Of course, those of us doing the running scenes with Leto were having a hard
time not tripping over him :-) Have you ever tried to run 70 pace while
looking like your running 64 pace and suffering?
It really was amazing how good the make-up people were on this. John Hill,
an All-American steepler from Washington State, was Leto's double for a lot
of the running scenes - everybody called him "Fake-Pre". They would use
John to set up the shots - we extras running along with him. Then Leto
would step in and they would shoot 'for real'. It was weird how much he
looked like phots I had seen of Prefontaine, and yet was still recognizable
as John.
Leto was nice enough, but definitely didn't have a realistic idea of how
fast runners really were. The story was that Hill was actually the second
choice for Leto's double. Apparantly Jonathan Swanson originally had the
job, a Club Northwest guy with a 3:43ish 1500 speed. Unfortunatly Swanson
was a little too competitive. Leto had trained some for the running scenes
and was feeling pretty good about the 400m splits he was running and let
people know it. Swanson had had enough at one point and simply buried Leto
over the next 400. Thus, a new 'Fake-Pre' was born :-)
Disclaimer - I don't know if I have the story completely right, please check
with the next rumor-monger for a different version.
Cheers,
Buck - A.K.A. Ted Castaneda
-----Original Message-----
From: T. Jordan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Friday, February 02, 2001 1:34 PM
Subject: t-and-f: Lifelike Portrayals
Philip Weishaar wrote:
<2) Without Limits was listed as one of the best sports movies nobody saw.
In fact many in the filming <industry feel Billy Crudup's portrail of Pre
was more life-like than any such attempt of an actor playing <an athlete
including biggies like DeNiro playing the boxer in Raging Bull.>
Crudup did an excellent job portraying Pre, IMO. Also doing a superb job,
in a movie seen by even fewer than "Without Limits", was Jared Leto, who
played the lead in "Prefontaine". Leto even got Pre's speech pattern down,
as well as looking eerily like him when in full make-up. I was on the
infield of the stadium in Tacoma where some of the track scenes were being
filmed, talking to Mac Wilkins (who had a cameo in the movie as a discus
official announcing, "Next up, Wilkins"). Leto came walking across the
infield towards us, wearing the Oregon singlet and shorts. I got
chills. Mac murmured, "Unbelievable". The first time Steve's mom saw Leto
in his sideburns, mustache, and long hair, she broke into tears. It was an
amazing resemblance. Leto also turned out to be quite an athlete. The
director (who did "Hoop Dreams") kept asking Leto to start at the 300 and
accelerate to the finish, for take after take. I estimated Leto averaged
66 pace for each 300 acceleration (starting at about 72 pace and ending at
60 pace), and I counted 8 takes before they were through. Leto had to soak
his feet in ice-water afterwards, they were so beat up. Never complained,
never asked to take a break. Remarkable resemblance, in more ways than one.
Tom Jordan
author of "PRE"
