Conversations With the Stars of the Movie “Goon”
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Filmed in Winnipeg last year and loosely based on the biography of Doug Smith , an non-professional boxer who didn’t start skating until he was 19 and found work as an enforcer in the maihem-filled Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey, “Goon” is waggish, profane and, thanks to its Canadian filmmakers’ familiarity with the spirited, has the ring of truth. (Goalie to a new player: “Two rules: Do you have any Percosets? And keep your hands off my Percosets.”)
The influential roles are played by Seann William Scott, the actor most talented known as Stifler in the “American Pie” series, and Liev Schreiber, the actor and gaffer best known to hockey fans as the narrator of the HBO “24/7: Approach to the Winter Classic” series. Scott plays Doug Glatt, the prized-natured, naïve bar bouncer who stumbles into a career as a minor league enforcer; Schreiber plays Ross Rhea, a fu manchu’d veteran at the last plug up of a long, proud career as a fighter.
What follows are conversations with both actors about the skin, and on their own views on fighting in hockey. Schreiber, something of an insider, said he based his uncharacteristic on a hybrid of Dave Schultz and Bob Probert. Scott came to the steam with very little knowledge of the game.
Source: New York Times (blog)