it's a goal!
He's the star of a football film trilogy who can't play football, but Kuno Becker broke his ankles and his nose while learing to protray the beautiful game. He talks to Steve Pratt about the toughest role of his life.
Kuno Becker looks every inch the footballer in the soccer movie Goal! but until he was 17 he was more interested in the arts than sport. Born and raised in Mexico City, he studied the violin in Austria from the age of six. Only as a teenager did he decide to switch to acting.
He says. "I was not into football. That's what's great about this film for me because I wanted to do something that's different for me. It makes no sense to do something I'm used to doing. And I believe Goal! is more about the story than the football."
Becker, now 27, became a teen heartthrob in the US and Latin America through the TV series Sonadoras, picking up several best young actor awards in the process. Goal! is his sixth movie - after starring in 5 other hollywood films.
As Santiago Munez, he's an illegal immigrant from Mexico whose soccer skills are spotted on the streets of Los Angeles by a former Newcastle United player and coach. The first part of the planned trilogy follows Santiago's rise to footballing fame finds him signed up to play at St James' Park. Future movies follow his career to Real Madrid and the World Cup. Transforming himself into a player meant spending four months in Newcastle training with the squad and undertaking a fitness regime in the gym. Along the way, he had to cope with several injuries.
"Physically, it was just exhausting and painful - I broke my ankles and my nose," says Becker. Just as Santiago has to prove himself to the Newcastle manager, the actor had to do a football trial before getting the role. "I had a trainer for a couple of weeks and was training a little bit too much and broke my ankles, had a stress fracture," he says.
"I couldn't walk for three weeks. I had to ice my feet every two hours every single day and take pills for the pain. My nose was broken filming scenes in London. Someone hit me, it was an accident. It's not a big deal. It was just a pain in the butt."
If playing the game was hard, surviving the winter weather in the North-East was even tougher. He's used to smog in Mexico City but the wind, the rain and cold made his time in Newcastle an uncomfortable one. "It was very hard," he says.
"I was shooting in minus I don't know what wearing shorts. I was always wet. It was one of the toughest things I've ever done physically. In the trial scene, I couldn't feel my hands or legs. I don't know how the girls do it, they're in mini-skirts. It's crazy."
He may have been a football novice but when it came to filming a scene with real life soccer legend David Beckham, who plays himself in a guest appearance, it was Becker who was being asked for advice. "He was really relaxed and said to me, 'Do you think it's okay?'," he recalls. "I'm not an acting coach, I told him to just try to enjoy it because we're fortunate to be part of this film."
Becker has nothing but praise for Newcastle and its people. "It's a beautiful city, great people and beautiful stadium," he says. His only regret is that the tight shooting schedule left him little time to explore the city and its nightlife. "I was shooting from early morning to late at night. I was so exhausted," he explains.
He's now preparing to start principal shooting on Goal! 2 which follows Santiago to Real Madrid and soccer superstar status with all the fame and fortune that entails. Instead of the North-East of England, he gets to film in Madrid, Milan and Tokyo.
"It's about how he becomes a famous footballer and how he deals with everything that comes with it," says Becker. "There are many things I can relate to, and other things that are different from me, this is what attracted me to the role and I'm happy to be working."
