kuno becker on GOAL!
Surrounded by free champagne and more meat pies than you could shake a stick at, Edward Vaughan-Hughes caught up with the gorgeous Kuno Becker at the Manchester premiere of Goal! while the Film Editor Rowan Woods valiantly held the dictaphone and desperately tried not to swoon.
Are you nervous about how a nation of football fans will respond to Goal!?
People’s response to the film has been great. I’m not a huge football fan, but I loved it because of the story. One of the great things about it is that all kinds of people will enjoy it – even women, which I didn’t think was going to happen, because it’s not just about football, it’s about the story and I think that’s great. We do have great football scenes, but this is football from a different point of view, from the inside, about the people, the feelings, the relationships – everything.
Did you play football as a kid?
I played for my school but I wasn’t a huge fan, I wasn’t the best one in the team, not even close!
Did that mean you had to train quite extensively?
Yeah I spent a lot of months, and a lot of hours a day training to become Santiago. It was pretty hard. I broke my ankles and my nose. My body wasn’t used to it, so pretending to be a professional football player was tough.
You starred alongside some famous faces from the world of football: what was it like to appear with Becks and Zidane?!
It was great. They were very cool and very nice but the most important thing was that it gave us a sense of realism, which is great for the film because people are really going to believe the story with them involved, and that was our goal.
Moving swiftly on, what was it like seeing the footballers act; were some better than others? [Pepsi ad alarm bells]
No, no they just all suck!
AhHa! An admission on record! Next question…
No, no I’m just joking they were actually great, they were very natural, funny and charming and they did a great job which people are really going to enjoy.
What was it like filming during real matches?
Running onto the pitch with the crowd there was really beautiful. It’s the first time that it’s been done and again its going to give us that sense of realism that you just don’t see in films, especially football films. It was great to feel the energy of 50,000 people cheering the team – it’s like being a rock star I think, you can’t describe it.
Why did you choose Newcastle United?
Well we actually wanted Man Utd for the film but we couldn’t do it so we had to use Newcastle instead.
Well obviously…
No that’s a joke too!
