https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PztTgQ1zxXw
The great Muhammad Ali once said, "Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”
Balls Out certainly is a film about the will being much stronger than the skill. Click through for my interview with Producer Red Sanders.
Writer Bradley Jackson funny look at Intramural football harps back to his UT Austin days. Balls Out is a mixture of a lot of Texas connections continuing to make bold out there films but with some big time friends being on board this time. Bradley's writing chops showcase a wide range that can put out quality like short film The Man Who Never Cried, docs like Lord Montagu and the upcoming Dealt, and as Balls Out showcases the absurd comedy. I asked Producer Red Sanders about that early inspiration from Bradley.
Mix in young Director (and Texan) Andrew Disney's ability to bring about an amazing cast in a wonderful ensemble heavy riot act and you have the starting points of a fun film. Justin Red Sanders produced Andrew's first feature film Searching For Sonny which was a a wonderful take on noir mystery with a talented young cast and it was during that film's festival run (It came to DIFF) that the first sparks of Balls Out (called Intramural at the time) came about. Red talked about getting Andrew involved.
The plot is pretty basic, our hero Caleb Fuller (Girls' Jake Lacy) reassembles his winning intramural football team for one last hurrah before regular life engulfs their time. Jake has been quite the lovable "marriage" fella with Obvious Child utilizing his quirky comedy chops too.
Engulfing Caleb's world is his fiancee Vicki played by SNL's loose tongued sensation Kate Mckinnon. Kate literally steals EVERY scene she is in! Speaking of SNL, the cast of Balls Out is the who's who of current studs like Jay Pharoah, DC Pierson (SNL shorts!), and Beck Bennett. Mixed in with the talented comedians from NYC you have a great group of LA and Texas based talent like Kirk Johnson (Bad Guy #2), the duo of Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney, Sam Eidson, Gabriel Luna, and of course Jeff Lacy as the "straight man" in the film. I asked Red about getting this incredible cast on board.
Even with those 108 degree days there was so much fun times going on during the filming. Red talked about one of the funniest days, it happened to be the first day of the shoot and involved lovely Kate McKinnon!
Kate was the first SNL connection to jump on board the film. After that the great Jay Pharoah came on board and Red talks about how he shot his scenes in one day.
Jay plays one of the two announcers along with a long-haired DC Pierson who not only capture the cliches but add in a TON of pot humor to their scenes. Overall Jay and DC are my favorite parts of the film and really just perfectly capture that quirky announcer style while still being rude, crude and always stoned.
But if the film has one stand out star making figure, it's Beck Bennett's evil Dick character. I asked Red about the Beck experience and he let us know that Beck actually got his SNL audition call while filming Balls Out!
Beck as Dick.
I asked Red about ORION Pictures return to prominence and he explained that they are 1 of 4 films this year that the studio is looking to revitalize their once beloved production house.
Red and I talked about the great festival run, that included a stop at Tribeca, for the film.
Here are some of the gang out at 1 of the Tribeca screenings.
The lovely Nikki Reed needs a shout out for her adorable love interest role as well! Andrew Disney works great with his young leading ladies like Minka Kelly in Searching for Sonny and now Nikki and Kate in Balls Out. I asked Red about how he decides the projects he wants to be apart of and he let me know of the great news that the gang now has a full-time LA office!
Don't miss out on this fun spoof of all the classic sports films of our youths. The film is out today in 11 cities nationwide and on demand everywhere. Dallas folks check it out at LOOK Cinema and Austin folks go to the new Alamo Drafthouse off Lamar to see the movie. For more details please check out the site, here.
A little more love for Red. Here is our in-depth interview with Red and Director James Johnston at DIFF 2015 talking about their short film Melville. It was one of my favorite shorts at the festival.
