Any Given Sunday
SUMMARY
Al plays Tony D'Amato the coach of the NFL team the Miami Sharks. His aging quarterback Cap Rooney (Dennis Quaid) is injured. An arrogant ambitious young quarterback (Jamie Foxx) takes his place. Al has to fight for his longtime friend as well as for his ideals about loyalty and teamwork in a business that only cares about money. He also battles with the new team owner Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz) a tough as nails rich girl who only cares about the bottom line. He has to come to terms with a game for which he has sacrificed everything that may not need or want his kind of coach anymore.Here is what the official website says about the plot, "Although professional football provides the action-packed backdrop of Any Given Sunday, the film takes a simultaneously epic and intimate look at the men and women who comprise the milieu of the film, from the modern-day gladiators of the gridiron, their coaches and often beleaguered families, to the moneyed team owners and business concerns who attempt to control the game as big business, to the hungry sports media, and hangers-on trying to get a taste of the glamour."
CAST / CREW
Directed by
Oliver Stone
Writing credits (WGA)
Daniel Pyne (screen story) and
John Logan (screenplay) and (screen story) ...
Oliver Stone (screenplay)
Cast Al Pacino .... Tony D'Amato Cameron Diaz .... Christina Pagniacci Dennis Quaid .... Jack 'Cap' Rooney James Woods .... Dr. Harvey Mandrake Jamie Foxx .... Willie Beamen LL Cool J .... Julian Washington Matthew Modine .... Dr. Ollie Powers Jim Brown .... Montezuma Monroe Lawrence Taylor (II) .... Luther 'Shark' Lavay Bill Bellamy .... Jimmy Sanderson Andrew Bryniarski .... Patrick 'Madman' Kelly Lela Rochon .... Vanessa Struthers Lauren Holly .... Cindy Rooney Ann-Margret .... Margaret Pagniacci Aaron Eckhart .... Nick Crozier (more)
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ARTICLES
"Let's get physical", Police called after actors tangle during filming, By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun
HOLLYWOOD -- A rapper lost his cool and a Foxx decided to play it smart and call the cops.
You can hardly say it was just another Saturday on the set of Oliver Stone's football movie Any Given Sunday.
In the film, which opens Dec. 22, rapper L.L. Cool J and comedian Jamie Foxx play highly competitive gridiron stars on a fictitious football team called the Sharks. In several scenes in the movie, fellow players and even the head coach, played by Al Pacino, have to stop the volatile teammates from coming to blows. But some of the conflict wasn't actually in the script.
Foxx filed assault charges against L.L. Cool J. whose real name is James Todd Smith, according to a report in the New York Daily News.
"It was necessary to call in the cops. I didn't want what was happening between L.L. and I to escalate any further," says Foxx about the Feb. 27 incident. "It had gone on for two days. Our characters were supposed to be arguing and then start shoving each other around a bit. L.L. kept getting more and more physical until a little shoving match turned into a fight. I'm still shaking my head in disbelief. It was suddenly like WWF. L.L. and I reverted to childhood. It was a scene that continued after the cameras stopped rolling."
Smith denies there were any assault charges.
"I don't know anything about cops being called in. It was a complete misunderstanding. It wasn't Jamie and I fighting. It was our characters. They were meant to be at each other for the whole film. That was what Oliver wanted, and that's the reality I was giving him," says Smith. "There are no ill feelings between Jamie and I. We were just two actors who were committed to our characters and dedicated to the film."
For his part, Foxx says "some actors have different ways of getting into character. L.L. and I obviously have different ways of tackling our craft."
Foxx says "the incident was settled to my liking," but refuses to elaborate. "It's done, it's over. I'll let time heal things between us."
QUOTES ABOUT THE FILM
AL PACINO
''Oliver goes the extra yard, pardon the football analogy, because he wants to show what it's like but at the same time express his feelings about what he would like it to be,'' says Al Pacino, who plays an aging coach in the film. ''That's his trademark, giving a personal read on the subject.'' EW Daily News
(on why Stone spent so much time on the detail of the football scenes) "Oliver was trying to get inside the game. He wanted to give his personal take on football. It's his trademark whether he's making a movie about war, Wall Street or football.With all his movies, he wants the audience to be part of the experience, not just to observe it. Stone's Rules, Reputation for being difficult doesn't throw controversial director, By Louis B. Hobson, Calgary Sun
- Estar News Interview
Q: To what extent did you lean on the professional football people in this film?
