Kevin Costner stars in Draft Day, which comes out this Friday. He says that it’s a very authentic football movie.
Costner is the midst of a career resurgence with films like Man of Steel, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, and 3 Days to Kill, and it just wouldn’t be right to not have that list include a sports movie, which Costner is beloved for with films such as Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, For Love of the Game, and Tin Cup.
Draft Day will mark Costner’s first foray into the football sub-genre of sports movies, and it’ll also be the first ever football movie that the NFL has cooperated in the production of. This will allow for real teams and real football celebrities to be in the movie, and it will be exciting to finally see that.
This film too has a strong supporting cast. Jennifer Garner, Tom Welling, Terry Crews, Sam Elliott, Ellen Burstyn, and David Ramsey will join Costner for Draft Day.
The authenticity of the film has been something of a concern, but when talking to HitFix, Costner says it was done right.
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“We’ve been so privy to what’s going on in sports the last 25 years because of ESPN,” Costner said in response to how he got the knowledge needed for his Draft Day role. “We hear general managers fighting with GMs, with owners. We know the dialogue. If it didn’t ring true in this movie I would have said something.”
Current NFL running back Arian Foster (who plays a small, but important part in the film) also agrees that the film is authentic.
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“In my opinion it does [get it right], very much so,” Foster said. “I’m in the NFL now and guys get drafted every year and come through when you watch on TV the emotions that go through that day of the draft. It’s very real.”
Though it is very authentic, Jennifer Garner says that the film is accessible to anyone.
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“I don’t think you have to know football at all,” Garner said. “I think you could look at it purely from a relationship point of view and have a great time just watching the romance of it or the relationship between Kevin [Costner]’s character and his mom. It’s so rich in so many ways. It has to be a good movie. The fact that sports is a backdrop makes it interesting and fun in its own way, but the movie itself has to stand alone.”
Often times actors say things to shed a good light on their film, but the Draft Day stars are absolutely correct here. More on that in our review which publishes Friday, the day the film is released.