Agreeing to portray Sean Porter in Gridiron Gang
For me, the biggest reason that I did the movie was just the opportunity to tell an incredible story. I sat down with Neal Mortiz, who’s a producer who said, “I believe you’re my guy, here’s a documentary, here’s a script: all I ask is that you watch the documentary first. Don’t read the script.” I watched that documentary and I was moved. I was moved. I laughed. I cried. I was motivated. It chronicles these kids and what they had to go through. I was moved, and I called him back at 2 a.m. and told him I would love to do it.

Gridiron Gang's color-blind casting (Porter is white, The Rock is “half black, half Somoan”)
Not at one time did that ever get brought up…. And it’s a good thing too that it wasn’t brought up. When I watched the documentary, I never thought about it in that light. I thought, I’m going to capture this guy, I understand what this guy’s going through, I was one of these kids arrested multiple times by the time I was 17. I know what it’s like to fail, I know what it’s like when people expect you to fail, I know what it’s like to disappoint people around you who love you. For me, I wanted to play this man, it would be an honor.

His emotional connection to Gridiron Gang
[Sean Porter is like] my arresting officer when I was 14. He said, “You’re going to stop screwing up and go play football for your freshman high school football team.” I didn’t learn a lesson. I continued to get arrested, I continued to get in trouble. The good thing is, as I get older, I understand the value of having someone in my life who cared about me.

Interacting with the Camp Kilpatrick’s juvenile inmates
We shot there at Camp Kilpatrick. That’s a running prison [with] 130 kids locked up. The football program has not blossomed into basketball and baseball and track. There’s other football programs at other prisons now, too, so over the course of 13 or 14 years a lot has happened, a lot of progress has been made. We talked to the kids every day. I can tell you what was good: to see these kids getting motivated. These kids have a big B.S. factor. And they smell that from a mile away. But it great to tell them, “This is a story we’re making about your life. The kids before you got out, they made something of themselves. A couple of them died, some of them are serving life sentences, but a lot of them became good men, good fathers and good people. You can do it, too. It’s not B.S. Here’s proof. It’s right here.” They got motivated, eyes wide. It was motivating for us.

Suiting up for a scene in Gridiron Gang to make one of the football players a believer in himself and the program
I love that scene. Selfishly, for me, I get the chance to put the pads back on because I love football and I love playing football. That is my favorite scene in the movie. Not only do I get a chance to play football again but that’s what Sean Porter would do. Sean Porter would go to any length to teach a kid “Don’t ever quit.” You can’t write that stuff. It’s from the documentary. He’s say look, “You have no gun, you can’t shoot anybody, and you can’t run away. All you got is you. That’s all you need.” That’s simple, that’s powerful.

Being a role model
We’re somebody’s role model. Somebody young’s looking up to us. We have a responsibility to take care of our kids. I can tell you personally, as I’ve started to get older, I’ve recognized that responsibility I have being an a celebrity, an actor. It’s non-negotiable. You embrace it because it is what it is and you got that power. Not only that, I’m a daddy. Now I know how important it is to provide your kid—like you provide your kid—with the tools necessary just to make the right decisions.

Using clips from the documentary during the end credits of Gridiron Gang
We tested the movie for the first time eight months ago. We got great marks … but across the board, the audience said, “But the truth is, you guys should take creative liberty by having these kids cry after they lose their first game—and if they were real gangbangers, they would never cry like that." So what [director] Phil Joanou decided to do is say, “Listen, not only did they lose their first game, but they cried like babies, they had no idea how to handle that type of loss.” That led to, “If you didn’t think that a gangbanger would say, 'I just want my mom to love me,' here’s the proof.” Junior Palaita, [an inmate portrayed in the film] who killed people with a baseball bat, if you think he’s not sorry for what he did, here’s the proof.

Why it took so many years to get Gridiron Gang made
When you see that documentary, everyone lines up to make it. You had other actors [including Nicolas Cage, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis] involved who had to take other projects. Lee Stanley, who’s responsible for the documentary … a good Christian man who’s dedicated his life to kids in these prison, he held onto it. He’s very frank. You asked him today and he’ll say, “Stallone’s not the right guy, nor is this guy. Not to say they’re not good actor, but I want a guy who knows and understands these kids.” It’s that [B.S.] barometer that these kids have, and if we’re going to be real and responsible about what we’re going to make, then we’re got to get somebody right. That’s why I very fortunate, honored to play a guy who’s not a celebrity.… He represents thousands of men and women in probation who go to work every day. He doesn’t drive a movie lot; he drives to a place that no one wants to go to. He drives to a prison for kids, not because he’s a celebrity, but because he cares for kids. He oversees five prisons now. He’s something else.

What distinguishes Gridiron Gang from such other fact-based inspirational sports dramas as Invincible and Remember the Titans
Those are all great movies. Great inspiring movies. But I think the one thing which distinguishes Gridiron Gang from the other movies is that, when adults achieve something and adult makes a definitive decision to change their lives, that’s great, I admire that. Vince Papale in Invincible, the coach in Remember the Titans, Miracle, all those movies. But when you get kids who are 13, 14, who make that definitive decision—I can’t imagine making that decision when I was 13 or 14. These kids are locked up for crimes from petty theft to murder, and they’re making a decision to say, Even though I’m locked up, I’m going to be somebody, we’re going to win. The world may think we’re losers, but we’re going to be winners. That’s a big deal. That’s powerful. So across the board, to me, that’s what separates Gridiron Gang. But they’re all inspirational movies and they’re all good movies.

Opening so soon after Invincible
The producers of Invincible are my producers on the next family comedy [The Game Plan] I’m doing with Disney. Word travels fast in Hollywood. They were actually supposed to come out after us—like three weeks from now—and about six months ago they heard how good Gridiron Gang was and they moved before. If Invincible was not a good movie, then I would be pissed.

His next football film, The Game Plan
I play a quarterback who is on a great championship run, on the way to the Super Bowl, singing Elvis songs and driving an amazing McLaren. I’ve got the world. A bachelor’s lifestyle. I get that knock on the door. It’s a little 7-year-old girl who calls me daddy. Hi-jinks ensue, as you can imagine, in true Disney fashion. We start shooting that in two weeks and it will probably be out in the summer [of 2007].

The painful price of putting on the pads for The Game Plan
Preparing for The Game Plan, I played quarterback, I was rehearsing and I ruptured my Achilles [tendon in June]. I flew down here, saw my surgeon, he put it back together.

Gridiron Gang opened September 15. Click here for more information.

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