A: Jim Brown ... he's such an interesting person, and he was so helpful, because he lived it, and there he was as my assistant coach, so he was invaluable to me, in rehearsals and during the production. He was extremely generous and understanding and helpful. I would defer to him from time to time. I'd give him a glance, and I could tell if he approved, or if he felt it needed another touch.
Q: What is your sense of what Oliver Stone wants to say through this film?
A: I think he was trying to get inside football, give his view and his personal read on the thing. That's Oliver's trademark. He expresses how he feels about something. That's the kind of filmmaker he is, and that's why he goes that extra yard - pardon me for the football analogy - because he wants to say what it's like, but at the same time he wants to express his feeling about what he thinks it is, what he'd like it to be. That's the track he gets on when he makes movies, and I'm sure he was trying to do with this picture as he's done with so many of the other movies he's made, to give you an interpretation, and at the same time make you want to get involved with these people, understand them, and identify with them. Especially in an exciting profession such as football. At least, that's what he told me he was trying to do.
Q: The level of energy on the screen never seems to ebb.
A: Working with Oliver is almost like working on live television. It's happening for the first time, it's happening right there, and it generates a kind of life, an extra, added excitement. You feel like this is it, you're not going to get a chance to do it again.
Q: How did you prepare for the role of a football coach? Did it require extensive research?
A: Well, I like to work with the real McCoys, and to get to work with these real NFL coaches, whom I interviewed and worked with, was especially important to me. They let me into their world very graciously, and allowed me to watch them in action. For them to let a stranger into their world is not done often. It was a real privilege for me to be around them. Exciting. And I'm really grateful to these coaches who gave of their time and energy.
If you're going to interpret a coach, I think they would like you to try to at least get close to what they really do. They're generally cooperative, because they want you to try to get it right if you can. I especially needed to do that. I've always loved football, as much as I love all sports, but I was never involved. I'd just do it in a superficial way - I watched the Super Bowls, and the games from time to time - not really knowing the intricacies of the game itself. It is an extremely complicated and enormous enterprise.
DENNIS QUAID
"There's no question that chaos reigns on an Oliver Stone set. I can see how that could be unsettling for some actors. It makes things seem so throwaway. You're never certain what he's going to use because Oliver makes his movies in the editing room. With Oliver, there is the script he writes and sends you. Then there's the script he shoots with that changes hourly, not just daily. Finally, there's the script he creates in the editing room. That's the one that gets published as the official Oliver Stone screenplay." Stone's Rules, Reputation for being difficult doesn't throw controversial director, By Louis B. Hobson, Calgary Sun
CAMERON DIAZ
(on the locker scene with naked men) "That was one of those scenes where you just go in there and do your job -- keep your eyes up, keep your spirits up," she says, insisting she didn't even peek, and didn't see things in, um, proportion, until she saw the film. "When I saw what was going on, I was like, 'Holy cow! What is that all about?' " she says, laughing at Stone's mischief. "I'm sure Oliver was trying to see how far he could take it. But I didn't have any problems. I can take it." Winnipeg Sun Monday, December 27, 1999
"Yes, the testosterone level on the set was very high. It was very thick. But I spent a lot of time up in the sky box while the boys were down on the field, so it didn't affect me." Winnipeg Sun Monday, December 27, 1999
(on working with Al) "That was crazy," she confesses. "I felt like a little girl, like a 12-year-old with braces while I was doing it. It was exciting and it was terrifying. People ask me why I did the movie, and I say, 'There's Al Pacino and Oliver Stone -- and they say I can have a part in the movie if I want one.' You can't really say no. Winnipeg Sun Monday, December 27, 1999
"Oliver was so great to me. He was completely supportive and sort of held my hand and was always very encouraging. He loved my role and he loved the story he was telling." Ottawa Citizen Online
"I had an amazing experience with Oliver. He was totally supportive of me. He wanted me to have a really great time on his film and I did. He literally held my hand to make sure I felt part of the whole experience. I couldn't possibly have guessed what the film would end up like. He was filming so many different storylines and they all seemed so vital. Oliver's genius is how he brings it all together in the editing room." Stone's Rules, Reputation for being difficult doesn't throw controversial director, By Louis B. Hobson, Calgary Sun
"You're not going to like her (character) because she's a woman yelling," Diaz retorts. "Now if it had been a man in that position... I mean, Al's doing just as much yelling, so why don't people not like him? It's because he's a football coach and that's what he does for a living -- he yells at a bunch of men." Ottawa Citizen Online
"I don't think she's wrong in what she's saying. I think she's doing what she needs to do. The team has been losing for three years... and here she has this diamond in the rough, this kid who's been sitting in the box. She finds out she has something to work with and Al is this wall she comes up against. So she has to go to him in a style and manner that he's used to. And because she's a woman and in there yelling, people are saying, 'We don't like her.' " Ottawa Citizen Online
Estar News Interview
Q: All this football stuff had to be second nature for you.
