Raquel Laguna/ SUCOPRESS. Robert Kolodny directs James Madio and Ruby Wolf in The Featherweight. In this interview, Robert talks about his feature directorial debut and about working with the cast. In the movie, James Madio plays Italian-American boxer Willie Pep. The actor talks about how did he prepare to embody both the boxing skills and the emotional depth of his character. Ruby Wolf talks about playing Linda Papaleo, Willie Pep’s wife and about the complexities in their relationship. Set in the mid-1960s, The Featherweight depicts an emotional chapter in the real life of Italian-American boxer Willie Pep, the winningest fighter of all time. With his personal life in shambles, Pep decides to make a return to the ring, and allow a documentary camera crew to enter his life. The film takes an intense and nuanced look at the two-time featherweight champion of the world.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00You know, I think in general, boxing stories are interesting and they've always been a
00:05piece of cinema history.
00:07But it's less usual to pick up the story of a boxer after his career is over, when he
00:14is dealing with all these hardships and still trying to have the strong spirit of an athlete
00:20and someone who longs to be in the ring.
00:23So I was really drawn to this period in his life.
00:27The challenging part was getting the movie made, obviously, early on.
00:34And then once we got it made, it seemed like I had a lot of time to focus on Willie and
00:38who he was and what his exteriors were, what his interiors were.
00:43Because he's very difficult, he's very complex, you know, I say it all the time.
00:48Inside the ring, he's a winner, right?
00:50Outside the ring, he's got a lot of things falling apart, his family, his finances, can't
00:55find a job, his friends are going, money's going, father's sick, son is not well, marriage
01:01is falling apart.
01:03So I pull from experiences, I'm a little older now, so I pull from personal experiences that
01:10happened to me.
01:11I feel like there's a lot that we have in common, me and Willie, coming from the East
01:15Coast, being smaller guys, maybe being bullied a little bit, having to fight your way to
01:20the top.
01:21So we had a lot in common with that.
01:23As far as the training and the aspects of trying to get Willie, that's difficult because
01:29there's nobody like Willie, there's never going to be anybody like Willie.
01:32He was that special, that unique in his boxing skills, that's why he lasted so long, because
01:40he did not get hit, he was more of a defensive guy.
01:44So I trained the way I thought that Willie would train in the 1950s and the 60s, which
01:49is a lot of road work, a lot of running, a lot of skipping the rope, a lot of speed
01:53bag.
01:54I wish I would have done a little more sparring, but I didn't.
01:58But I just put the hard work in, I was dedicated, and I had a great team around me that pushed
02:03me, including Robert, Claudine, Steven Loft, the writer-producer, Bennett Elliott, Robert
02:08Green, everybody, our friends at Appian Way, you just kept on going.
02:13I wasn't going to give up, I kept Willie Slogan in the back of my head, which was keep punching.
02:20The year 1964 is so important to Willie's story, he had been retired for 12 years by
02:24this point.
02:26He's running out of money, and he feels like he still could do something in the ring.
02:31He still feels relevant, you know, as an athlete, as a man.
02:36So to be able to set the story at this crux point in his career and his life felt vital
02:43to the story.
02:45In terms of personal fascinations, the 1960s are such a vibrant period for film, indicative
02:53of change and new waves and new modes of language of cinema.
02:59So to be able to work within that aesthetic and pay homage to some of the markers of cinema
03:07that are so important to me was really important and exciting.
03:13I think we tried to weave as much of this kind of classical aesthetic while allowing
03:20an elision of new and incisive modes of storytelling.
03:25Robert Kolodny, the director, and I had worked on a couple of very small projects, like a
03:30music video, and he had a couple little script ideas.
03:34And when he was approached with the script by Steve Loft, he called me up on the phone
03:38and he was like, I think there could be a really amazing part for you in this.
03:43And so he sent me a copy of the script.
03:45I sat down with it.
03:47And I mean, just very first cursory read, I was like, oh, I love her.
03:52I absolutely adore her.
03:53I would be so excited if I got to play her.
03:57So yeah, I mean, I think for me, it's always like a very character driven approach.
