A struggling racewalking coach and a washed-up pro baseball player with a surprisingly natural stride team up to take on the best walker in the sport. Intrigued? We sure were when we heard about ‘Racewalkers’. Armin Sethi chats with Kevin Claydon and Phil Moniz, co-directors, co-writers, cast members and executive producers for ‘Racewalkers’, funded by Telefilm Canada and Ontario Creates. The film follows Will, who could never compete in the sport he’s always loved: racewalking. While struggling to find respect as a coach, Will’s fortunes change when he spots a burnout pitcher named Matt, with the most impeccable racewalking stride he’s ever seen. Together, Will and Matt team up, face the challenges of a sport that doesn’t want them, and try to take down the best walker in the country.
This might be an obvious question – but why Racewalking? Did anyone try to talk you out of it?
We’ve always been fans of sports comedy movies like ‘Cool Runnings’, ‘Major League’, and ‘Happy Gilmore’. We were looking at what our own sports comedy might look like when our co-writer and producer, Evan Landry, came across some racewalking clips. It was a sport we were all vaguely aware of, having watched it at the Olympics, and as we learned more about it, we thought it would be a great sport to explore and be something audiences hadn’t seen before. The more we explored, the more we came to respect and love the sport with all its quirks and the impressive athletes and members of the community who came on board to help us. No one tried to talk us out of it, but Kevin did have some brief reservations when he saw the length of the shorts.
What was the research process like? Did you meet any racewalkers before writing the script?
The research was a ton of fun. We were able to work with Canadian bronze medalist Evan Dunphy, who not only consulted but also appears in the movie as one of our walkers. We also enlisted the help of one of the premier race walking coaches in Canada, Stafford Whelan, who trained all of our actors and helped connect us to the broader community and show us around at some local events. It was great learning about the sport – some of the stories we couldn’t even put into the movie because they seemed too ridiculous. And it was awesome the way the community embraced us and welcomed us in.
Was there a moment while making the film when you felt like underdogs yourselves?
Probably the entire time. A movie like this can only happen with an insane amount of support. From Telefilm and Ontario Creates, our partners at Collective Pictures and Zerotrillion, all the way through to our amazing cast and crew – everyone really worked their butts off to make this happen. The moment it felt the most real was day 1 of shooting. We had all of our racewalkers, cast, and crew together shooting our first race scene. And when we rolled the camera and saw it all come together on the track, we thought “God, look at all these people. We REALLY hope this works.”
What was more challenging: convincing people to take racewalking seriously or convincing them to finance a racewalking movie? What allowed ‘Racewalkers’ to actually get across the finish line?
I’m not sure it’s easy to convince anyone to finance a movie regardless of the amount of racewalking in it. But we definitely benefited from a ton of faith by our Partners at Collective and Zerotrillian. Luckily, they saw the vision and the love with which we were approaching both the film and the sport. We definitely were not aiming to punch down at it, and we think (and hope) that really comes through.
You’ve worked on other projects together before. What was the biggest challenge you faced while co-writing and co-directing this film?
Time. It’s always time. Wearing a lot of hats definitely means really knowing how to manage your time and work efficiently. Luckily, we had a ton of talented people around to help us. The advantage we have is we’ve been friends and working together for so long that there is very little messing about when ideating and problem solving – which is good because you really don’t have any time to waste.
How do you know when you’ve nailed a performance when you’re also directing? What was the biggest challenge of being in front of and behind the camera? Did acting make you more empathetic directors?
It’s definitely hard to be completely objective when you are in a scene. Rehearsing helped us a ton – it allowed us to work out the kinks of scenes we had together – which was a lot. The biggest challenge was when we were on screen together, and the schedule demanded that there was no time to watch playback. That was where it was insanely helpful to have Evan Landry behind the monitor to help us know if we had gotten it or not. When not on screen together, it was just about trusting the other person to take the scene in hand from the directing side. Acting is a hard job. Any time you are on camera, your appreciation of other actors grows for sure. We like to think our experience on both sides of the camera allows us to be empathetic towards what everyone is doing. Although I guess you’d have to ask our cast and camera teams if they agree.
Phil Moniz’s character is a coach struggling to be taken seriously – what conversations did you have about representation? Was it important that the character’s ambitions extend far beyond his physical condition?
We think representation is important and that it can take many forms. For this story, we felt the priority was to have Will’s experiences be baked into his character and the film itself, without it necessarily becoming the central focus of the story. There’s something special about creating a character that has so much specificity, but at his heart has struggles and desires that are relatable to anyone. We think it highlights our similarities while celebrating our differences.
What attracted actors like Robbie Amell to such an unconventional premise? How did the cast help shape the film beyond what was on the page?
You’d have to ask Robbie, but I think he recognized the heart and humour in the script that the three of us were going for. This movie also doesn’t happen without him and Collective, so thank goodness for that. Overall, our cast had a huge part in shaping this movie. We like to think we are okay writers, but characters really come alive through performance. Robbie, Italia Ricci, Jess Salgueiro, Rebecca Francoz, Ryan Blakely, Greg Bryk, and the rest of our players took these characters and not only made them their own but elevated them way beyond what we had envisioned.
What surprised you most about the leap from shorts to a feature? What mistakes did you make that you’d never want to repeat?
What surprised us the most was really the number of days involved. On short projects, you often only have a day or two to get the whole thing, so it’s a mad dash for a quick conclusion. On a feature, even one that didn’t have a ton of shooting days like this, it feels different to be doing the same thing every day, and to be problem-solving along the way as opposed to trying to get everything locked in by the time the cameras roll. We made some mistakes for sure. Assuming that shooting in October would mean that Phil would be comfortable in tracksuits while Kevin was freezing in short-shorts was definitely one of them (it was like 28 degrees). But overall, I think we also learned that gathering talented people around you and leaning on them is the only way to make something great.
Photo Credits: Collective.