A: I was at one time a huge sports fan. I grew up with it; it was very much a part of my life. But the last five, six years, I've kind of let it go. I've been really busy, and I haven't followed it and kept up with it. It's not as much part of my life as it once was. But I do really enjoy sports. I love the game. I love football. I grew up with it, and it's part of my make-up, genetically, somewhere.
Q: The character of a greedy, conniving sports team owner must have been a stretch.
A: I was intimidated, of course. Just the whole thing - Oliver, Al, James Woods. You want to go in and do your best, but I did feel like Christina sometimes, that 12-year-old girl with braces on trying to be tough. I put a lot of faith into Oliver, of course - why wouldn't you? He's a genius filmmaker - that was the reason I wanted to do the film. It was fun, a challenge, just a great experience.
Q: Yet you managed to protect the feminine side of your character.
A: I thought it was very important for her to not come off like a man. I wanted her femininity to be apparent, and for it to be obvious that she wasn't afraid of what she was up against.
Q: Can you relate to one of the movie's themes, the older generation trying to ward off the up-and-comers?
A: In the creative world, there's more room for people to try different things, and for the older performers to still maintain (stature). In football, that's not true. It's all about "the instant." There's only one winner, and everybody wants to be that winner. In filmmaking, there's so many different audiences that want different things, that you're allowed to play around. Personally, I love being a part of something that tries something different. It's an opportunity I hope to have as often as possible.
Q: Can you afford to be so choosy about your roles? How easy can it be to turn down someone's check for $15 million?
A: It's a matter of 'What am I getting paid to do?' What do they expect from me? When they're paying me $15 million, they're not paying me to act … they're buying me for what they want … They're putting that money out on such a scale (because) they're going to make so much more money than that … They're only going to throw me a biscuit because they have to, because I'm in a position that my lawyers and everybody else won't let them take advantage of me.
Q: How nervous were you about having to get into Pacino's face in some of the scenes?
A: I was very nervous. Look at Al Pacino - it's Al Pacino. He's such a strong presence. But he's such a nice man, and incredibly patient. One of my neatest memories is of the day I heard Al Pacino tell me that he didn't do his first movie until he was 28, that he had done theater for 10 years before that. Learning that information first-hand from him was pretty cool.
Q: What was the key to those locker room scenes, with all those beefy - and very naked - guys?
A: Next time, I'll look down. But, really, eye contact is the best way to handle it.
