everything, and there are reasons behind certain things. And for me it was when I met Ed and being able to understand where he was coming from, having that conversation, going back and telling him that story, how he reacted, seeing the light in his eyes, internally you feel that and you take that energy in and you tap into it. It's a strange process. It's fun though.
 
(Q) : David, are you going to be directing and "Bones" episodes?
 
(David Boreanaz): Yes.
 
(Q) : How many?
 
(David Boreanaz) : I'm doing two this year.

 

End.