North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 91, No. 5, Ed. 1 Tuesday, September 5, 2006 Page: 2 of 8

                                
Page 2 Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Arts
nfdaily.com
NORTH TEXAS DAILY
Madden
NFL 07
Jimmy Alford
Arts Editor
Arts@ntdaily.com
4 The Rock' cooks
up motivation
Dallas high school
students get wisdom
from former wrestler
By Jesse Sidlauskas
Staff Writer
It wasn't long after Dwayne
"The Rock" Johnson had walked
across the stage when he was met
with elated cheers from the south
Dallas auditorium, filled with
standing st udents chattering and
craning for the first peek of their
celebrity speaker.
Johnson gave a motivational
speech to the students at James
Madison High School and
presented the school's football
team, as well as Lincoln High
School's team, with autographed
jerseys Wednesday. Johnson
visited the schools while on
tour to promote his newest film,
"Gridiron Gang," scheduled for
full release September 15.
Members of Dallas
Independent School District, as
well as Dallas Mayor pro-tem
Donald Hill attended Johnson's
speech, which he directed at the
students, sharing his personal
comparison to his newest film.
The movie is based on the
story of a California delinquent
boys' school supervisor, Sean
Porter, played by John son. Porter
started a football program for the
school's convicted teenagers.
Johnson told the south Dallas
students of his own journey from
a young troublemaker with a
history of arrests starting at age
13, to a football star who received
a full football scholarship from
the University of Miami, paral-
leling the movie's plot.
"I thought I knew every thing -
one of those kids," Johnson said.
"You know what I knew?"
The packed auditorium
blurted the answer.
"That's right, say it again!"
Johnson said.
"Nothing!"
The Dallas program After
School All Stars organized the
event. Program coordinator
Burt Conlisk said the All Stars
program works to give middle
school students a productive
activity
"All of our program s have life
skills tied to honesty," Conlisk
said. "When you play golf,
you're responsible for your own
honesty."
The schools made Johnson an
honorary member of Dallas ISD
Area Two staff.
Before leaving, Johnson told
the crowd, "Don't ever give up on
your dreams. Dream big -you've
got to work big."
Behind the Scenes
Following his speech, the Daily
[italics I caught up to Johnson at a
red carpet premiere of "Gridiron
Gang," where he spoke in a group
interview about the making of
the new film.
Johnson said that playing Sean
Porter, who is alive, added an
extra responsibility for his perfor-
mance in "Gridiron Gang."
"Not only playing someone
who's alive, but playing someone
who really has done incredible
things," Johnson said. "Not only
that but you really have someone
who's looking at you with intense
eyes of how you're portraying
him. Not as an actor, in terms of,
'I want to make sure you capture
my essence.' Not like that, but
just watching me in terms of, if
you're going to tell my story in
the world I come from, then you
have to tell it right: It's real, it's
dark, it's pretty it's violent. But at
the same time it's positive."
Many of the roles played in the
movie are from the 1993 docu-
mentary of "Gridiron Gang,"
which took footage of the football
team shaping up and included
commentary from the actual
players, including Johnson's
character, Porter.
"By the way, I should say he
(Sean Porter) saw it two weeks
ago and I'm proud to say that
he cried and wiped his tears
away and he told my producer,
"Thank You,' - that's all I needed
to hear."
Johnson said he used the real-
world setting when he researched
his part. He focused his study on
the documentary as well as the
people who were the movie's
inspiration.
"I spent a lot of time watching
the documentary," Johnson said.
"And then, what I did, I spent a
lot of time with Sean Porter who,
by the way, was very reluctant
about the movie, andjustwanted
to make sure he was pulling his
load. At the end of the day, he
was very supportive, and as an
actor that's all I can do."
To create the football team in
the movie, the director recruited
first-time actors. Johnson said
the new actors impressed him.
"These kids have that respon-
sibility to play these kids before
them, some of which died or
went on to become good people,"
Johnson said. "The real families
are watching them to make sure.
So there's a great responsibility.
I give it up for those kids. We had
a couple that came right out the
streets of Compton, Watts, South
Central."
Johnson said that he had to
earn the respect of the first-
time actors and made an effort
to develop a relationship with
them.
"[They had] never acted,
never been on a movie set, so
it's important. The respect and
bonding that took place between
Sean Porter and the real kids was
earned over time. So when we
started shooting, I made sure
the kids referred to me as Mr.
Porter."
Read more about "Gridiron
Gang" and Sean Porter at the
film's Web site, http://www.
GridironGang-Movie.com.
Review: Gridiron
Gang a success,
fails to break mold
By Jesse Sidlauskas
StaffWriter
Football games are violent
battles where guns rarely come
into play, but they do in the
movie, "Gridiron Gang." Then
again, encouraging a bunch of
Opinion
teenagers who are convicted
of violent crimes to pulverize
each other is not the goal of
most correctional institutes. It
doesn't make a movie master-
piece, but it does make a good
football flick.
Photos by Jesse Sidlauskas / NT Daily
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson
speaks with reporters about
his film "Gridiron Gang."
Johnson said he was concerned
portraying Sean Porter
accurately.
'The Rock' handed out
autographed jerseys to students
at James Madison High
School.
This newest addition to a
dogpile of tackle flicks scores an
extra point for emotional appeal.
If you're easily seized by the
magical thrills of winning, and
the emotional drains of losing,
you'll find yourself right inside
the huddle. Flowever, two hours
of sap might feel familiar to the
time you were drooling on your
desk in a coach's high school
history class.
In a time where the fictional
football market is bursting at the
seams with fantasy play and the
excitement of Hollywood char-
acters, forced to best adversity,
suchas "Friday Night Lights" and
"The Program," football movies
rarely face the same adversity as
their subject matter.
The teenagers of Kirkpatrick
Boys' School in "Gridiron Gang"
face the odds that, upon release,
FOOTBALL
nearly all will end up incarcer-
ated or dead while playing the
streets of South Los Ángeles.
Fortunately, the movie itself
shouldn't have to suffer in
the box office, thanks to the
popularity of football and the
lingering memory of profes-
sional wrestling.
Coach Sean Porter, a former
college football star, played by
Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson,
sees starting a football team
as a means to unite teenagers
in a California boy's school
by replacing their disorderly
conduct with team discipline.
Porter sets up a league, and
the team practices for only four
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weeks before their first game.
Promised that they will become
winners, and that the weeks
of hard work will pay off, the
team loses the first game in a
blowout.
With failure at every turn, the
team and the program face polit-
ical elimination, and will have
to not only win but also prove
the experiment a success before
they are disbanded.
The movie's starting lineup
includes another part actor in
addition to Johnson. Xzibit plays
the assistant coach with a one-
line style used sparingly to give
an audience plot explanations.
Indeed the simple emotional
play of the film might leave yo u
wanting something deeper.
Maybe the most exciting parts
of the film are the football games
that are made real through
director Phil Joanou, and cine-
matographer Jeff Cutter's camera
work.
Still, don't expect a drama-
award winner, the movie was
made as a sports action flick.
The bulk of its speaking parts
are delivered by Johnson, filled
by his co-stars and coupled with
football. The film will release
nationwide on Sept. 15.
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