Tales from the acting industry

I recently noticed a movie called Cinderella Man, that my father has a sizeable role in, playing on cable, so I decided to let my landlord know and we ended up watching it together.

As someone who grew up with both parents in the film industry, watching myself or my family on television isn’t what I’d call a new experience, but when my landlord said; “It’s not every day that you get to watch your dad in a movie with Russell Crowe,” it definitively got me thinking and reflecting about how unique of an upbringing I had.

For those who haven’t seen the film, Cinderella Man is a true story about the unexpected run of boxer James Braddock to a heavyweight title during the great depression. My father plays the ringside announcer who calls all the fights.

The film was shot in the summer of 2004, which would have made me eight years old at the time, but I still have vivid memories of visiting set with my dad, my first real experience on a big time Hollywood film set. It was surreal. The most amazing part was how much went into the construction of the fake Madison Square Garden. Since the film was shot all in Toronto, they had to take the old Maple Leaf Garden which had been closed for decades, and turn it into a replica of MSG from the 1940’s.

I still remember walking into the rebuilt arena and being in complete awe.

For the final fight scene in the movie for the heavyweight title, the whole crowd is packed with fans. In actuality, over half the people in the stands weren’t people at all, they were dummies mixed in with living people, and there was of course some doctoring with special effects added in post-production to make it look like a real crowd.

I have no way of knowing if this is true or not, but I remember one crew member telling me that there was over 5,000 plastic dummies in the crowd for the final scene.

The other thing that sticks out in my memory is watching Crowe perform. Now, I must admit, I have some inside stories about Crowe that don’t exactly paint him in the best light. Given his reputation, I’m sure you can imagine what they entail. I’ll never repeat any of that stuff in the public domain though.

What I can say about Russell Crowe is that he was very kind to me personally in the three instances that we met, and to my father during the 42 days they spent on set together.

Back to the point though, watching him work and seeing someone that committed to their craft still inspires me to this day. Every boxing scene in the film was intricately and meticulously choreographed, giving Crowe over 10,000 steps and moves to learn total for the film. He never made one mistake, and if someone else did, you bet he was going to tell you about it.

The entire experience of spending time on the set of Cinderella Man was one of moments in life that I’ll never forget.