William Goldenberg, who won an Oscar for editing “Argo,” makes his feature film directorial debut with “Unstoppable,” the rousing true story of Anthony Robles, a disabled NCAA champion wrestler from Arizona State University.
Able-bodied actor Jharrel Jerome plays Robles, who was born with one leg. The real Robles performs in the film — which is based on his book — as Jerome’s body double. A subplot features Robles’ mother, Judy (Jennifer Lopez), who also must overcome adversity as she is in an abusive relationship with Rick (Bobby Cannavale in toxic dad mode) and struggling financially.
“Unstoppable,” therefore, is a typical Hollywood crowd-pleaser that leans into its underdog tropes; Anthony even has a “Rocky” poster in his room (the garage) and visits the famous Art Museum steps when he is competing in Philadelphia.
But this feel-good film is about Anthony showing his “character” — to his mom, his high school coach (Michael Peña), his college coach Shawn Charles (Don Cheadle), his fellow wrestlers, and even the world at large. “Unstoppable” is about Anthony “proving everyone wrong” and showing that he can “do the impossible.” The film feeds into inspiration porn narratives about believing in oneself that are tearjerking for some viewers.
That said, the film may not win over the disabled community as a tone-deaf scene features one of Anthony’s younger brothers telling him that he wishes he could lose his leg to be just like him, which comes off as patronizing and condescending.
Salon spoke with Goldenberg about making his directorial debut, depicting disability and wrestling on screen, and working with Jennifer Lopez on “Unstoppable.”
Obviously, Anthony Robles’ story is inspiring, but what was it about this film that made it your choice to shift from editing to making your directorial debut?
I was looking for something to direct and for something to move me. I’m attracted to true stories. I am comfortable in the world of sports and in the world of family dramas. I’ve been looking for a project to direct for years. Being a full-time editor and looking for a project to direct don’t go together; looking for material as a director is a full-time job. One of the producers brought me this project. I read Anthony’s book and found it incredibly moving and inspiring and thought it was a really good thing to do for the world. This is someone really, truly inspiring. Once you meet Anthony, he is just one of those people who walks into a room and lights it up. It was a combination of all those things and the idea of telling an underdog story about a family that is overcoming incredible odds, I felt in my gut it was the right thing to do. I have taken every project as an editor by instinct — what feels right to me — so I went along with that feeling.
Bobby Cannavale (Rick Robles), Jennifer Lopez (Judy Robles) and Jharrel Jerome (Anthony Robles) in "Unstoppable" (Ana Carballosa/Prime)What decisions did you make about how you approached telling the story, which features a series of setbacks and successes?
I’ve been very influenced by the directors I’ve worked with, particularly Michael Mann, Ben Affleck, Kathryn Bigelow, and Paul Greengrass. The way they shoot I was very attracted to that kind of photography, which is very first person and puts the audience in the room with the characters, making them feel like a fly on the wall, glimpsing reality. Putting the audience on the mat with the characters, that was a style I felt comfortable with. It would separate it out from other sports dramas, it would feel a little more unique. That’s the way I approached it, and I was lucky to get a phenomenal cast. But the style in which I shot it was the way I put my stamp on it. More than that, I’ve worked with Michael Mann, particularly on “The Insider,” and we kept discussing telling the story from the inside out, from the emotional point of view. If the screenplay is good, the story will tell itself. But it is what is happening to each character emotionally, and telling that story, that hooks the audience in — and that is how I’ve operated as an editor for most of my career, so I tried to bring that to my directorial style as well.
Were you an athlete in high school or college? Have you wrestled? What did you know about the sport prior to making the film, and how did you work on presenting it?
