Harmony, balance and rhythm. They’re the three things that stay with you your whole life.
Those aren't just words from Daniel James Brown's 2013 book "The Boys in the Boat." It's a robust parallel between the USA rowing team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the actors -- including Joel Edgerton, Callum Turner, Peter Guinness and more -- starring in the upcoming movie of the same name.
The film, which releases on Dec. 25, 2023, is the ninth directed by George Clooney.
It delves into the miraculous story of Team USA's arduous success in the rowing competition of the 1936 Games during the Great Depression, a team comprised of working-class men from the University of Washington: rowers Herbert Morris, Charles Day, Gordon Adam, John White, James McMillin, George Hunt, Joe Rantz and Donald Hume, and coxswain Robert Moch.
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But there was a tangible difference between the rowing team of 1936 and the actors portraying them in the 2023 film. One group won a gold medal. The other didn't know how to row.
The actors didn't necessarily have time on their side, either. In fact, they had just an eight-week trial during filming to row at an adequate level. Olympians have every four years to hone their respective crafts.
The challenge of improving the actors' abilities came down to Olympic rowing coach Terry O'Neill, who was chosen by Clooney to lead the group. But there was another issue: O'Neill isn't a teacher.
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"When I was first asked to do it, I said, no, I don't want to do that," O'Neill said in a behind-the-scenes interview with NBC. "I'm not a rowing teacher. There's a difference. I'm a high-performance coach. I've coached at the Olympic Games, World Championships, but I've never ever taught anyone to row that couldn't row."
But O'Neill said he eventually had the help of a rowing teacher, and he devised a plan to get the actors to go from learning from scratch to just competency. They didn't need to be Olympians, they just couldn't "fall apart under pressure."
O'Neill broke it all down into three sections: getting familiar with the sequence of movements of the body, the legs, the trunk and the arms; controlling the oar in a rowing tank; then putting them in a racing boat, swim-or-drown style.
Did it always work? No. They started in January in England, which brought cold, wet and windy winter conditions. O'Neill mentioned using humor to brighten the scene when morale felt low.
"When I could see the guys getting stressed, you know, I explained to them, 'Look, you don't learn in a straight line. The way people learn to do something is they try, they fail, they consider, adjust, try again until they're successful.'
"So, this means that your progress isn't a straight line, it goes like that. So bad days are just part of improving and that you have to expect that some days are gonna be worse and this is just a normal part of the learning process."
While the actors spent considerable time in boats, O'Neill said they couldn't get Clooney to get in one. O'Neill, though, was intrigued about why Clooney chose to make a film about rowing.
Still, O'Neill is looking forward to the movie's release and what it could do for the rowing community.
"It can't do [the sport of rowing] harm," O'Neill said. "I mean, the amount of excitement about the film when it comes out is great. And ... obviously every person that I know that rows just can't wait to see the film, but also some members of my family that are not really that interested in rowing, they want to see the film, as well."
Harmony, balance and rhythm were fundamentals when Team USA edged Italy and Germany by less than a second in 1936. They will be yet again when the actors are on screen.
