Those associated with Mt. Pleasant Area Junior-Senior High School who venture out this weekend to see the major motion picture “Foxcatcher,” might see a familiar face or two on the silver screen.
The Golden Globe Award-nominated film, scheduled to be released locally Friday, was filmed in western Pennsylvania in the fall of 2012, and appearing in the production will be school Principal Ken Williams and junior high school health and physical education instructor B.J. Mikeska.
Based on true events, “Foxcatcher,” directed by Bennett Miller, tells the story of the relationship between eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont and two champion wrestlers.
To lend authenticity to the movie, Miller hired local people who had experience in wrestling to portray wrestlers and coaches in the movie.
In September 2012, Williams said he received an email that was sent to all of the principals and athletic directors in the WPIAL notifying them of an open casting call for the movie at Canon McMillan High School.
A wrestler in high school and a former wrestling coach at Fox Chapel High School, Williams said he had the day free and decided to give it a try.
“I was just really curious to see how the whole process worked,” Williams said.
During the open call, Williams said that after asking if he could audition for more than one role, he was pulled out from the others and asked to read for the role of an athletic director.
A week or two later, he received a call asking him to go to Penn Hills to audition for the role of a wrestling dad in the film, he said.
He said when he arrived at the audition he got quite an unexpected surprise.
“On the receptionist's desk was my head shot and information and right next to it was the head shot of Steve Carell,” Williams said.
Steve Carell, an actor who starred on the television show “The Office” and the film “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” portrays John du Pont in the film, which has garnered him Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe awards nominations for the category “Best Actor in a Motion Picture.”
Williams said afterward he received a call telling him he did not get the role of the wrestling dad but was asked to go to West Mifflin High School to audition for a different role.
He said when he got there he was surprised to be told to go get into costume.
“I had never done any acting or anything like this before, and I was given a costume for the role of a coach and sent to makeup,” Williams said.
Before he knew it, he was being pulled out to be a stand-in for actor Mark Ruffalo who portrays “Dave Schultz” in the movie.
Ruffalo, an Academy Award-nominated thespian best known for his role as “Bruce Banner/The Hulk,” has already earned both SAG and Golden Globe awards nominations in the category of “best supporting actor” for his role as Schultz.
“I'm the same size as Mark Ruffalo, so the next three hours I did stand in for him ... before he came onto the set,” Williams said.
Williams said he was very impressed by the director who made full use of the expertise the wrestlers and coaches brought to the set.
“Bennett Miller is not a wrestling guy, so he would come to us to ask those of us who had experience if what he was doing was realistic. He treated us like colleagues. That was very impressive,” Williams said.
He said he spent 11 days on the set at West Mifflin High School, and another few days at the Peterson Event Center working as an extra, or so he thought.
“At this point, I didn't realize I was being cast,” he said.
But it wasn't until the film set moved to Washington High School that Williams realized he was actually cast as “Coach Ken,” one of the coaches for the character Mark Schultz, who is portrayed by actor Channing Tatum.
Tatum has appeared in numerous major motion pictures, including “21 Jump Street,” and “Magic Mike.”
“The last few days they had me working directly with Channing Tatum as a coach in his corner. I spent a lot of time with him and Mark Ruffalo,” Williams said.
Then the movie's assistant director told Williams he would have on-screen credit so he would need to fill out all of the paperwork necessary for SAG and sign all of the contracts.
“At that point I realized that I am actually going to be in this movie now, which was pretty awesome,” he said.
Williams said he was able to spend a lot of time with Tatum and Ruffalo in between scenes just talking, but since Carell was deep in character he was not to be disturbed.
“It was nice to get to know them as people,” he said.
Williams said at one point during the filming he was in a scene with Carell, Tatum, Ruffalo and stage-and-screen legend Vanessa Redgrave, who plays Jean du Pont.
“The whole experience was absolutely incredible,” Williams said.
Williams said he has seen the movie twice so far, first at a private showing for the cast and crew on Nov. 6, and then a second time at the recently held Pittsburgh Film Festival.
“It's surreal. It's odd because the first time I watched it I spent a lot of time remembering what was happening on the set when we were shooting the scenes, so I didn't pay as much attention to the movie the first time. But the second time I watched it was a very different experience,” he said.
Williams added that, while acting or being in a movie was never even on his radar, he is grateful for the experience and he would definitely do it again.
Mikeska said he spent two days on set at the Petersen Events Center portraying the head coach of the Bulgarian wrestling team.
Mikeska said he received an email about the casting call, as well, and decided to check it out.
“It was a wrestling movie, and it was being shot here,” he said. “I've wrestled my whole life, and these opportunities don't come around very often.”
Mikeska has not yet had the chance to see the movie, but he said he is looking forward to it.
“Not just because I'm in it, but because I think the story is interesting,” Mikeska said.
High school secretary Brenda Funk said she has seen some of the trailers for the movie, and she is anticipating taking it in when it comes out this weekend.
“It was exciting seeing my boss in a trailer for a major motion picture. I'd like to see it. It looks very interesting,” Funk said.
Linda Harkcom is a contributing writer for Trib Total Media.