04:00And I just I fell in love with Linda on the page and yeah, it was it was kind of a dream
04:06come true part.
04:07What have you learned from Linda, from your character?
04:11Oh, what have I learned from her?
04:12Oh, that's an excellent question.
04:14I think.
04:16Linda is all about having the courage to pursue the things that are meaningful to you, despite
04:24the odds against you, right, I think she's a very brave character.
04:31And I think that type of bravery, especially as an actor, is something that like you need
04:36to have in yourself in order to continue, you know, pushing really, really hard for
04:42the thing that you love to do.
04:43And I think Linda in this film is exemplary of that in a lot of different ways.
04:48I think she has a lot of tenacity and a lot of determination to achieve her dreams.
04:54And so it was nice to live in a character that I could so personally relate to in terms
05:00of the aspiring actress angle.
05:03But there's a nice parallel structure to Linda looking at the documentary crew in the film
05:09as an opportunity for her big break.
05:11And me, Ruby, looking at my friend Rob and my friend Adam behind the camera and thinking
05:17that this film could be an opportunity for that type of break in real life.
05:20So that was that was a good, good casting on that, I would say.
05:25I didn't want the audience to feel from jump that they were watching a couple at the end
05:34of their relationship.
05:35I wanted people to be able to root for them and and hope that they might be able to work
05:42it out.
05:44And so, you know, I think.
05:47When I was imagining the character of Linda prior to the events of the film, I was thinking
05:51a lot about how Willie would have represented to her everything that she wanted from her
05:58life.
05:59He has like this this amazing career.
06:02He is like beloved of his community everywhere.
06:05He would have gone in New York where him and Linda fell in love and met would have been
06:09exciting and like representative of this life that was so out of her reach as like an aspiring
06:16actress at the time that they had met.
06:19And it's not necessarily that I'm saying that, you know, I think she was only interested
06:23in him from a status perspective, but I think everybody who we talked to in Connecticut
06:27that talked about Willie said that he was like a larger than life type of person.
06:32And I think that that spark would have been so attractive to her to be sort of.
06:38In somebody's light that also in that illumination makes you brighter.
06:42I think that that was probably like a pretty addictive component to their connection early
06:46on.
06:47I don't know if I've said enough good things about working with Rob.
06:49He truly is an actor's director.
06:51I know that that's a good term that sometimes gets thrown around, but I think Rob is the
06:56best example of that that I have ever seen in practice.
06:59He is so character driven in his approach.
07:03He has thought out the character motivation of every scene from every different possible
07:09perspective.
07:10And he is both willing to offer his interpretation to you to the extent that it is useful and
07:15where it differs, allow you to play and bring your own thoughts and ideas and energy to
07:19the table.
07:20And that kind of synergy is like really, really exciting on a set.
07:24He also encouraged us, you know, he would do this thing that I think for this film shot
07:28in the documentary style where we would lead with sometimes, you know, five, ten minutes
07:34of improvisation before we entered into any actual scene work or anything that was on
07:38the page.
07:39And having the space to play was so exciting.
07:44And I think there were other actors in the film who were very daunted by that.
07:48But I have a theater background and this was my first movie.
07:50So to me, it didn't feel so different than being in a rehearsal room and getting up on
07:54my feet and playing around.
07:56Even though if somebody had asked me before we made this movie, are you an improviser?
07:59I would have been like, absolutely not.
08:01It was a very safe environment to be able to do a lot of improv and a lot of exploration
08:07and find the character through these mock interviews that Rob had set up.
08:11And he would ask these questions that some were related to the story, some were completely
08:17tangential and you would really find meaningful things about the character through those conversations
08:22with him.
08:23So I thought that was really, really exciting.
08:24And he is so supportive and he is so sharp and bright and brilliant and collaborative.
08:31That's the number one word I would use for his sets.
08:33They're a totally collaborative experience, top to bottom.
08:37I'm very grateful to Rob because he created the conditions that I think made us able to
08:42come and do the alchemy of our jobs too.
08:45So yeah, he's great.