Five Questions for Kurt Warner and Zachary Levi

The athlete and the actor behind AMERICAN UNDERDOG talk about why this football movie is really a family movie with some football in it.

When Kurt Warner and Zachary Levi get together to promote their movie AMERICAN UNDERDOG, the first thing that comes across is how well they get along. On Episode 104 of the Dad 2.0 Podcast, we had a great chat about the movie’s many fatherhood themes, the complicated relationships with their own fathers, and the unexpected joy Kurt felt showing his kids what his life was like before they came along.

Importantly, you can enjoy this movie without knowing a thing about football. There are enough messages of love, perseverance, and family to rename it “American Dad Blog.” The full conversation is below, followed by some distilled highlights.

1. Why did you decide to make the first 45 minutes or so without a lot of football in it?

KURT: That was my vision from early on. We knew a lot of people would understand the football side of things, but to me, one of the coolest parts of our journey was the fact that we did it together. From Day 1, we had gone through the struggles — the highs, the lows — all of that together. I think that’s where Jon and Andy Erwin did an unbelievable job of hearing our story and putting all of that together and realizing that this is so much bigger than a football movie. I think the beautiful part is that it’s a love story between myself and Brenda, but also the love story between myself and our son Zachary, and his journey as an underdog as well.

ZACHARY: A lot of us knew the football story, so if you’re just going to make a sports movie about a thing that everyone already knows, it might be interesting, but you have to earn that. That’s why, at the beginning of the movie, it really does get into the meat of what life is about, and it’s not always about the football. It’s a really cool way to tell a beautiful, true Cinderella story in sports when you can give it all the rest of that context, because that makes it human. Not everybody understands what it’s like to be under center in a Super Bowl, but everyone can relate to what it means to struggle.

2. Since the crux of this film is the marriage, how did the chemistry develop between you and Anna Paquin to try and bring Kurt and Brenda to the screen and do them justice?

ZACHARY: It developed very naturally. Anna and I had met in passing, but I didn’t really know her at all. More than anything, you hope that you’re going to share scenes with somebody who is generous with their energy and talent, and she was that in spades. We were blessed because Kurt and Brenda were able to spend so much time with us on set, so we were able to assimilate a little bit more and hear a lot of the real-life context to a lot of the scenes that we were shooting.

KURT: I think they’re great. The first thing you always think of is “they have to look like us, to some degree.” But you talked about Anna’s strength and toughness, and it was so Brenda. You had to get the vulnerable side, the sensitive side that I fell in love with, and you had to get the tough, Marine side that said, “OK, I’m here as Mama Bear and I gotta protect my young.” When you start to realize the essence of who [Zach and Anna] are as people hit the nail on the head with the essence of who we were, that’s when you start to go, “We’ve got a chance to have something really special here.”

ZACHARY: It’s so hard when you’re doing a biopic about somebody that everybody knows! [laughs] Daniel Day-Lewis gets to be Abraham Lincoln, but nobody can go look at Abe and be like, “How do you feel about that?” Kurt is right there on set, and I’m thinking, “I really hope I’m not screwing this up right now.”

KURT: Hold on! What’s really hard is to watch somebody play you! [laughs] And you go, “that’s what people are going to think about me when they see you on the big screen!” That’s the hardest part going in, because you have this vision in your head of this is how it really played out, and then you have to allow them the freedom to do what they do and to make it special.

3. This movie plays a lot like a two-hour dad blog. As a father of seven, what was it like to watch this with your kids?

KURT: I don’t know if we really understood the kind of impact it would have on our kids. To hear them take a step back and go, “It never really hit us what you guys went through until we watched it on the big screen.” That was one of the coolest aspects of it, was our kids appreciating the story and what went into us getting to where we’re at today. I think all of us as parents want our kids to understand that at some point.

ZACHARY: And if I could brag on him for a second, as it’s shown in the film, for him to have the heart and gumption to look at this woman who was already divorced and her son Zach, who is disabled, he was being a dad from the moment he met them. It really shows you how special all of that was, and it’s one of the things that made my cry when I read the script. To step into that role without any mentoring or training, I think that speaks volumes about the character of who he is, specifically as a father.

KURT: Talking about the dad blog, one of the coolest parts of this story was how I was inspired by my son. Too often we feel like, “I’m the old guy, I’m the dad, I’m the mentor. They’re supposed to be inspired by me.” But one thing I wanted to get right in this story is that we can be inspired by anyone, if our eyes are open. There was a trust factor there that he broke down for Brenda, who had these walls up. To see so much of me in Zach, in what he was overcoming, and inspiring me to go a little bit further than maybe I would have, that was a key component to this story that just had to be in there.

4. Being a father figure to Zach, and the relationship with your in-laws, did that fill a developmental void when you were younger?

KURT: I don’t think there’s any question about it. There’s things you learn when you don’t have a father figure, and profound things that I learned as we got reconnected and the grandfather that he’s been. You never know how all that stuff works out in your mind, trying to figure out, “OK, how does this work? Do I want this as my path?”

Yeah, I saw a pretty girl in a bar, but when I started to get to know the kids and I got to see her in a different setting, you go, “there is so much more depth here.” I think it’s a great message that sometimes you see appearances and think “No way, that’s not what I’m looking for.” But truly getting to the heart of who someone is makes the biggest difference, and that is how Brenda and I got connected. It wasn’t knowing what we were doing or what we were chasing, but the people we are that made us better and stronger.

5. Could you have made this movie before Chuck? What life experience enhanced the performance that wasn’t there pre-Chuck?

ZACHARY: I don’t know that I could have made this pre-Chuck. Having learned a lot more about who I am, gone through so much therapy and healing, and also kind of understanding my relationship with my father (or lack thereof), I was able to draw upon a lot of that stuff and feeling like I could empathize with Kurt’s journey.

When I was younger, because I didn’t know a lot of the trauma I had gone through or the turmoil that was in my heart and mind, that’s part of what drove me to be an entertainer. Later in life, I felt much more accepting of who I am, which then allowed me to feel like I could be in a more grounded, quarterback, Kurt Warner-type of headspace, and I think it all worked out.

It was tough learning to throw a spiral at 40, I will tell you that. Don’t learn how to throw a spiral later in life. Do that when you’re five.

AMERICAN UNDERDOG opens Christmas Day.