The sports drama "McFarland, USA," in theaters starting Feb. 20, tells the true story of a cross country team from McFarland, Calif., an impoverished and predominately Latino neighborhood, that overcomes all odds to win the 1987 state championship. Directly by Niki Caro, the film stars Kevin Costner (“Field of Dreams”) as Coach Jim White, Maria Bello ("The Jane Austen Book Club") and Morgan Saylor ("Jamie Marks Is Dead"). Read The Eagle’s review of the film.
The Eagle’s Anagha Srikanth participated in a conference call with students from 10 other universities in which questions were posed to Kevin Costner and the real-life Jim White. Below are some of the highlights.
On the McFarland community’s reaction to the film’s production
Jim White: “It means an awful lot to the community of McFarland, myself included. The boys, we just got out of question and answer things [a press conference] and they're elated that they're part of it. What it's done for the community actually is we now have a new city logo. The old logo 'Heartbeat of Agriculture' is obsolete, and we went with a new one that a high school girl came up with in a contest and it's a runner, silhouette of a runner running through the field and underneath, it says 'Tradition, Unity and Excellence.' And this has been accepted by our city and our school and everybody else is really involved in this and just happy.”
On what drew him to the film’s story
Kevin Costner: “I remember 15, 20 years ago, I actually don’t know how long, but I read a story about McFarland in Sports Illustrated about Coach White, and I was just thinking, 'Wow, what a great story!' And obviously, you know, once I finished the article, I didn't think anymore about it until I was approached to be in this movie and I thought, 'Wait a second, I know this story.' And what was maybe even more interesting, may be interesting or not to you, but I'd actually played McFarland in high school...I lived, for a short amount of time, in the Central Valley, which is where all our agriculture is in California. And so in high school, going to a little high school in Visalia, California, I played McFarland in baseball. So I've been very - it's funny how this story I read a long time ago, I suddenly was in the movie and then I realized, my god, I've actually played against this community. So it's a big full circle for me.”
On getting into character as Jim White
KC: “The part was written very well, so I didn't have to try to invent little gags to make Jim interesting. Jim doesn't, on purpose, doesn't try to act, very important or really interesting. I think he's very level with these kids, and he's so level to the point that he's also able to tell them when they're off course. When you [discipline] young people, they have the ability to turn around and walk away and never come back.
But if Jim didn't stand his ground, didn't have the integrity to say no, this isn't the way we're gonna do things, then the goals that these young men were able to achieve would never have been possible. You have to be able to stand in the face of a young man and say I need a better effort out of you. I need more discipline out of you...So I could tell without Jim ever spelling those things out to me, that that is how he coached. There’s a very, there's a quiet dignity to him.
On why he started the cross country team at McFarland High School
JW : Well from the movie’s standpoint, I needed a job. I needed to supplement, the income a little bit maybe or I wanted to do something, so I wouldn't get fired again. But then when you're out there and you're looking in reality, I'm looking for kids that have a desire to do something better. And if you notice in the movie that [the character] had sent them on laps, and these boys didn't, slack off and jog and walk like everybody else was doing. They actually loved to run and so you try to look for things like this in young people...They were doing that without really telling him how fast they wanted them to run.
Well they'll run for anything, you know. They will. It doesn't have to be anything but an ice cream cone. And after a hard day's work, and then a hard day's work out, I want a little bit more out of them and I said, 'OK, let's see, if we all now can run a mile in a certain time, uh, then I'll take you guys out to dinner or something.' And so then you're building a team.
“I suddenly was in the movie and then I realized, my god, I've actually played against this community. So it's a big full circle for me.” - Kevin Costner.
On working with Jim White on the film
KC: For me, it's a true story, so to be able to talk with the person that lived this life...You know, sometimes we get caught up in the movie itself. When I go off to make a movie though, there's the red carpet, right? There's the premiere. That's all the fun stuff. But sometimes what gets lost is how much joy you had the three months making the movie.
And you know, a lot of times in our life, people want to look at the championships. They want to look at the good things that happened. But the real joy sometimes is the journey and so to talk to Jim about his own journey, for Jim to perhaps even ask me about mine, those are things that I will be able to take with me that no one will know about the making of McFarland.
On Jim White’s influence on the film
JW: I think [Costner] told me one time that, he turned this movie down because the script didn't portray me, maybe he can talk more about that, portray me like he felt like I should be portrayed...I didn't have a direct contact with him per se and meeting with him and trying to say, 'No I didn't do that, I didn't do that.' I didn't have to. He picked up my feelings and my true love for the kids through articles basically...And I was very appreciative of that because he turned it around and got it written the right way.
KC: As I read about Jim White in Sports Illustrated, as I read this story, to me some things that were in that script did not jive what I thought would be possible. There's no way that the results could have happened from these young men given some of the things that the character was doing...And my appreciation went out to the producers and to the writer that allowed me to say, 'Wait a second, anything I know about sports, a guy acting like this would not get these results.' And for Jim to actually say that right now on the phone gives me a lot of, makes me feel really good that...I just was intuitive about who had to be in order to get these results.
