“Out of all the things you do in life, there’s one minute where you feel like the most important thing in the world because everyone is watching you.” —Leo Brock in the movie “Jockey”, played by real-life racer Logan Cormier.
Horse racing returns to the silver screen this winter with the release of “Jockey,” albeit with a different focus from Hollywood blockbusters like “Seabiscuit” and “Secretary.” This time, the action is not based on a true story and a famous horse, but on an old, ailing horseman whose hope endures in the twilight of his profession.
The film opens December 29 in Los Angeles and New York before opening nationwide in early 2022.
Appropriately, it was in the twilight hours that the shooting took place. Taken most of the three weeks at Turf Paradise in Phoenix in early 2020, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, its setting was often when the last rays of the day sunk into the Arizona landscape, bathing the characters in light and shadow.
Directed by Clint Bentley, who co-wrote the screenplay with Greg Kwedar, the film stars Clifton Collins Jr. as Jackson Silva, a fictional jockey facing pain, fractures, and the onset of degenerative neurological disease. Collins also served as an executive producer.
Clifton Collins Jr plays the equestrian Jackson Silva in the movie “Jockey”, which was filmed at Turf Paradise
Molly Parker and Moises Arias co-star, with Parker as Ruth Wilkes, a promising young man’s coach; Arias plays Gabriel Boullait, an inexperienced racer who arrives in town claiming to be Silva’s son.
“My (deceased) father was a cyclist,” Bentley said. “And I grew up in this world of horse racing, going race after track and seeing that life. And (I) felt there was a void in the racing movies that didn’t really show up. life is about horse racing and doesn’t show much of what it’s like to be behind the barn. And so that was the first kind of process before Greg and I got in and started writing and building a movie. from that. “
“Jockey” focuses more on the characters’ relationships and their interactions in the back-and-back riders’ room than on showing the horses regularly swooping down the ramp.
“We’re taking them around the back in such a way that they feel like they’re really going through a journey into a world,” Bentley said.
WATCH: Filmmakers Discuss Making ‘Jockey’ Film
It’s not hard to imagine Collins or Arias as racehorses, as they’re surrounded by real-life racers starring in the movies. Logan Cormier, whose own equestrian career has been derailed by crime and drug abuse, has his most memorable role as Leo Brock, a character who ends up hospitalized after being injured in a car accident. race. It’s one of his lines featured in the movie’s trailer.
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Turf Paradise racer Scott Stevens also had a small role, and other riders — some active at the time, some retired — appeared.
Stevens, whose brother Gary was in the Hall of Fame as George Woolf in “Seabiscuit,” also served as the film’s technical advisor, as did Quarter-horse cyclist GR Carter and trainer Stacy Campo . Scott Stevens said his main task is to ensure authenticity in the film. He noted that his acting role could have been even bigger.
“I had a scene where I actually punched the bug boy in the race, in the movie – What the hell is his name?” he said. “Because I said a few rude words when I hit him, I think, now my grandchildren won’t watch the movie. But that part came out, so that’s good.”
Scott and Gary Stevens are in a select company, seemingly the first brothers to win 5,000 races each and star in two Hollywood movies. Both are retired.
Scott Stevens after scoring his 5,000th career win after racing at Turf Paradise
Scott Stevens said filming mostly took place at sunrise and sunset, done outside of race time at Turf Paradise.
“We’ve shot some scenes before (racing), like early morning, early morning scenes. The way they did it — I mean, low budget, you know, these guys don’t have fancy gear. like,” he called back. “And then they’ll do some of that after the races because they’re really important in terms of light. The sunset has to be just right. And that’s basically when we do that. I think we did. two days when it’s a day off.”
With a more prominent role than Stevens in the film is Turf Paradise general manager, Vince Francia, who plays Ronnie Langford, a veterinarian who x-rays the protagonist and advises him to see a doctor. That scene also made the trailer.
When he was first offered the role, Francia said he initially thought the filmmakers were just doing it as a thank you gesture for allowing filming in Lawn Paradise. In the end, he accepted the opportunity and found himself one with Collins, a seasoned TV and film actor, as Bentley filmed.
Francia never acted.
“Even though I suppose I’ve been mayor of Cave Creek for 16 years, and I’ve been in Turf Paradise, oh my god, for 30 years, maybe that could be considered action,” quipped Francia.
Initially, they tried a few times, according to the scenario, without the desired results. So they changed everything.
“There’s nothing ‘Hollywood’ about Clifton; he’s very approachable,” Francia said. “We looked at each other, and we asked Clint, ‘Can you tell us – We know what you want. We know what this is called. Let us advertise, take it from there? ” – And so he did, and we lost, I think about 10 took two hours, and that’s the result. “
Another result was that Francia received a check for her work from the Screen Actors Guild. “It’s framed,” he said.
Collins received the US Drama Special Jury’s Award at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival for his performance in the film. Bentley said: The festival landing was “unbelievable” for the exposure and distribution to “Jockey”.
Bentley said of Sundance: “It has so many great films from the American indie scene and the world independent cinema. “We’ve always dreamed of having a movie screening there. We’ve sent a lot of movies that haven’t been shown, and this one, not only went to Sundance, but was picked by Sony Pictures Classic, which if you’re trying to find. distributor for a movie like this who will really take care of it and really put it out into the world and in a really thoughtful way you can’t find a better partner than Sony Classics.”
Kwedar noted how the Turf Paradise staff and local horsemen facilitated the filming process, “opening up their world to us.”
Still image of a horse race taken during the filming of “Jockey” at Turf Paradise
Turf Paradise’s choice is also unique in that it’s not an A-list track like Santa Anita . Park or Keeneland, which was previously used for movies. Turf Paradise, which premiered in 1956, is a song for the working class that, like the film’s protagonist, shows signs of age.
“The Turf Paradise itself, off the axis already provided, still offers an iconic sense of the contiguous location of its heyday, when old Hollywood stars flew out for the weekend and will Stay in their best Sunday, age and character show but still looks like its former glory,” said Kwedar.
Francia said he is working to get a private screening of the film for local horsemen, perhaps in March, at Turf Paradise or at a movie theater.
Stevens expects those who see the film to enjoy it.
“I think it turned out pretty well. Well, obviously because it (made) the Sundance Film Festival,” he said. “They told me this was like buying a horse for $5,000 and winning the Kentucky Derby for what they did with it.”
