The
Fighter
Trivia:
'You gotta win the title. For you, for me, for Lowell.'
(Total Trivia Entries: 38)
Read The Fighter
Trivia to find out how long it took Mark Wahlberg to
prepare for this movie.
Directed by: David O. Russell
Written by:
Scott Silver (screenplay)
Paul Tamasy (screenplay & story)
Eric Johnson (screenplay & story)
Keith Dorrington (story)
Starring:
Mark Wahlberg - Micky Ward
Christian Bale - Dicky Eklund
Amy Adams - Charlene Fleming
Melissa Leo - Alice Ward
Mickey O'Keefe - Himself
Jack McGee - George Ward
Melissa McMeekin - 'Little Alice' Eklund
Bianca Hunter - Cathy 'Pork' Eklund
Erica McDermott - Cindy 'Tar' Eklund
Jill Quigg - Donna Eklund Jaynes
Dendrie Taylor - Gail 'Red Dog' Eklund
Kate B. O'Brien - Phyllis 'Beaver' Eklund
Jenna Lamia - Sherri Ward
Frank Renzulli - Sal Lanano
Paul Campbell - Gary 'Boo Boo' Giuffrida
Caitlin Dwyer - Kasie Ward
Chanty Sok - Karen
Ted Arcidi - Lou Gold
Ross Bickell - Mike Toma
Sean Malone - Wolfie
José Antonio Rivera - Gilberto Brown aka Jose
Matthew Muzio - HBO Cameraman 2
Steven Barkhimer - HBO Producer
Brian A. Nguyen - Brian
Casting:
In early 2005 Mark Mark Wahlberg joined the production, he been stated that when he joined the production he had the intention of doing Ward's life story justice. He didn't want to do any over-the-top, unrealistic fight scenes.
Mark Wahlberg decided to star in the movie due to his friendship with Micky Ward, and also based on their similar inner-city working class Massachusetts upbringings of being in families of nine kids. Wahlberg also was a huge fan of Ward's, calling him a "local sports hero."
Mark Wahlberg started training for his role in 2005 and he continued to train every day so that he could be ready for filming which finally began in July 2009. Over the four years of training he underwent a strict bodybuilding exercise regimen to obtain the muscular physique to convincingly play Ward. He stated; "The last six movies I did I was also secretly preparing for The Fighter at the same time. So I would leave three hours early for work and go to the gym and spend three hours there. I would bring the trainers with me on every movie that I did."
Wahlberg hired Freddie Roach as his boxing trainer, helping the actor model Ward's specific fighting style.The last two years of Wahlberg's training resulted in the construction of a "dream gym" in his house for daily use, with a personal boxing ring. He received additional boxing preparation from Manny Pacquiao.
In reality Micky Ward is an orthodox boxer, however, Mark Wahlberg, who is left handed, portrays him as a southpaw.
To help mimic Ward's habits and mannerisms, Wahlberg had Ward on set, watching him every single day. Also during pre-production, the Ward brothers temporarily moved into Wahlberg's home.
To make the movie more realistic movie Wahlberg refused a stunt double and took real punches during the fight scenes, this resulted in him getting his nose broken a couple of times.
According to the grapevine, Mark Wahlberg waived his own salary and did not take an upfront fee for this movie.
The actors that were attached at various points to play the role of Dicky Eklund were Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. The both dropped out due to scheduling conflicts and the role eventually went to Christian Bale.
Mark Wahlberg happened to know Christian Bale through their daughters studying in the same elementary school. Bale only got involved in the movie when Wahlberg asked him after meeting at the preschool their young daughters both attended.
Due to Eklund's drug addiction, Bale had to lose weight and he reportedly achieved the very thin frame of Dicky Eklund by eating very little. Bale prepared for the part by taking notes on Eklund's mannerisms and recording conversations for the character's distinct Boston accent, he even went missing for hours at a time as Dicky used to.
Director David O. Russell believed Bale's task involved far more than mimicry. O. Russell stated; "Dicky has a whole rhythm to him, a music. Christian had to understand how his mind works." O. Russell and Eklund were both impressed by Bale's dedication to staying in character throughout filming.
Christian Bale who plays Dicky Eklund is supposed to be 7 years older than his half brother, Micky, played by Mark Wahlberg. However, in reality, Christian Bale is 3 years younger than Mark Wahlberg.
Apparently Christian Bale was only paid $250,000 for his role.
Director, David O. Russell has said of the
actress Amy Adams as
Charlene Fleming; "There are very few things that a director can have
at his disposal better than an actress who's dying to break type and is
extremely motivated to break type. Amy was extremely motivated to play
a sexy bitch and that's who the character of Charlene is. She
said,
'As long as it happens between action and cut, I'll do anything." And I
said, "That's my kind of actress.' I loved that she had that attitude."
When Melissa Leo was offered to play the role of Alice Ward, she told director, David O. Russell, that she was too young to play the mother of Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg's characters as she is only 11 years older than Wahlberg and 14 years older than Bale.