OLIVER STONE
"I couldn't have existed this long in Hollywood if I was as much of a tyrant as people have painted me. No one would give me money to make films and no one would work with me. It's all media hype." Stone's Rules, Reputation for being difficult doesn't throw controversial director, By Louis B. Hobson, Calgary Sun
"Football is inherently violent. The same had to be true of the atmosphere on the set. Egos and competition often reigned supreme. I would often have to pull the actors away from the real football players. The real guys wanted to take these rappers and actors I hired out (on the field). They wanted to give them a taste of the real football experience. It resulted in an energy you simply can't fake." Stone's Rules, Reputation for being difficult doesn't throw controversial director, By Louis B. Hobson, Calgary Sun
(in response to Dennis Quaid's comments about chaos on the set) "There was less chaos on the set of Any Given Sunday than there was on Platoon. In war, there is natural chaos, so things could go wrong on the set and still work for the finished film. That was not the case with Any Given Sunday because it was a football movie and there is not the same kind of natural chaos. The football sequences had to be very precise." Stone's Rules, Reputation for being difficult doesn't throw controversial director, By Louis B. Hobson, Calgary Sun
'I think fans understand the way the game works, and they'll appreciate the honesty of the movie.'' Hard Hitting "Oliver Stone's football movie is too realistic for the NFL. Al Pacino and the director talk about ''Any Given Sunday'''s harsh view of football", by Liane Bonin
''Television has bloated the game to a three-hour event,'' he says. ''It's like the Oscar show. It's mostly commercials. It used to be a one-hour game, and the coaches called the time outs. Now TV calls the time-outs. They've got to find a way to make it leaner and meaner, because the NBA is going to take over with its faster game.''EW Daily News
"To paraphrase Nietzsche, Mr. Pacino is 'a monster of energy.' His sweetness as a person, and the great pain which he is able to turn on and off onscreen -- a refined intense instrument of acting if ever there was one." AGS press kit
Estar News Interview
Q: How does the central theme of the movie - the older generation trying to hang on against the young - resonate with you? You were never hailed as "the next hot director."
A: My karma is such that I attract - I'm a magnetic pole for - a lot of controversy and lightning, and a lot of people have a beef to pick with me, or don't like me. I've accepted that through time. It was painful. It hurts. Fact is, I've learned to live with it, and maybe get better. I know a lot of directors who've been overwritten (too close to their critics), and it hasn't helped their work. It sometimes helps to be an outsider, and keep the edge.
Q: Was producing a football film a revelation?
A: We had huge negotiations with the NFL, then that fell apart. There were a lot of ups and downs. It was so hard to get this film together. No one had any idea of the amount of work required to light these stadiums, to rig them, to put up teams that could be viable and real. The more we found out about football, the more we realized we needed more money. We had a 10-week training camp; it was expensive.
I talked to Ted Kotcheff, who directed North Dallas Forty, to ask him what I'm in for. I had no idea. He said he had no money in those days. His is more of an expose. It was the late' 70s. There was a lot more anger about the system in that film. Now we all accept the corruption, we know the score. The NFL may say this film is not true, blah-blah-blah, but you can ask anybody and they'll say, "We know there's a lot of dirty stories back here."
Q: Many people are calling Any Given Sunday another one of your war movies, though on a different battlefield.
A: I worked harder on this film than on any war film … because I had to create images of 70,000 people watching games, a very hard thing to do. In war, you can put everything into a pot and call it chaos and get away with a lot more than you can with a very, very ritualized game, which has 10 yards, four downs and 70,000 people screaming and yelling. It was a hard shoot. The film is calculated to go to the crowds at the right times to sustain the illusion.
Q: What was your vision for the relationship between mentor - Al Pacino's Tony D'Amato - and student - Jamie Foxx's Willie Beamen?
A: He teaches Jamie leadership and responsibility. There's no excuses. Jamie was full of excuses; (in a lunch scene) Al tells him, "It's the top spot kid. The quarterback takes the fall." I saw Pacino as the spoke of the wheel, and he's getting pressured from all sides - from his old quarterback, from his new quarterback, from Cameron, from LL - everything's falling apart on him. He has to work through all this. What we worked out is, he learned something from Jamie, he (D'Amato) never loses his edge, he's smart enough to make it, and that makes him a hero for me, and gives me hope.
Q: Why did you see Pacino in the role of a football coach; that's not an association most people would make.
A: We were lucky to get Pacino to play that kind of a role, because he is - look, he's played gangsters, and he's played cops ... people say he screams too much. Well, where else can you scream but as a football coach? I said, "Al, how come you've never played a football coach?" He wanted to do it so badly, he cut his price enormously, every actor did, and they stuck around. We were delayed three times.
Q: How was it different working with genuine football players?
