STACK Issue 151 May 2017

30 / 92

30 MAY 2017
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MilesTeller didn't shed blood in his preparation to play real-life boxer Vinny
Pazienza in Bleed for This, but the physical training was intense. Words Gill Pringle
Miles Teller deserved an
Oscar nod for this underdog
movie about World
Champion boxer, Vinny Pazienza,
AKA “The Pazmanian devil”.
Perhaps it wasn’t Teller’s time,
or maybe Bleed for This suffered
from coming on the heels of
a surfeit of boxing movies –
Southpaw, Creed, Hands of Stone.
Whatever the reasons, Teller gives
one of the most extraordinary
and overlooked performances
of last year.
Every boxing movie is a
redemption tale in some form,
but what makes Pazienza’s story
so inspirational is the fact of his
triumphant return to the ring after a
near-fatal car crash left him with a
broken neck and the prognosis that
he may never walk again.
When STACK meets with Teller
in Los Angeles, he explains how his
thrill at winning the role was quickly
replaced by the “oh sh-t” factor.
“I knew that boxing training was
going to be the toughest physical
training that I’d ever done by far,
and I think it’s kind of unparalleled
in sports. I spent eight months
Fighting Fit
working out and dieting, but once
I got close to shooting, I had a
fight camp of my own which was
four hours boxing, two hours
weights, and then two hours of
accent dialect. And also some
physical therapy throughout all of
it, because I was hurting. It was by
far the most prep that I ever did for
a character,” says the actor, who
trained with former Golden Gloves
champion Darrell Foster, whose
previous clients include Sugar Ray
Leonard and Will Smith.
Interestingly, Teller refused to
meet with the larger-than-life cocky
Rhode Island boxer while preparing
for the role. “I didn’t want to meet
Vinny, 'cause he’s 25 years older
now, so I didn’t want to have that
somehow absorb into the character
because he’s different now, and on
YouTube, there’s a ton of material
out there of Vinny at that age.
Not just his fights, but also his
interviews."
Pazienza’s long painful road to
recovery after his car accident was
something Teller related to on a
personal level, having been involved
in a near-fatal car crash, leaving him
with facial scars that threatened to
derail his career.
“I could really relate to the
aftermath and period of recovery,"
he says. "I was getting laser
treatments, and I had casting
directors tell me it didn’t make
sense for a character to have scars,
and so I got told ‘No’ a bunch, until
John Cameron Mitchell cast me in
Rabbit Hole.
“You get pretty introspective,
and then the fact that I should have
died in a car accident, and I didn’t,
and then my two best friends died
in car accidents, five weeks from
each other, less than a year later,"
he adds. "I just like went through a
lot of moments of confusion, and
despair and grief, and then some
kind of clarity, and I just think you
learn a lot about yourself.
"And Vinny? Man, that guy knew
who he was. In real life, he had
broken his neck, and five days later,
he was trying to bench press.”
Nearly every great boxing movie
features a great trainer, whether
it’s Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man),
Sly Stallone (Creed) or Burgess
Meredith (Rocky). In Bleed for This,
Aaron Eckhart does the honours
as Kevin Rooney, who
likewise sought redemption
by training Paz after he
was sacked by Mike Tyson.
“This movie is about
It was by far the most
prep that I ever did
for a character
dreams. It’s about saying ‘Yes’ to
yourself, at the peril of your life,
and saying ‘No’ to everybody else
around you, because you believe in
yourself,” says Eckhart.
Executive produced by Martin
Scorsese, Bleed for This brings
to fruition a scenario Pazienza
envisioned more than twenty years
ago: “Once I decided I was going to
box again or die trying, I remember
thinking, ‘This is gonna make for a
great movie one day.’ I saw myself
on the set telling Tom Cruise how
to act like Vinny Paz.”
• Bleed for
This
is out May 3
WHIPLASH
Teller drums up a storm as the
ambitious young musician at the
heart of Damien Chazelle's cliché-
smashing student/teacher drama.
WAR DOGS
As a massage therapist turned
military arms contractor, Teller learns
a thing or two about the art of the
con from Jonah Hill.
THE DIVERGENT SERIES
As a member of the Dauntless
faction, Teller proved a worthy rival
to new recruit Shailene Woodley in
the ill-fated young adult trilogy.
FANTASTIC FOUR
Teller found his acting abilities
stretched as elastic hero Reed
Richards/Mr. Fantastic, in a film that
wasn't exactly fantastic.
You can
bank on
Teller