Mickey O'Keefe, who is Micky Ward's real life trainer, was asked to appear as himself in the movie. As O'Keefe had never acted before he turned the role down. However, Mark Wahlberg told O'Keefe that as he was cop he had to act and think fast on his feet on a daily basis and apparently this was convincing enough for O'keefe to accept the role.
Apparently Michael Fassbender auditioned for a role in this movie and Emily Blunt turned down a role.
Richard Farrell, who plays one of the HBO camera men in the movie, is actually playing himself. Farrell is a filmmaker and news camera man and he directed the award-winning HBO documentary High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell (1995) which included footage of Dicky Eklund's crack addiction.
Kate O'Brien (far right in above picture), who plays Phyllis 'Beaver' Eklund, one of Ward's foul-mouthed sisters, is in fact talk show host Conan O'Brien's sister. The Fighter
marks
O'Brien's film acting debut.In the scene where a young man rushes into the restaurant to warn the Eklund-Ward family that Dicky is being beat up by the cops, the man is actually Sean Eklund, nephew of the real Micky Ward and Dick Eklund and became New England Lightweight boxing champion in 2010.
At the end if the movie, during the credits scene where the police officer jokingly arrests the real life Dick Eklunds, the officer is actually Lowell police officer, Eric Wayne. Eric's father, Gerald Wayne, was the actual police officer who arrested the real life Dick Eklund after his robbery shenanigans in the early 1990's, which were shown in The Fighter. Dick Eklund and Gerald Wayne actually maintained a mutually friendly relationship before, during and after the arrest.
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Screenplay & Production:
In July 2003 Scout Productions acquired the life rights of boxer Micky Ward and his brother, Dick Eklund. Eric Johnson and Paul Tamasy were then hired to write the screenplay, which was then rewritten by Lewis Collick.In February 2007, Paramount Pictures, hired Paul Attanasio to rewrite Lewis Collick's draft attempting to bring more into light the themes of brotherhood and redemption.
Major studios in Hollywood apparently declined to finance this movie because of Paramount's enthusiasm of the material, as Paramount executed a right of first refusal. The script eventually ended up with producer Ryan Kavanaugh, who then reworked it to make it more accessible to the audience. Kavanaugh self-funded the $25 million movie including the marketing campaign. Then when it came to the distribution stage, Paramount beat three other studios in a bidding contest for video and theatrical distribution.
In March 2007 Darren Aronofsky was hired to direct the movie and . However, Darren Aronofsky eventually left the production to work on Black Swan (2010). After he left the production, Aronofsky was given an executive producer credit for his contributions on The Fighter
, and
was enthusiastic to have David O. Russell to take over as the director.In June 2007 Mark Wahlberg was hoping to begin production in Massachusetts. Wahlberg cited Scorsese's Raging Bull as an influence for The Fighter and he wanted to get Martin Scorsese to direct the movie, so he sent Scorsese the script to read. However, Scorsese turned down the offer finding the Massachusetts setting redundant after having just finished The Departed (2006) and also he was not interested in directing another boxing movie.
In September 2007 Scott Silver was hired to rewrite the script.
Rumor has it that it was Christian Bale's idea to have David O. Russell direct The Fighter
.
Mark Wahlberg was reluctant to contact O. Russell after the harrowing
experience of working on Three
Kings (1999), but he gave in when Bale stressed that he
really wanted to work with Russell.In April 2009, Relativity Media stepped up to entirely finance the film, selling the international distribution rights to The Weinstein Company a month later.
On July 13, 2009 The Fighter began principal photography on an $11 million budget with a 33 day shooting schedule.
The movie was filmed on location in Micky Ward's hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts. The boxing matches were shot at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell, and the gym scenes were shot at Arthur Ramalho's West End Gym, which is one of the real-life facilities where Ward had trained and is still a functioning boxing gym to this day.
The interview at the start and end of the movie were improvised by Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg. They were done late at night with only Director David O. Russell, Bale, Wahlberg present. And you can see that Bale actually becomes emotional and left the couch in the end scene.
The big fight at the end of the movie was shot in Lowell at The Tsongas Arena and apparently over 200 prop dummies were used as audience to help fill up the stands.
Director, David O. Russell has stated that the end boxing-match footage was created "in big, choreographed sections that were taken directly from video of Micky's actual fights. And we used the actual commentary from HBO's Larry Merchant, Roy Jones Jr. and Jim Lampley." He continues to state that they used; "the actual cameras from that era. They were a sort of Beta video-format camera that gave a very certain look, and we actually hired the director from HBO and his crew who had done those fights to replicate them shot-for-shot."
In the fight at the end of the movie between Micky Ward and Shea Neary, the announcer Jim Lampley says; "Ward nods as if to say, 'C'mon, c'mon let's fight!Just imagine if you'd bought a ticket." these two lines are in fact taken directly from Lampley's commentary from the fight between Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti taken place in May 18th, 2002 in 9th round.
Here's a footage of interviews from the real-life Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund talking about the movie:
Want more then you can either buy it at Amazon
or enter The
Fighter's
official
website.Source:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0964517/trivia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fighter_(2010_film)
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