Coaching For Clooney: An Interview with Joel Edgerton

Photo: Robert Maxwell

Few Australians have fashioned a career like Joel Edgerton. 

After breaking out on the television series The Secret Life of Us, he departed in pursuit of film roles. The decision proved worthwhile when he secured a small but significant part in the Star Wars prequels as Anakin Skywalker's step-brother. It didn't provide overnight stardom but brought him recognition, and he continued to work steadily. But at the beginning of the 2010s, two films launched Edgerton into Hollywood's A-list. The Australian thriller Animal Kingdom and MMA boxing drama Warrior made him a household name. And in the time since, he has worked with many luminary filmmakers and cemented a reputation for varied and often fearless performances. Not to mention, he has also affirmed himself as a skilful writer, producer, and director.

For his latest turn, Edgerton has partnered up with a fellow diverse talent. He can next be seen in The Boys in the Boat, the newest directorial effort from George Clooney. Adapted from the bestselling non-fiction novel, the film tells the story of the 1936 University of Washington rowing team. Initially a group of underdogs struggling with the grips of the Great Depression, they defy all odds to represent the United States at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. Edgerton leads the film as the side's coach, Al Ulbrickson. It is a film reminiscent of a bygone era — an efficient and stirring old-school sports flick. And Edgerton's performance is precisely on that wavelength, emulating the understated but charming characters of old.

Touching down in Australia for the holidays, I got some time with Edgerton to chat about the film before its release in the new year. We discussed working with Clooney, when he plans to direct again, and the chance he turned down to impress a James Bond producer. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

CONNOR DALTON: How did you get involved in The Boys in the Boat?

JOEL EDGERTON: I got a call from Clooney … well, someone called me and said he wanted to talk about it. He doesn't just have my number. I wouldn't give it to him (smiles). I talked to him years ago about doing this other project that never came to be, so then he asked about this. I'd never heard about the story, and he basically told me what it was on the phone. I was like, 'Oh, come on, you made some of that up. It's a bit too good to be true.' It's just one of those true-life sports stories that a lot of people haven't heard about — unless they're rowers — that is perfectly situated to be a movie, and, yeah, I was keen. 

DALTON: You have worked with so many brilliant filmmakers. Looking at the list, Ridley Scott, Barry Jenkins, and Paul Schrader are just a few. But what was unique about working with George Clooney?

EDGERTON: Well, I remember being a huge fan of his when he made his first film. It's always interesting when an actor decides they're going to direct. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, I thought, was excellent. I thought Good Night, and Good Luck was excellent. You know, it's easy for actors to go and make a bunch of money just being in front of the camera and jumping from set to set. Particularly him, he's a movie star. But when Bradley Cooper and all these guys take a whole year of their life to direct a movie, it means they must care about things other than the money and glory. [Clooney] cared enough about this story to want to direct the whole thing and take the whole year out of his life. It's happening a lot lately. Various people have decided they're going to take all that knowledge they've accumulated and go and direct a movie, and the results can be fantastic. 

DALTON: What did your preparation for this role entail?

EDGERTON: The book is the bible for it. It's just so wonderfully written, and it gives you so much detail. There's stuff that's not in the movie that's in the book. There's so much information about all the different characters. But there's sort of all these clues in the book and script about Ulbrickson and the kind of demeanour he had, which reminded me of all of those coaches you see that look like they're kind of not happy all of the time. So I started doing my research, looking at those kinds of coaches pacing the sidelines, looking like they're about to keel over and die of a heart attack, and being reminded of the fact that it's a sign of how much they cared about their sport. 

DALTON: Even though you are playing a real person, the role of the tough but fatherly sports coach has appeared in an endless array of films. Did you make any choices to try and distinguish yourself from that pantheon?

EDGERTON: Not really. I'm me, and my version of that is what it's going to be. Looking at movies like Hoosiers and all the sports movies that you're kind of referencing, it's definitely the father figure. I think the role coaches play in a team's life is like this father of many. They're the people you really want to impress. They're the people that are all about the preparation, and they're helpless on the sidelines. Once the starter gun goes off, that's when the heart attack starts because there's nothing they can do to change the course of events. I think there's something beautiful about coaches that I never really saw when I was a kid. 

