{"id":30642,"date":"2014-10-22T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/moviemom\/?p=30642"},"modified":"2014-10-23T07:59:17","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T11:59:17","slug":"dylan-baker-on-directing-for-the-first-time-in-fact-based-high-school-football-movie-23-blast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/moviemom\/2014\/10\/dylan-baker-on-directing-for-the-first-time-in-fact-based-high-school-football-movie-23-blast.html","title":{"rendered":"Dylan Baker on Directing for the First Time in the Fact-Based High School Football Movie “23 Blast”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Copyright<\/a>
Copyright 2012 Dylan Baker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dylan Baker is probably best remembered for playing some of the most horrific villains imaginable (“The Good Wife,” “Happiness”). \u00a0But his extensive career has included wild comedies (“Planes, Trains, and Automobiles,” “Anchorman 2”), historical drama (he was Robert McNamara in “13 Days”), and even a musical (“Across the Universe”). \u00a0He has just taken on a new role as a movie director for the first time with “23 Blast,” based on the true story of a Kentucky high school football player who lost his sight and, thanks to a supportive coach and team, kept playing. He told me the story of how this film came together, almost worthy of a movie itself.<\/p>\n

How did you come to not just appear in this film but also direct it?<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, this is my directing debut. I have directed about a dozen plays but I kind of thought that directing a movie was not going to happen for me. \u00a0I kind of said, \u201cWell, directing a movie is going to take all this time and so I think I will just let that be and I missed on the bucket list.\u201d But then all of a sudden Toni Hoover who is actually a high school friend of my wife, they were cheerleaders together, she came to us and asked us to act in the movie about five or six years ago and then she sent us a script and asked me for a little help on it and so I started working on it and I helped her a little bit with casting, little bit more and then three years ago she asked me to direct it and I said, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t know when that\u2019s going to happen again.\u201d So I jumped on board and all this happened.<\/p>\n

Was this her first script?<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes. Toni has never written anything before really. And she had three children with her husband Vin and they were living in Tampa Florida and they both felt like they wanted the kids to enjoy sort of a childhood in a small town and Vin was from this little town in Corbin Kentucky and so he thought, \u201cWhy do we go back there?\u201d \u00a0And Toni was not exactly on board at first. She demanded that he buy her a camera. And so she started walking the sidelines of the high school games, taking video of the games and people kind of looked at her like she was kind of strange. \u00a0She didn\u2019t know what she was doing\/. \u00a0And then she found a little local TV station,\u00a0she started editing it together on their equipment, and then at the annual awards dinner, they said, “Stay said. We’ve got something new. Mrs. Toni Hoover has a film for everybody to see.” And it was her highlight reel. \u00a0And of course, all the kids went nuts! They had never seen anything like that. \u00a0So she was there with her son Bram Hoover who actually plays Jerry the quarterback in the movie. \u00a0She basically wrote it because she was trying to help Bram get a break. And we were good friends of Toni and Vin I said, \u201cWell, good, go for it, go ahead, write it, we will act in it.\u201d We didn’t actually think it would happen but when I actually read the script and I saw the story that she was talking about and the fact that it was based on a true story and once I got to see the real Travis Freeman, I was hooked. I just thought it was an amazing story and I wanted to be a part of it.<\/p>\n

\"23blast\"<\/a>
Copyright 2014 Touchdown Productions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So Toni was the one who did the tie in with Jerry Baker who of course also was a real person in Corbin and saw these two young people who as they got into high school, started kind of getting drawn apart from each other \u2013 Travis towards his calling in the ministry and the Jerry with this sort of lure of teenage problems specifically drinking. And so she felt like that contrast could follow them through. And what I really loved was that they were able to continue their friendship, if only on the football field where they both had mutual love of football.<\/p>\n

What happened to the real Jerry? We see at the end of the film that he has passed away.<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s not a pretty story. He ended up having real alcohol and drug problems. \u00a0About a month after his child was born, Jerry was working as a roofer for his uncle. \u00a0This one day as you can tell in the movie, Jerry was like I guess a very stubborn guy and kind of had his own thoughts about things and he was working up on this roof and his uncle said, \u201cJerry, you can\u2019t go up there today, it\u2019s too slippery I don’t want you there.” \u00a0And he fell off the roof and he died about four years later from injuries sustained from that fall. His daughter really only got to know him as a paralyzed man in a wheelchair and he died when she was about five or six. \u00a0Kaylee is just such a spunky young woman and she appears in the end of the film. \u00a0They are very supportive of our efforts and are happy that this is the thought that Kaylee will have for her father as a guy who had a good heart and just had a tough time sticking to the straight and narrow.<\/p>\n

The Hollywood version of the story would go in a different way and I really respect the film telling a very honest story that I thought was really compelling because it didn’t pull its punches in that way.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you very much. I think that is a great tribute to Toni and the fact that she felt like it was a story that needed to be told and we weren’t going to sugarcoat it at all.<\/p>\n

You assembled a very impressive cast of talented actors, including your wife.<\/i><\/p>\n

I was able to open up my black address book and call up my friends; Stephen Lang for the coach and I found Becky Ann Baker, I just rolled over in bed and there she was, she plays the mobility coach and I think does a great job. \u00a0I’m pretty crazy about her. We’ve been married for 27 years now actually. But Tim Busfield, Fred Thompson, they were all people that I had worked with in other capacities and they all signed on. I was shocked when everybody agreed to it.<\/p>\n