A: You've got to cut away from the real football players when they said their lines. No, really, they were great - Lawrence Taylor and Jim Brown, just great. Lawrence is more of a fresh discovery, because he hasn't done any movies, but people are knocked out by him. The way he talks is kind of funny; I put that gold tooth on, made it worse. When you listen to that steam room speech, you can feel that's him talking.
Q: What did you intend to say through this film?
A: If the movie has an impact, it will be hard to go back next season and watch football from the usual vantage point, from high up and impersonal. I think these guys are all heroes, and our intention was to show that. Even Jimmy Woods (as team orthopedist Dr. Harvey Mandrake), in his own way, he's real. He may be fired for questionable practices, but he cries, he believes, he has his ethics. There are no villains. Cameron Diaz is supporting the legacy of her father and, as far as she's concerned, Al Pacino is dead wood. All this back-stabbing always going on.
Q: Why did you settle on Dennis Quaid as the quarterback?
A: Dennis is a left-hander, and he's got the football look, although he's not a big man. He has that look and feel. He did a wonderful job in Everybody's All-American. He felt like a (former San Francisco Forty-niners quarterback Joe) Montana figure, with a bit of Terry Bradshaw (the Pittsburg Steelers
quarterback) - that competitiveness, that Irish mentality.
Q: Don't you think this movie could be a hard sell to people not familiar with, or into, football?
A: I think we made the film in a way ... real-life experts can get off on it because they see the details. The average viewer, who doesn't know anything about the game, can still understand they're moving this way, they're moving that way, they score, they smile. Baseball is harder to explain on film I think. You have to run around a bunch of bases, right? Football is more like war, it's more understandable. Soccer's like that, too, but you don't score enough.
JAMIE FOXX
Estar News Interview
Q: Any truth to the reports of real friction between you and LL Cool J?
A: Some of it was real. Almost surreal. You catch yourself going, "Wow, this is really happening, we're really going at each other." My eyes looking at his eyes, like "Are you serious?" And he's back, "Are you serious?" "I'm serious if you're serious." It became almost one of those things where you go back to the playground, where nothing matters like who's got what money in the bank, or who was doing rap-this or comedy-that. It was back to being kids. And you do come out of it, you realize you are grown men acting like kids in front of everybody. It actually helped the movie. I can say that's the best thing that came out of it.
Q: How did you get this role?
A: I was working at Warner Bros., on the TV show, and right under my nose they were doing this movie and I didn't hear anything about it. So finally they said, they're casting, maybe you can get in there, go in and read for Oliver Stone. I actually read for LL Cool J's part, and I stunk at that, and Oliver Stone let me know that I stunk. I came back and read for another part, and he says, "I don't dig that either, but the main part is open, can you come back and read for that?" So I read for that, but it wasn't quite to his liking, 'cause we had to sell it to Warner Bros., and they're like, "A comedian. What're you talking about?"
So he said, "Well, I want to see you throw a ball." As opposed to just throwing it on tape, I got my guys together and we made like a training camp video. The music blaring, I got my Deion Sanders jersey on. And I came up with a chant, "My name is Willie, Willie Beamen, I keep the ladies screamin'." We mix all this on the tape, turn it in - and that's how it started off.
Q: I hear Puff Daddy was originally up for the Willie Beamen part.
A: I didn't even know Puffy was attached to it until the day they said the part was open (Editor's note: Rumor has it Puff Daddy fell off the project because he couldn't throw a football convincingly). Evidently, that had taken place months ahead of me even getting involved.
Q: What was it like to be on a field with all those pro athletes?
A: You don't want to look bad. Like when you're in an all-star basketball game, you just want to get your 10 points, and make sure you don't have any turnovers. I was just trying not to have any turnovers.
Q: You were somewhat of a "rookie" even when it came to the acting part, no?
A: I had experience in front of the camera, but not experience in front of these guys. Like Al Pacino. Even meeting him was intimidating at first, 'cause he was sitting at a dinner table a la Scarface, like the Scarfather. You just saw every character he ever did.
But I felt like I had an advantage in a sense, because football ... you know, I grew up in Texas, been a quarterback in high school, my father was a quarterback ... so I knew more about football than probably a lot of those guys that were acting. It was second nature to me.
Q: Isn't an entertainer's life pretty much like an athlete's?
