The Mighty Macs is not a new movie about a fast food sandwich.
In fact, “Mighty Macs” is the nickname for the women’s basketball team at Immaculata University, a team that won three consecutive AIAW national championships from 1972 to 1974.
The film based on the Mighty Macs’ first season took almost as long to come out as the Macs’ reign.
In the movie, Carla Gugino plays Cathy Rush, a former hoops star who becomes the Catholic college’s novice coach. Married to NBA ref Ed Rush (David Boreanaz of TV’s Bones), the blonde-haired force of nature faces the absence of a gym, little funding and no support from the school’s Mother Superior (Ellen Burstyn).
Written and directed by Tim Chambers, the film was completed in 2009, but only is now making its way into theaters. The G-rated indie effort sounds like—and often plays like—Hoosiers in skirts, which is not such a bad thing. Along with the Cinderella story of the underdog winning all and the formula sports stuff you’d expect, there’s a girls’ empowerment theme that speaks to kids, ‘tweens and young adults alike.
Recently in Philly were Gugino, whose jet-black hair had been turned blonde in The Mighty Macs to match Coach Rush’s locks; Boreanaz, a sports fan who was raised in the area and whose father, Dave Roberts, was a longtime weatherman at the local ABC station; and Chambers, a media entrepreneur and first-time feature writer/director on the project. Movie FanFare sat down with them for a quick scrimmage about the film.
MovieFanFare: Carla and David…Did you look forward to meeting Cathy Rush, the Immaculata coach, before you got to play her onscreen?
Carla Gugino: It would be silly if you had an opportunity to turn down meeting the real person, even though it may be intimidating. I sat down with Cathy at Immaculata. We sat at a picnic bench and chatted. It was amazing, doing this where it happened. Philly is a real character in the piece and it made a huge difference to get the feeling for it.
David Boreanaz: I actually met Ed during my freshman year in high school—not knowing I would play him in a film, that’s kind of bizarre. When I was a freshman in high school, I went to games where he was refereeing—when the Sixers were a team, and had a great squad. I could see Dr. J and Bobby Jones and Mo Cheeks and Darryl Dawkins. Ed was great—he took us in and he couldn’t have been better showing us what he did. Being a freshman in high school, it was pretty impressive. Cut to later on, and I am reading the script and I say, “I think I kind of know this guy.” I just fell in love with the story, and I was really taken in by Cathy’s journey and the people involved, the characters. It was more than just a sports film for me.
MFF: Does it feel different when you’re in the city you grew up in, David, as opposed to Los Angeles where you now live?
DB: When you get into Philly, you have a bit of a Philly swagger. The other day I was running and I was giving guys high fives. You know the character (of Ed Rush) and you put the costume on and the hair and you understand where he was coming from.
MFF: Carla, was it tricky not to do an impersonation of Cathy Rush after you met her?
CG: There is a real story here and it is Cathy’s story. I did “After the Fall” on Broadway, and the author, Arthur Miller, was still living at the time. The character I played was based on Marilyn Monroe. I thought it was important for me not to do an impression of her. If you do an imitation, you can get attention for a good imitation, but the story then doesn’t come first. So my job in this film as an actor is to reveal the essence of Cathy’s spirit. We talked about this, and this was the way to go. No matter how many mannerisms you have, it doesn’t reveal what is inside of somebody, and it doesn’t help.
MFF: Tim Chambers…Can you tell us what you learned while making this film, which took so long from concept to distribution.
Tim Chambers: I learned so much about the message of the movie as we were making the film and showing it in festivals. You realize you have a commitment and perseverance, and ultimately what it comes down to is you believe in the product and commitment so much. You just can’t help but see it through. We never lost faith in the movie. The reality is that people don’t understand the business of it all. There’s an economic tsunami and the markets collapse. It’s foolish not to understand the only thing left standing would be The Mighty Macs movie. You deal with the business side of it. It’s the hardest thing and least enjoyable. We all love to create and love the finished product, but then there’s the other stuff.
MFF: So now that’s finally getting released…?
TC: Now I feel like an eighteen-year-old kid who has to move out of his house. And you say, “I’ve done everything I can.” You say, “I’ve loved you so much, but now you are going out to the marketplace and I hope you do well.” I’ve had an unwavering belief in the movie and that never died.
MFF: Other than the underdog story, Tim, was there anything else that compelled you to make this film?
TC: I understood the nuances. The first time I saw the Mighty Macs, they came to practice in my grade school gym. There was confidence and leadership and swagger, and you don’t forget that. You are just in awe. We really wanted to show that the players were really, really good and we wanted to show that they wanted to play for this coach. That’s the presence Cathy Rush has. That was important. We had to make sure you believe in the girls’ skill level, too. You wouldn’t believe in their story. We auditioned over 500 girls for seven roles.
MFF: What was the toughest part of making this film, Carla?
CG: Everyday, you have so many challenges…always. You lost a location, the lights go down. An independent movie, you have lots of those. The biggest learning curve for me was familiarizing myself with the game of basketball. It was important that I understood everything and that I could draw out the plays I needed to.
MFF: You’ve done projects with big budgets and smaller budgets, Carla. Can you compare working on an independent film like The Mighty Macs with working on a big budget movie?
CG: There is value to both, but if you are doing a movie at a certain budget, there is no doubt why people are there other than believing this story you are telling. I can say that in most cases, I am happy to be there, and I don’t know how to be good if I don’t believe in it. If it doesn’t resonate, I don’t know how to be good. A lot of people punch a time card on movies where you make a lot of money. But in this case, it was to get it made the best way we could, and that is really wonderful. If you have a lot of time on the schedule, you lose the creative energy. If you can’t throw money at a problem, you have to become creative in regard to how to fix it.