In casting and then in directing teenagers, how do you work with them and what did you talk to them about?<\/em><\/p>\n

I didn’t know too many actors that age so I went out to Los Angeles and they set up some sessions. I met Mark Hapka, who plays Travis Freeman and then I met Max Adler who was from “Glee” and Alexa Vega.<\/p>\n

And each one of them just showed me in the room that they could take the parts and just knock them out of the park to mix metaphors between football and baseball. But I was thrilled because to tell you the truth, some of the other actors I just felt like they were so contemporary and they had such a sort of today feel to them with sort of, I don\u2019t know an LA accent or whatnot. \u00a0I\u2019ve always loved the movie “Hoosiers” and I wanted\u00a0to have that certain kind of timeless quality to it. \u00a0You will notice there are no cell phones, I wanted it to kind of be able to happen at any time and each of these actors had that ability of sort of removing themselves from the present day and what happened yesterday and how kids are talking. They had sort of a more timeless feel to them as well.<\/p>\n

Now I have to say when Toni told me that she wanted Bram to play the part of Travis in the movie, I said, \u201cTony, this might be a deal breaker but I\u2019ve got to meet Bram. I don\u2019t know him. I did not get to talk to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so my fellow producer who I turned to right away when Tony asked me to direct the film, Jerry Donatelli, we talked Tony into bringing Bram out to New York where we both were based; Bram was in LA, and he came out for about a week and we went to different things and maybe went and saw a movie and then I said, \u201cWell, why don\u2019t you come up and read for us on the camera and we will do a little audition.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he said, \u201cGreat.\u201d At that time he was scheduled to read for Travis Freeman. And I said, \u201cWould you also look at this role of Jerry Baker?\u201d Because of course, Bram has that black curly hair and the blue eyes and he is built like Adonis. \u00a0So he did it read for us and he did a great job with Travis but boy, when he started reading for Jerry Baker, it was a natural fit and he had such a wonderful sort of devil may care look, a great mischief behind his eyes. \u00a0As soon as we were done I turned and I said, \u201cBram, if I were going to cast you in this film, that\u2019s the role I would cast you in.\u201d And he said, \u201cThat\u2019s the role I like.\u201d So I called up Toni and she said, \u201cSounds good.\u201d And we had our Jerry and he moved forward from there.<\/p>\n

You have a small but important role as the father of the main character. \u00a0How did you create that performance?<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, I met Larry Freeman after I had decided that was the best part for me and basically when Toni gave us the script six years ago she said, \u201cJust pick whatever roles you guys want to do.\u201d \u00a0And as I was working on the script with Toni and we were changing things here and there, one thing I really wanted was to try and keep Larry\u2019s participation down to a minimum because I knew I would be directing it and I figured, \u201cWell, let him just stand there.” Also, meeting the man, Larry is very soft spoken but very direct, incredibly honest and just a lovely human being. And watching him and Mary and Travis together talk about their faith and talk about their experience with Travis going blind and his reaction to it which was nothing short of heroic, he just said, \u201cWell, I am fascinated to see what God has in store for me. And I look forward to finding a way to use this to bring go to the world.\u201d And that\u2019s what is trying to do. \u00a0He is trying to pass that message along.<\/p>\n

Larry was this very simple guy and I saw an opportunity to take advantage of him in a couple of places to add a bit of comedy. \u00a0I said, \u201cNow Larry, this is not a reflection on you at all but if I could get a laugh here and there I would rather do it.\u201d Because I feel like with the film that there are some moments that are just so tough or that you are asking people to go through a tough journey and so a little levity doesn’t hurt. I have always felt that way.<\/p>\n

How were you able to get the resources you needed to make the film?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

When we started, we didn’t have all of our money together for the budget. I had a meeting with Daniel Snyder who is one of our executive producers and he basically gave us a chunk of change that allowed us to be able to do the film. \u00a0We would have pretty much been shut down. \u00a0That didn’t happen until March of 2012 and we started shooting on April 2. \u00a0When we got in to post-production, we found our other executive producer, Misook Doolittle, and she got us enough money to finish. \u00a0We had to get all kinds of great help from people. We literally had people in Corbin who offered of their homes, the production team, we stayed at Vin Hoover\u2019s sister\u2019s house in Corbin and there were a couple of actors that stayed at another house. So we did anything we could to stretch our dollars as far as we could.Our whole budget was under just around $1 million. So it was really is a little engine of good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dylan Baker is probably best remembered for playing some of the most horrific villains imaginable (“The Good Wife,” “Happiness”). \u00a0But his extensive career has included wild comedies (“Planes, Trains, and Automobiles,” “Anchorman 2”), historical drama (he was Robert McNamara in “13 Days”), and even a musical (“Across the Universe”). \u00a0He has just taken on a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nDylan Baker on Directing for the First Time in the Fact-Based High School Football Movie "23 Blast" - Movie Mom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/moviemom\/2014\/10\/dylan-baker-on-directing-for-the-first-time-in-fact-based-high-school-football-movie-23-blast.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dylan Baker on Directing for the First Time in the Fact-Based High School Football Movie "23 Blast" - 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