champion Follows Marcus, a hot-tempered junior basketball assistant coach who is fired after getting into a fight with the head coach during a game. Humiliated by being fired and becoming a laughing stock on TV and social media, he crashed into a police car while drunk, leading to a court order to do community service. Marcus’s community service assignment is to mentor a group of intellectually disabled basketball players at a local community center called Friends.
Over time, coaching Friends forced Marcus to become a more empathetic coach, able to connect with players and lead his team to unexpected winning streaks. Marcus and his friends soon discover that they are moving further than anyone expected, straight to the Special Olympics. champion Directed by Bobby Farrelly from a screenplay by Mark Rizzo. champion Starring Woody Harrelson, Kaitlyn Olsen, Ernie Hudson, Cheech Marin and Matt Cooke.
rant screen Talk to Bobby Farrelly about his new sports comedy, championHe discussed exploring every character’s story in the film, as well as revealing that Darius turned down the role of Marcus. Farrelly also disrupted the chemical reaction between Harrelson and Olson.
Bobby Farrelly on the championship
harrelson wood in championship
Screen Rant: Bobby, well done with this movie. It’s fun, inspiring, and full of heart. What is this content about? champion attract you to become a director?
Bobby Farrelly: Well, there’s an original movie that we can’t quite believe because it’s an original Spanish movie, Campeons. All the stories are in that movie and we really love it. Of course, what we wanted to do was make it an American story, and Woody was the perfect person to play the basketball coach. So we just thought he knew basketball as well as anyone. He was the right guy and we had a great time.
Now, I love how you dig into each player’s life, whether it’s home life or work life. Can you talk about why it’s important to you to include it in the movie?
Bobby Farrelly: Really rounding them all up. We don’t want to just say, “Oh, they’re funny, and they’ve got some great quotes,” and stuff like that. We want to show that everyone has their own life, their own story, that they are all whole people. They’re just disabled people and Woody doesn’t know that community, Woody’s character Marcus. He didn’t know anything about that community. So he had prejudices, and after spending time with them, he discovered they were all wrong.
There was a scene where my eyes watered a little when we finally figured out why Darius had a problem with Marcus. This is a very powerful scene. What inspired this story point? Can you tell me what those two actors brought to the table that day? Because it’s very emotional.
Bobby Farrelly: It’s a great scene. I have to thank our screenwriter, Mark Rizzo. He wrote that scene very well but our two actors, I know Woody could play one side of him but the other side is Darius. [Joshua Felder], who had never acted in his life, he played a guy with a traumatic brain injury and it came out. It lurks in the story, ultimately revealing why he’s unhappy with his new coach. He played very well. He played it really well. Everyone on set said, “Wow. Acting is serious.” We’re watching it on the director’s screen, and our minds are racing. He really touched us. Great performance by Darius and all the actors, friends, everyone stands out when needed. That’s when Darius was there.
They are amazing. Now, I also like the chemistry between Woody and Kaitlin Olson. Can you talk about working with them to find push and pull?
Bobby Farrelly: What we wanted to document with Woody and Kaitlin was that we wanted it to come true. We just wanted to feel she was a real woman and I think Kaitlyn played it really, really well. She is a woman who holds herself back because she thinks her brother, the disabled brother, is doing the right thing. But in a way, it’s not because she didn’t let him grow, it’s because she didn’t give him enough confidence that he could get better on his own. So she got a little overprotective and blocked him. But the way she played convinced me. I think Kaitlyn is really, really good at it. This is an important part of the story because we want it to feel real.
about the champion
Junior basketball coach Marcus was fired, humiliated, and in trouble with the law. He did community service by court order, mentoring a group of mentally disabled players at a local community center. While coaching The Friends, he learned to be a better coach, a better person and discovered that working with this team can go further than anyone could have imagined.
Check out our interview champion Cheech Marin star.