Tagline: Grab life by the ball.
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. Peter LaFleur (Vince Vaughn), is a charismatic underachiever and proprietor of a rundown gym called Average Joe’s. The facility’s clientele of decidedly less-than-“average Joes” is made up of a self-styled pirate, a scrawny nerd who dreams of impressing an unattainable cheerleader, an obsessive aficionado of obscure sports, a dim-witted young man, and a cocky know-it-all who, of course, really knows nothing. Peter’s humble gym catches the eye of White Goodman (Ben Stiller), the power-mullet-sporting, Fu-Manchu-d, egomaniacal owner of Globo Gym, a gleaming monolith of fitness. White intends to take over Average Joe’s, and Peter’s non-existent bookkeeping is making it all too easy for him.
A foreclosing bank has stationed attorney Kate Veatch (Christine Taylor) inside Average Joe’s to finalize Globo’s takeover of the gym. But Peter’s boyish charms win her over and Kate joins his team of social rejects to beat the odds – and their own ineptitude – to try to save Average Joe’s. How? A showdown dodgeball competition against Globo Gym. For his feature film directorial debut, Thurber, a sports fanatic who gained industry attention with his “Terry Tate: Office Linebacker” commercial spots for Reebok, wanted to merge the worlds of athletics and comedy.
DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story is a 2004 American sports comedy film written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber and starring Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Christine Taylor, Rip Torn, Julie Gonzalo, Stephen Root, Chris Williams, Jason Bateman, Missi Pyle, Jamal Duff and Alan Tudyk.
About The Film
Dodgeball, he concluded, was the perfect sport to do that. “No one takes dodgeball seriously, but everyone has a visceral memory of it one way or another: you’re either getting hit or hitting someone with a ball,” says Thurber.
In crafting his screenplay for Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Thurber considered what he calls the classic comedy anatomical “zones”: the face and groin. “Those are two places where if you hit somebody, onlookers or audiences are going to wince – and laugh,” says Thurber. “It’s like Mel Brooks says, ‘If I stub my toe that’s tragedy; if you fall down and break your leg, that’s comedy.”” Just like the hapless office workers getting pummeled by a 300-pound linebacker in Thurber’s “Terry Tate” spots.
Thurber’s screenplay, while well received by studio executives, initially failed to find a buyer. Says Thurber: “I’d hear things like, ‘Wow, this is really funny … but we don’t want to make a dodgeball movie.’ Apparently there’s very little data on how dodgeball movies perform at the box office, mostly because there were no other films on the subject.”
Ultimately, Red Hour Films, a production company headed by Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld, snapped up the script after a Red Hour receptionist read it and passed it on to a company production executive, who then gave it to Cornfeld. Finally, it landed on Ben Stiller’s desk.
“We thought the script was hilarious,” says Cornfeld. “It had great characters and a subject new to films, yet one that nearly everybody has had some experience with.” Stiller adds, with a laugh: “We all carry the emotional weight and scars of the fear and glory, and, sometimes, the humiliation, that we experienced playing dodgeball as children. Perhaps these experiences led some of us to seek revenge. I think many people in show business were bad dodgeball players, and now they’re ‘working things out.’”
With Stiller and Cornfeld producing, and Twentieth Century Fox coming aboard to finance and distribute the picture, the filmmakers began casting. For the role of Peter LaFleur, Thurber insists he considered only Vince Vaughn. “I tried to listen to my ‘Vince Vaughn ‘patter meter’ when I was writing the character,” says the director. “Vince has a similar kind of rakish, endearing charm that Bill Murray had in films like ‘Stripes,’ ‘Meatballs’ and ‘Ghostbusters.’” Adds Cornfeld: “Vince really gives a lot of heart to the role of Peter, who’s unimpressed by surface things. The character has a good soul but doesn’t care if people like him.”
Vaughn appreciated the script’s raucous humor and takes special note of its heart. “The characters are people you identify with,” he says. “It reminds me, believe it or not, of ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ The Oz characters, like ours, are searching for things they already have, like heart and courage.”