I didn’t really know much about wrestling. I started playing ice hockey when I was 10 years old, until about 6 or 7 years ago. I played in high school and college and all my adult life. I felt comfortable in the genre. I knew the world of an athlete. But I didn’t know that much about wrestling. I know what the camaraderie of a team sport is like and the dedication it takes to be a college-level athlete. What I discovered about wrestling is that it feels like a brotherhood and a sisterhood — because there are a lot of women wrestling now as well —there is a mutual respect I’ve almost not seen in any other sport. There is no s**t talking, one-upmanship no in-your-face feeling. Even though Anthony and McDonogh [Johnni DiJulius] were really archrivals, there was still a mutual respect. There is something about the dedication it takes to do a sport like that and make weight, it’s a full-time job to be on that level. I’ve almost never seen that in a sport. It was unique and beautiful. Everybody in the wrestling world wanted to help Anthony.
What I did with the wrestling was to try to tell the story of each match and try to tell the emotion of each match. Shooting it in the way Anthony wrestles — he is down on the mat — we used a handheld camera, and we used a Rialto head, so we could take the very front of the camera off, so the cameraman could be on the mat and get on the ground and run through the whole 6-7-minute match without stopping. We built an 8’ x 4’ glass platform that was raised four feet off the ground so the cameramen were under the glass shooting up through the glass to get a unique perspective you couldn’t get from watching in the stands.
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I wrestled in high school gym class and my opponent was on the team, so I was pinned instantly every match. What do you appreciate about the sport having made this film?
It seemed like brute strength and will, but these are incredibly elite athletes. Every muscle in their body is so finely tuned. Anthony and Brian Stith, his assistant coach at ASU, choreographed the wrestling and all featured wrestlers are Division I college wrestlers. You could adjust it to end 15 degrees to the right for the camera to be in a certain position, The control they had was extraordinary. Unlike boxing, there is nothing held back. Jharell was able to wrestle full out all the time and that is what makes it feel real and authentic —because it is.
What can you say about making a sports film? “Unstoppable” features training montages and climactic bouts, pays homage to “Rocky,” and features platitudes about achieving goals and winning like “You can’t choose to be great, you can only hope to be great when it counts.” How did you lean into or away from the tropes?
Certain things I tried to stay away from to not be heavy-handed, but certain things work, so I used them. Making the team — there’s going to be a montage. Leaning into it, those tropes are tropes for a reason. They work. I tried not to make the family drama real, so you are watching a family together. The reality of that transcends those tropes. When I started, I wanted it to be different from any other sports film. But this is a movie about a guy who wins a national championship, so there’s going to be a good final bout so let’s lean into that and make it as good and visceral and real as possible. Hopefully, the audience is on the journey with you.
One of Anthony’s lessons is that he wants to “be seen” not as disabled, but as a champion. The visibility of his success afforded him opportunity. Can you talk about creating a film that gives him greater visibility?
I made this film in the hope that people will see it and be inspired by it. Anthony welcomes the visibility. Because he trusted me, I want him to be comfortable with every aspect of the film. I involved Anthony and his family more than most people are involved in the true stories made about them. Anthony was heavily involved in the screenplay and he and his family would read drafts of the script together, and there were times when he was uncomfortable about things. And I changed them when I felt it would not hurt the movie I was trying to make. He was involved in the shooting as a double, doing a fair amount of wrestling and the hike up the steep trail. I wanted him to be proud of it. I wanted the family to be comfortable with the legacy this film will give them — and I know that they are.
Having edited so many films that are true stories, there is a particular responsibility to that. This is their lives. Anthony is 35 years old, and he has to live with this film for the rest of his life. I wanted to make them proud. This is the truest true story I have worked on. I didn’t need to elaborate beyond what was real. He is a motivational speaker. I hope he will have more speaking events and sell more books. I have been so intimately involved with Anthony and Judy that I want them to be proud and happy with the finished product.