DALTON: Your character is a mentor to these young guys. In your career, who were the people that inspired you when you were first trying to make it in this business and helped you become the actor and filmmaker you are today?

EDGERTON: Look, I was always inspired. When I was young, I was always looking for clues from older people — older actors, older directors, my brother [Nash Edgerton], my father, and all sorts of people. It's funny, now that I'm getting older, I'm really curious about the clues and learning you can get from younger people, like working with younger actors and watching how they approach things. But I think the point is that you can pick up things from everybody about approach, skill, and art. I've definitely had lots of mentors in my life at school and university. I look at certain people, and I go, 'If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here right now.' As in somebody steered you in a certain direction, and I think everybody has a handful of those people in their mind as they move through life and go, 'That person changed the course of things for me.'

DALTON: I admire how you have alternated between working domestically and abroad over the years. Many plant their flag in Hollywood and tend to work there solely. Then there are others who, after a while of working in that system, decide to return home. But you're someone who will make a big Hollywood film and then do a project like Felony or The Stranger. How have you been able to strike a balance?

EDGERTON: I'd like to do it more, as in I'd like to be home even more. It's really just about what excites me as a story. I hadn't worked for a while in Australia when The Stranger came along. But I'm always looking for what's the kind of stories we can tell here. I'm really impressed by people like George Miller and Baz Luhrmann because the majority of Australian stories we tell at a very small budget, which I understand. It creates a really great creative challenge to find the right things that could be seen by the rest of the world. But on that other end of the scale, you've got George and Baz doing these massive-scale things. And it'd be really nice in this country if we had a mid-budget range to play in without having to wait for, say, Americans to come and do that here within an American story. I don't know how we get there, but that would be nice.

DALTON: I mentioned earlier that you are a filmmaker, and I loved both The Gift and Boy Erased. It's been a moment, though, since you've been behind the camera. Do you have plans to direct again?

EDGERTON: Yeah, I do. Boy Erased came out in 2018, and then I became a dad. Then I was like, 'I can't imagine how I could possibly go and direct a movie, given how much it would take me away from home.' Even if we were all living in the same house, it's just how many hours a day I'd be away. But now I think I'm ready. The kids are almost ready to go to school, so I've written something that I want to make end of '24 or early '25. And what's sort of weird and exciting is that I'm as terrified thinking about it as I was before I made The Gift. Not that I presumed I'd be like, 'Yeah, directing a movie, piece of cake,' but the amount of anxiety, nerves, and anticipation thinking about it, I'm like, 'Wow, it's almost like I've never made a movie before.' But it was the same with Boy Erased. If I'm ever lucky enough to have seven or eight movies under my belt, I hope it would be the same feeling — that anticipation that would make you really make sure you worked hard enough to do the right thing by it rather than presume it was an easy thing to do. 

DALTON: I'm getting the wrap-up signal, but I have one more question for you. I'm hoping you can corroborate something for me. I did a lot of research before this interview, and I'm also a big Superman fan — 

EDGERTON: Oh, yeah?

DALTON: I read somewhere that you were cast to play a villain named Ty-Zor in an ultimately cancelled project after you turned down the chance to audition for Superman. Is that correct?

EDGERTON: It's part true and not true. I have read that, and either age has damaged my brain, but I don't remember being actually offered the role of a villain. I think it was more that I was being considered for a movie that never happened. I mean, I've been cast in all sorts of things if you listen to the internet. Some are true, and some are not true. I don't know if anyone would ever see me as Superman. 

DALTON: I would!

EDGERTON: (laughs) [Bond producer] Barbara Broccoli apparently was living in this house that I was staying in for a while, and someone was like, 'You should put on a tuxedo and just walk back and forth in front of the house.' I was like, 'I'm not James Bond. Are you kidding me?' Villains are good, though. Villains can be anything, right?

DALTON: For sure! Some are even named Ty-Zor!

EDGERTON: I mean, I've got Ty-Zor written all over me, haven't I? (laughs)

DALTON: It's been an absolute pleasure chatting with you. Tom Buchanan is my favourite polo player.

EDGERTON: Mine, too (laughs). Thanks, man.

This article was originally published by FilmInk