Friday as I was driving around, I was listening to ESPNU on SiriusXM with Rick Neuheisal and I forget the host. Anyways, they were talking and somehow the subject of the movie Point Break came up. As Neuheisal said, "you can't miss it, it seems like it is on some channel every night." Anyways, I did not know this.....but Neuheisal was the technical consultant to the football scenes.
It was pretty funny hereing talk about the filming (everyone eats well) and how much standing around there is to get like 10 seconds of footage. Anyways, Neuheisal had to teach Keanu Reeves how to throw a football. "Spin it", throw a spiral, whatever. Reeves grew up in Canada and I know played some hockey and doesn't look unathletic. But Neuheisal said, it didn't matter how hard they worked, he could not do it. He said Reeves was a willing worker, he tried, but he just couldn't get it. Because Reeves was a lefty, Neuheisal used Kenny Stabler as the model, because Stabler's throwing style was certainly not classic and maybe more easy to duplicate.
Neuheisal told the Director (Katherine Bigelow, Hurt Locker fame) that there just is no way he can do this. In fact, the beach football scene, when you see Reeves throw a pass, they cut to the pass in the error that was thrown by Neuheisal so it had a spiral. It was pretty funny listening to to him. Said Keanu Reeves was a really good guy, intense, but no amount of time could make him look like a QB when he throws a football. Which is ironic since he also played one in the Replacements.
Which got me to think, that was something I would have never thought would be that hard. I mean, I am not a world class athlete, certainly not Dan Marino, but I could easily throw a spiral and have a form that looks like I am a QB. Now I have a pop gun arm, so obviously I am not and basically an intramural level success as an athlete. But I never thought this was that hard.
It brought me back to one of my college roomates, when me and my buddy (ironically) were throwing a football one fall afternoon. My roomate, was one of these faux Prep school guys with the pretentious Initial before his name, and a III (third) at the end. And I threw (Nick was his name) the football and watching him just try and catch a simple toss as it ricochets first off of his chest, then back into his hands, then bounces off the chest again and through the arms hitting the ground.......and I curiously look at him and said "Nick, when you are your buddies would sit around talking about how much money your dads made, you never once picked up a football and tossed it around, did ya?"
I just figured most people have a modicum of athletic ability. I am wrong. It is not as common as we think. And in many cases, we forget about who actors were in high school and college. And they weren't kids playing intramural hoops, or throwing a football, or playing softball, etc.....for the most part anyways.
It was pretty funny hereing talk about the filming (everyone eats well) and how much standing around there is to get like 10 seconds of footage. Anyways, Neuheisal had to teach Keanu Reeves how to throw a football. "Spin it", throw a spiral, whatever. Reeves grew up in Canada and I know played some hockey and doesn't look unathletic. But Neuheisal said, it didn't matter how hard they worked, he could not do it. He said Reeves was a willing worker, he tried, but he just couldn't get it. Because Reeves was a lefty, Neuheisal used Kenny Stabler as the model, because Stabler's throwing style was certainly not classic and maybe more easy to duplicate.
Neuheisal told the Director (Katherine Bigelow, Hurt Locker fame) that there just is no way he can do this. In fact, the beach football scene, when you see Reeves throw a pass, they cut to the pass in the error that was thrown by Neuheisal so it had a spiral. It was pretty funny listening to to him. Said Keanu Reeves was a really good guy, intense, but no amount of time could make him look like a QB when he throws a football. Which is ironic since he also played one in the Replacements.
Which got me to think, that was something I would have never thought would be that hard. I mean, I am not a world class athlete, certainly not Dan Marino, but I could easily throw a spiral and have a form that looks like I am a QB. Now I have a pop gun arm, so obviously I am not and basically an intramural level success as an athlete. But I never thought this was that hard.
It brought me back to one of my college roomates, when me and my buddy (ironically) were throwing a football one fall afternoon. My roomate, was one of these faux Prep school guys with the pretentious Initial before his name, and a III (third) at the end. And I threw (Nick was his name) the football and watching him just try and catch a simple toss as it ricochets first off of his chest, then back into his hands, then bounces off the chest again and through the arms hitting the ground.......and I curiously look at him and said "Nick, when you are your buddies would sit around talking about how much money your dads made, you never once picked up a football and tossed it around, did ya?"
I just figured most people have a modicum of athletic ability. I am wrong. It is not as common as we think. And in many cases, we forget about who actors were in high school and college. And they weren't kids playing intramural hoops, or throwing a football, or playing softball, etc.....for the most part anyways.