That said, there are concerns about disability representation in the film. You cast an able-bodied actor as Anthony, and have the real Robles as his body double. I’m curious about the concern, particularly in the disabled community, about casting authentically. Were disabled actors considered for the lead or supporting roles? Could you have cast a disabled actor in able-bodied roles in the film? `
There are a lot of disabled actors in the film. They may not be very visibly disabled. What was important to me was casting someone who could bring Anthony’s essence to the screen. Jharrel is an incredibly gifted actor I saw in “When They See Us,” and I felt he could do the physically demanding part of this and clearly do the dramatic acting and capture Anthony’s sensitivity. What was important again was that Anthony was comfortable. Anthony is playing himself. If Anthony was comfortable, I was comfortable.
The film also considers issues of race and class in that the Black and Brown characters are financially disadvantaged and both Anthony and Judy must defeat white men (the Iowa wrestler, the Banker). What are your thoughts about telling this racial uplift narrative?
Obviously, I am not a person of color, but I came from a broken family with a father who was abusive, more verbally than physically. I am a storyteller, and I am telling a story. I don’t think I have to be a person of color to understand what they have been through. A lot of people approached them about making this movie, and I am the one who they felt comfortable with and was sincere and honest and do my best to tell it as honestly as possible. What is universal about it is that almost anybody can identify with some part of this story. We did a good job casting people authentic to the characters they were playing.
Anthony and Judy trusted me with their story because of who I was, and their feeling that I would do justice to the story.
I am sure Judy was very heartbroken to hear Jennifer Lopez was playing her in the film.
When Anthony called her and told her that Jennifer Lopez would play her, she thought he was joking. What was unique about it was that even though they have way different lives, they actually bonded in a way that influenced Jennifer’s performance. They saw a lot of themselves in each other. From the moment they first met on Zoom, they immediately bonded. Seeing them together, you could see they really loved each other and Judy shared stuff with Jennifer that she didn’t tell me or the writer and gave Jennifer permission to put it in the film. There are little nuggets in the film because of the bond they had. In the scene where Judy reads the letters to Anthony written by this third-grade class, when she talks about blaming herself for being born that way and her parents wanting to take Anthony and raise him as her brother, that was something Jennifer shared a few days before we shot that scene and asked if she could improv it. I said absolutely. We didn’t tell Jharrel she was going do that, so his reaction is to something he had never heard before. It added layers to the scene. In some scenes, Jennifer is wearing Judy’s clothes. She saved her beanies and t-shirts and jackets, and she lent it to Jennifer because she had so much trust in her.
The film emphasizes that a man’s character is his fate, and that self-worth is crucial for success. What did making this film teach you about character?
It’s interesting. I will honestly say that knowing Anthony and making this film made me a better person. It wasn’t that I was a bad person. I was a little “woe is me” sometimes, but I never think that now. I decided that I can either be petrified or just do it and direct a film and not be scared. I convinced myself not to be terrified. It is a terrifying thing. Editing, I’ve been doing for 30 years. This is a completely new thing. All these people on set know that I’m a first-time director. I took all the lessons I’ve learned from all the directors I have worked with. They were all incredibly generous when I reached out to them for advice or help. I talked to Michael Bay about visual effects or Paul Greengrass about what is important on the set. I trained under Michael Kahn, who was Steven Spielberg’s editor. I worked with him for four years, and he taught me everything about editing. To this day, when I am editing, I think what would Michael do in this situation? So, the same thing happened to me on set. I think about what Paul Greengrass or Kathryn Bigelow, or Michael Mann told me, and I used those lessons. That is what made me unstoppable; the wealth of knowledge I’ve gained from these fantastic directors. That’s what gave me the feeling that I could do this. And Ben Affleck, after working with him for 19 years. We got Jennifer and Don Cheadle and Bobby Cannavale. I said to Ben it was a bigger movie than I was expecting — are you sure I can do this? He never made me feel anything but 100% capable I could do this. He was unwavering in his support. It made me feel better to know that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck think I can do this. I’ll just go with that.
“Unstoppable” is streaming on Amazon Prime starting January 16.
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