George Clooney chats to Miriam O'Callaghan about directing The Boys in the Boat, along with two of the stars of the Olympic rowing movie; Callum Turner and Joel Edgerton. Listen back above.
George Clooney’s ninth feature as director The Boys in the Boat has just been released in Ireland and Miriam O’Callaghan spoke on Sunday with Miriam to the director and two of the stars of the movie; Callum Turner and Joel Edgerton. They talk about the true story and the book that inspired the movie, the joys of collaboration and the technical challenges posed by shooting a film in water-based locations.
The movie The Boys in the Boat is based on the 2014 book of the same name by Daniel James Brown. Reading Brown’s book sparked George Clooney’s interest in the story of the unlikely Olympic rowing star Joe Rantz, who was part of the U.S. gold medal winning rowing team at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
Rantz’s mother died when he was four and his father abandoned him at the age of 15; just as the Great Depression was laying waste to the U.S. economy. The teenager put himself through school and gained a place at the University of Washington. The only way to finance his studies was to become part of the college rowing team, which came with a funding package. Clooney says that Rantz’s obstacles to success are the makings of a great sports story:
"The underdog is the fun part of telling a good sports story, so when I read the book I loved it. I thought it was going to be a hard film to make and I think it was a very hard film to make."
For Callum Turner, the role presented huge physical challenges. Callum says that Clooney and his co-producer Grant Heslov helped the actors to achieve great things as a team:
"George and Grant set us up to succeed - they gave us an Olympic gold medallist to train us for two months, four hours a day and we worked out for an hour on top of that and just got us into the position that we were able to do the thing."
Clooney is full of praise for the athleticism of his actors and the work they put in. He says they achieved the same stroke count as rowers that the real Olympians did in 1936:
"By the end they got up to – there’s a stroke count, like how fast you can go, and the miracle of this actual team was that they got up to 47 strokes – 46 strokes in the final race at the end – and these guys got up to 46 strokes."
Callum says he was very taken by Joe’s story and he credits George in helping him flesh out the character:
"Being part of the boat was everything for Joe. He was abandoned by his family, by his dad when he was 15 years old and he finally finds solace in this boat and a family and a unity. And it means the world to him. And working with George, it was a pleasure, man. We built the character together."
Clooney is having none of it:
"That’s actually not true. He did all the work."
George gives Callum the credit for making the effort to build up the character. He says that once a director gets the casting right, everything else follows:
"If you’re at all good at directing, about 90% we always talk about it is casting. He was perfect for the part."
Making a film based on water posed many technical challenges and Miriam asks George, with this in mind, why did he embark on a film where water plays such a central role? Clooney admits he should have known better, having encountered these problems before:
"Honestly, stupidity. You know you get to a certain age and you forget things. It had been about 20-some years since I had done A Perfect Storm so I forgot what a misery … I'd forgotten how hard it was. The way we shot it, trying to have them line up, it was complicated, but you just have to get it right once."
Miriam asked both actors and director about their Irish connections and Callum mentioned an upcoming project, Hedda, with Eve Hewson. Not to be out-Irished, George pulls out his family connection as his trump card:
"Well, you know, Irish connection – Clooney, what are you talking about, come on, come on?!"
Clooney enjoyed a family reunion in Ireland a few years back and was overcome by meeting people who he didn’t know and yet still recognised:
"I got there and you start to see all these people who look like all of your family and you’re like, oh my God, we are actually really related."
Joel Edgerton who plays the coach in The Boys in the Boat also has fond memories of his own Irish connection, when he played opposite Irish actress Ruth Negga on the movie Loving. Joel says he’s a big admirer of hers and values the time they spent working together:
"With Loving, those are the real challenges to me on a different level. That’s one of the films that I will always hold in, I’m sure, in my top few treasure ever. Partly the story but a lot of that is thanks to going toe to toe with Ruth and watching her and having a front seat view of her."
You can listen back to more great content from Sundays with Miriam on the show page here and on the RTÉ Radio app.
The Boys in the Boat (PG) is out in cinemas now.