Grace was key in telling Davis’ story
Dennis Quaid is no stranger to sports on screen: Check out “The Rookie,” “Any Given Sunday,” “Everybody’s All-American” and even “Breaking Away,” which put him on the map.
He adds to his sporting resume with “The Express” in which he plays real-life football coach Ben Schwartzwalder. However, it’s not the coach’s story. The focus is on Ernie Davis, who, in 1961, became the first African-American player to win the Heisman Trophy.
The film is based on a true story, and a friendly Quaid is happy to talk up the movie.
Question: Were you familiar with Ernie Davis before reading the script?
Answer: I knew the name, but I didn’t really know the story. But now seemed like the perfect time to tell the story.
Q: Why?
A: Because of what’s going on. We may have an African-American president. This movie discusses things like segregation and race relations and how it used to be, how far we’ve come and where we still have yet to go.
Q: The script went through several rewrites, right?
A: When I came on board, it was also understood that John Lee Hancock, the director of “The Rookie,” would come in to do a rewrite. He really punched up the themes and the emotions in the film.
Q: From some accounts, it sounds like Ernie as a character would have to be punched up because he wasn’t a guy full of angst.
A: (laughing) No, that would be Jim Brown.
Q: And Brown was a help to you on this film?
A: I worked with him on “Any Given Sunday.” He was my resource for finding out about Ernie, Ben and Syracuse at that time. He was greatly touched by Ernie because Ernie touched everybody profoundly.
Q: The coach isn’t the star of the movie. Does that matter to you?
A: What appealed was that this was a football movie, but it was more than a football movie. Ben really represented the status quo at the time of white America in terms of segregation. He’d probably be called racist by modern standards, but back then there was a line you didn’t cross. He cared about his team, and he’s obsessed about football.
Q: As you say, the character will probably rub a lot of people the wrong way.
A: We tried to approach that issue of the film honestly rather than doing a politically correct platitudes sort of thing. There’s conflict there.
Q: So no trepidation about doing another football film?
A: No, not really, as long as it’s about more than football. This film is about grace. Life is full of stuff, and it’s all about how you get through it.
The birthday bunch
Comedian-activist Dick Gregory is 76. Singer Sam Moore of Sam and Dave is 73. News correspondent Chris Wallace is 61. Actress-singer Susan Anton is 58. Singer-guitarist Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens is 53. Actor Hugh Jackman is 40. Actor Adam Rich (“Eight Is Enough”) is 40. Singer Garfield Bright of Shai is 39. Fiddler Martie Maguire of the Dixie Chicks is 39. Actor Kirk Cameron is 38.