A: Yeah, but my groupies are different. Comedy groupies are different. I get cute girls, but like they may have a tooth missing. That's a little different from what they have to deal with. Hanging out with those guys - I had to hang out with people like Deion Sanders, Warren Moon - their physiques are, like, incredible, they're like the ultimate gladiators, so these girls are going, "Oh, you're so big, what do you do that you're so big?" Parties with those guys have, like, a little extra sauce.
Q: How did you get in shape for this role?
A: I've got this trainer, Rashon Khan. He calls it Khan-ditioning. He was the trainer for Richard Pryor. He was also bodyguard for Flip Wilson, and all the comedians. He got me in shape. I say, "Can I eat this, can I eat that?" He says, "You can eat whatever you want bro, I'm gonna run it all out of you." So I gained about 15 pounds, and was bench-pressing about 325 to 330, so I was like a master. I'm still working out. He's at the house waiting right now.
Q: One of the themes in the movie is the old athlete trying to hang on when threatened by the new guys. Can you relate to that situation?
A: This movie addresses the new athlete. You have to be a very special athlete nowadays to deal with the fact that (the athlete's handlers) are not even concerned with you playing ball ... they're concerned with your record, your contract, your shoe contract, with how you're going to be in the press. Dealing with all that, a lot of the young guys have to learn something from the older cats - like in the movie, Willie Beamen and Al Pacino's character are like a father and a turbulent son who finally understands that he has to follow some of the rules he was told to be successful.
Even in show business, there's a certain way you have to approach things. When you start to believe everything everyone says to you, that's when you fall apart. I remember this one guy who did five minutes of stand-up … and next week, he has six bodyguards. "Hey brother, how are you? Here's my card." That type. Those are the lessons you have to learn.
Q: In your reference to today's athlete, who exactly are the handlers?
A: The agents, your team … They realize this guy has been passed along from the seventh grade up until now, and probably can't even read. They realize they can make a lot of money off him. The coaches to the owners ... they make a lot of money off these cats. Sometimes, they don't even realize it, that if you can afford to be
paid $30 million a year, someone's going to get $30 billion.
Q: If more acting opportunities open, what will happen to your stand-up?
A: I'll never stop doing that stand-up. If I stop doing the stand-up, I kinda lose my edge. It's like doing the stand-up allows me to be dirty, gritty. This stuff is like real shiny. When I go into a comedy club, those guys there don't care about any movie. They're like, "Let's see what you got." A gunslingers-at-the-O.K. Corral feeling.
Q: Did you come away with a favorite Al Pacino story?
A: Al Pacino yells ... incredibly loud. So you kinda have to weather the storm . . . in more than one way, because right around his lip area, he can gather a lot of, um, spit. He's doing this one scene where he's about two inches away from me, and he's saying a lot of S's and T's and F-words ... "You do what you're freaking told!" And you see one piece of his spit fly, and it lands on my lip, and I'm keeping my mouth open because I ain't gonna swallow that. But it's Al Pacino, so what can you do? You can't go, "Cut! Squeegee!" But to even be in that situation ... you're just happy to be spit on.
Q: Tell us about the "hurling" scenes. What was the vomit made of?
A: Chicken noodle soup, ginger ale, and cinnamon. You had to hold it in your mouth, and sometimes the shot takes a little longer, so your own juices start to mix with it in there, and it kinda goes down - and then the shot actually happens, and I'm saying, "Wait a minute. There's a little more coming out than they put in my mouth."
Q: How did you get along with all those football players?
A: That was a kick. As a kid, you always want to be a professional athlete, and I had to prove myself to them. Soon as I walked on the field, they're like, "Look at Jamie Foxx. Why'd they hire him?" I had to let them know it was real. I can still sling the ball about 60 yards in the air, so after hanging out with them off-camera, it made it better on-camera. We became a team. It became too good, 'cause we liked each other too much.
There was one deal where I had to be mad at them, get angry, cuss them out and everything. So what I did before that scene - they always used to come to my trailer and work out in this thing I had - I sent word, "Tell the players that Jamie Foxx says, 'Don't come to my trailer, I'm tired, I can't handle you around my trailer, it's too much.'" So when I walk on the field, they're, like, all hot. But just before it got too crazy I had to let them know it was a joke.
