Kurt and Brenda Warner Interview: American Underdog | Screen Rant
American Underdog, arriving in theaters on December 25, is the heartwarming tale of real-life NFL player Kurt Wagner and his rather humble beginnings. Starring Zachary Levi as Warner and Anna Paquin as his wife Brenda, the story follows his rise from grocery clerk to star player and focuses on the importance of his family throughout the process.
Kurt and Brenda spoke to Screen Rant about the faith they put in the Erwin brothers as directors, and why the actors were the right choice to bring their story to life.
Screen Rant: First of all, Brenda, thank you for your service. And guys, I got to say, what a tremendous film. As a football fan, I knew about your story, Kurt, but this really dives deep into it. It's obviously a football story, but I was really here for the human story. Why were Jon and Andrew Erwin the right directors to tell your story?
Kurt Warner: Well, because they saw the depth of the story as well. It was about a 10-year process of getting this movie made and dealing with different writers along the way. As you said, everybody could get the football part right, that was the easy part. That was never the story that we wanted to tell.
Oftentimes we thought, "Ah, no, maybe it's not going to get made." Nobody can quite grasp what this story is all about. When Jon and Andy came in, the combination of A, their vision for this story and what they saw it as, and B, their willingness to collaborate with us, open up, and listen to what we believe the story was. That's what made it the right pairing, is that the whole time it was a collaboration, we worked together on every part of it, from writing the script to being on set. And without people that saw the vision and understood that the story was bigger than my story.
That's what needed to be done to make this movie, and we're fortunate, because a long time, as I said, we didn't know if it was going to get made, and then it just seems like, man, could there be more perfect timing to get the right people involved and have this released on Christmas? Back end, hopefully, of the pandemic, and in a time that it's really needed.
Now, Brenda, everybody needs a Brenda in their life. I honestly, truly believe that, 100%. Kurt doesn't get to where he goes without you there. I got to ask because Anna Paquin really dove in and studied you a lot. Really, both of you, a lot. What nuances did both Anna and Zach bring to the screen that you were like, "Yep, that's us."
Brenda Warner: I would say what stuck out to me with Anna, were moments that I felt like she could kick your butt, and she could give you a hug and help you out. She balanced that and I try and balance that every day of my life. And so, I think she picked up on it, just that aspect of "you can't tell me" and then it's like "I need a hug." She did a great job, I was so proud of her.
Kurt Warner: And I would say for Zach, is something that wasn't even vocally displayed, but Brenda will attest to this, that I'm a guy that, a lot of times, keeps a lot of things internal, where the struggle and the wrestling match happens inside, where you're trying really not to let people know what's going on. And I thought Zach pulled that off well because as you go through the process, you're like, "Whoa, do we need to tell the audience what I'm thinking in this situation?" And what great actors can do, is we don't need to tell them.
They can see that you're trying to put on this face, yet you're still wrestling with stuff on the inside. And that was something that I thought Zach did extremely well throughout the film, is to show people there was something going on, as well as he was trying to hide it from Brenda and everybody else on the outside.
Source: Screenrant
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