JAMES WOODS
"We'd have to stand around for hours while Oliver and his camera crew captured one football play just so he could turn the cameras on one of us for a reaction shot. Stone's Rules, Reputation for being difficult doesn't throw controversial director, By Louis B. Hobson, Calgary Sun
LAWRENCE TAYLOR (who was elected to the NFL Hall of Fame, plays the Sharks linebacker)
"Oliver would ask us football players to do things that would never happen in real ball. I'd look at him, shake my head and ask if he'd actually played football (in college) as he claims he did. The real players excused him because he told a lot of truth (about the league). [Filming Any Given Sunday] "was a rough four months. I'd heard from other people that Oliver was insane. I certainly saw evidence of it, but I also saw the genius." Stone's Rules, Reputation for being difficult doesn't throw controversial director, By Louis B. Hobson, Calgary Sun
QUOTES FROM THE
FILM
TONY D'AMATO (Sharks Coach, played by Al Pacino)
(speech to "Sharks" football team at the end of the film) (thanks Nass M. for this transcript)
I don't know what to say really. Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives all comes down to today. Either we heal as a team or we are going to crumble. Inch by inch play by play till we're finished. We are in hell right now, gentlemen believe me and we can stay here and get the shit kicked out of us or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb out of hell. One inch, at a time.
Now I can't do it for you. I'm too old. I look around and I see these young faces and I think I mean I made every wrong choice a middle age man could make. I uh.... I pissed away all my money believe it or not. I chased off anyone who has ever loved me. And lately, I can't even stand the face I see in the mirror.
You know when you get old in life things get taken from you. That's, that's part of life. But, you only learn that when you start losing stuff. You find out that life is just a game of inches. So is football. Because in either game life or football the margin for error is so small. I mean one half step too late or to early you don't quite make it. One half second too slow or too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They are in ever break of the game every minute, every second.
On this team, we fight for that inch On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us to pieces for that inch. We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch. Cause we know when we add up all those inches that's going to make the fucking difference between WINNING and LOSING between LIVING and DYING.
I'll tell you this in any fight it is the guy who is willing to die who is going to win that inch. And I know if I am going to have any life anymore it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch because that is what LIVING is. The six inches in front of your face.
Now I can't make you do it. You gotta look at the guy next to you. Look into his eyes. Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. You are going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows when it comes down to it, you are gonna do the same thing for him.
That's a team, gentlemen and either we heal now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's football guys. That's all it is. Now, whattaya gonna do?
TRIVIA
Oliver Stone was arrested for drunk driving and possession of hashish during post production.
Pacino spent time with the coaches in meetings and even wore a headset on the Broncos sideline. "Of course that was the game, if you remember, we had five possessions in the first half and five touchdowns. I kept pleading with him to come back to every game because this has never happened before," Shanahan said.
He said Pacino was an easy-going, unassuming guy. "I think he's great, but I thought the movie was horrible," he said.
Pacino also spent time in New York before the movie working with Bill Parcells. "All the bad qualities he had was Bill and all the good qualities was me," Shanahan said.
By Lynn DeBruin, Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
DVD INFO
There are two versions on dvd. The regular dvd and the director's cut dvd with commentary tracks.
FEATURES ON BOTH VERSIONS OF THE DVD
FEATURES ONLY ON THE DVD - DIRECTOR'S CUT:
LINKS
Buy a copy of the: video,video director's cut, dvd, dvd director's cut
Buy the video,dvd, soundtrack at reel.com
The Official Site
Internet Movie Database
"Clotheslined", a firsthand account of working on the film.
Panther News, George Seifert article on AGS advisor
Page of pictures. None of Al so far.
Another Home page, so far just one pic.
Wayne Grassfield's page "I was a paid extra on "Any Given Sunday" includes a diary of his experience in the film
Broward County Athletic Officials Association article on the production
"Scent of an NFL Coach", The Sporting News
review of AGS, Entertainment Weekly
Movieweb
Upcomingmovies.com
James Woods: Fan Page (Woody Lot)
Oliver Stone: Fan Page (Jason O'Brien)