Thurber was thrilled that Stiller, one of his comedy idols, would be producing Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. He was even more pleased that Stiller, quite unexpectedly, also decided to take on the role of White Goodman. “Ben’s a quick, inventive actor,” says Thurber. “There’s very little he can’t do in comedy.”
Stiller’s White Goodman is a self-made man who projects an image of faux sexiness: fake tan, blazing white teeth, perfectly coiffed hair feathered, greased and highlighted to perfection, and a handlebar mustache. The character is, as Cornfeld describes him, “an extremely tightly-wound egomaniac with a core of self-hatred and insecurity.” This insecurity is born, at least in part, from his past. “White used to be very heavy,” Stiller points out. “Now, having completely transformed his appearance and his life, he’s on a rampage, running over anyone who gets in his way.”
White is a character for whom Stiller could employ the full force of his comedic talents. “Ben has the ability to play roles where the character is 1,000% committed to what he believes in – no matter how idiotic that belief may be,” says Cornfeld.
The reluctant object of White’s twisted affections is Kate Veatch, a lawyer hired to facilitate foreclosure proceedings on Average Joe’s. Her repulsion at White’s advances, and her attraction to Peter, lead her to join Average Joe’s misfit dodgeballers in their high-stakes match against Globo Gym. “Christine’s a great ‘straight man’ to the crazies around her,” says Thurber. “Her comedic timing and rhythm are impeccable.”
Rip Torn takes on the character of Patches O’Houlihan, a dodgeball legend who is trying to mold Average Joe’s into a dodgeball killing machine. Patches has come a long way – downward – from his glory days. “Patches is a sick, twisted and filthy old man who knows a lot about the game but very little about social comportment,” says Torn. “So of course he was a joy to play.”
Among the hapless team members victimized by Patches’ coaching is one Steve the Pirate, a self-styled buccaneer whose answer to life’s challenges is a growled “Aaargggh!” “I thought it would be funny to have a character who walks, talks and thinks of himself as a pirate, and nobody even blinks at it,” says Thurber. The director was surprised when the character became a comedy “litmus test” for people reading the script. “I discovered that if you ‘got’ Steve the Pirate, then I knew you really ‘got’ the whole movie,” he says.
Steve the Pirate, like most of the Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story characters, is outrageous, but in casting the role, the filmmakers were looking for anything but an over-the-top reading. “A lot of people we auditioned did a kind of Long John Silver-on-amphetamines,” says Thurber. “But Steve the Pirate was never about somebody pretending to be a pirate. It’s not Halloween, and he’s not doing schtick.”
To that end, the filmmakers cast Juilliard-trained actor Alan Tudyk as Steve. “The character has little dialogue, maybe 10 lines, but Alan makes him memorable,” says Thurber. “He’s always doing something, always keeping the character of Steve the Pirate alive in every scene, even if he has nothing to say. That’s no small task.”
Another Average Joe’s dodgeballer is Justin, whom Cornfeld describes as “the kind of kid who gets slammed into someone’s locker on a regular basis and who is tortured throughout high school.” Justin Long, who played a Trekkie-like character in “Galaxy Quest” (one of Thurber’s favorite films) plays the abused young man. Stephen Root (the hapless Milton in the cult hit “Office Space”), Chris Williams (Krazee-Eyez Killa in “Curb Your Enthusiasm”), and newcomer Joel Moore round out the Average Joe’s team. Key players on White Goodman’s Globo-Gym squad are Missi Pyle (“Along Came Polly”) as uni-browed, Romanovian dodgeball ringer Fran, and Jamal E. Duff as the massive Me’Shell Jones.
Many of the cast had vivid, if not completely pleasant, memories of playing dodgeball. Says Christine Taylor: “I remember playing the game as a youngster, but we called it ‘battleball’ and all the girls hated it. If you weren’t a kick-ass athlete, it could be a painful experience.” Stephen Root says the version he played was called “murder ball.” “Basically,” he recalls, “all the big kids came and threw hard rubber balls at our heads, and laughed. So it wasn’t a pleasant experience.”
But writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber insists that his memories of dodgeball were anything but painful. “I didn’t write the script to work through a childhood trauma,” he says. “As a kid, I actually loved dodgeball.” Thurber, like many adult Americans, has re-embraced the game, playing in leagues that are springing up around the country.
To whip the cast into optimum shape, Thurber and stunt coordinator Alex Daniels set up a special training camp. “We wanted our onscreen games and players to feel authentic,” says Stiller, “especially in our throwing techniques.”
“People don’t realize playing dodgeball is exhausting,” says Thurber. “It’s a serious cardiovascular workout.” Adds Cornfeld: “Everyone thought playing dodgeball in the film was going to be just like it was when they were on the playground in grade school. At training camp, they soon realized dodgeball was a sport, with all the aches and pains that go with a competitive activity.”
Aches, pains and minor injuries, such as skinned knees, sore shoulders and even a torn rotator cuff, were constant companions to the actors as they honed their dodgeball skills. During one rehearsal, an errant throw from Ben Stiller smacked co-star – and wife – Christine Taylor in the face. “Ben’s competitive spirit really took over during the dodgeball scenes,” laughs Taylor. “He did his left-handed wind-up, and threw the ball as hard as he could, and I saw it hurtling toward me. But he has no aim, and the ball hit me hard in the face. He felt really bad about it, but the only serious damage done was to my ego.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s why I got the nickname ‘Wild Thing’ during production,” says a contrite Stiller. “Because my aim was always off.” Stiller also managed to hit three Steadicams, which happily suffered no permanent damage either.
While the objective at dodgeball camp was for the cast to learn the rhythm and rules of the game, as well as gain the necessary fitness to last through the weeks of filming, humor, competition and a healthy dose of ego were omnipresent. The cast’s competitive spirit kicked into high gear when the cameras started rolling, crowds gathered to watch the contests and filming, and the playing was for real.
The dodgeball competition scenes were shot inside a gym at Cabrillo High School in Long Beach, California. The production crew transformed the school’s basketball arena into the glitzy home of the Las Vegas International Dodgeball Open Championships, which had a Vegas strip club vibe. There, in front of screaming fans, Average Joe’s competed against several teams, leading up to their high-stakes dodgeball match with their arch-rivals, the Purple Cobras of Globo Gym.
For the Average Joe’s gym set, production designer Maher Ahmad (“The Fugitive”) created a threadbare, shopworn feel. Cotton fibers, wood, frayed carpet, natural lighting, and old gym equipment gave Average Joe’s a warm, lived-in feel. “Average Joe’s is full of misfits and losers,” says Ahmad. “But the gym has heart and the feeling. It’s like a clubhouse to these people.” In contrast, Globo Gym is sleek and smooth, full of chrome, glass and metal. Everything is synthetic – there are no plants or natural fabrics.
The costumes, designed by Carol Ramsey, also reflect the different worlds and players. Average Joe’s dodgeball uniforms are loose and classic-looking, a hybrid of basketball and soccer uniforms. Globo Gym’s Purple Cobras (“maybe the most ridiculous team name in movie history,” says Thurber) sport purple, form-fitting Spandex uniforms with external armor.
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story brings a game and a motley assortment of characters to life. Maybe dodgeball isn’t something you have thought about recently, but for many people it’s woven inextricably into the fabric of our childhood. “When you say the word ‘dodgeball’ people either break into a sweat or into a smile,” says Thurber. “You remember the smell of the gym and the dodgeballs…and the humiliation.”
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)
Directed by: Rawson Thurber
Starring: Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Christine Taylor, Rip Torn, Julie Gonzalo, Stephen Root, Chris Williams, Jason Bateman, Missi Pyle, Jamal Duff, Alan Tudyk
Screenplay by: Rawson Thurber
Production Design by: Maher Ahmad
Cinematography by: Jerzy Zielinski
Film Editing by: Alan Baumgarten, Peter Teschner
Costume Design by: Carol Ramsey
Set Decoration by: Gene Serdena
Art Direction by: Andrew Max Cahn
Music by: Theodore Shapiro
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for rude and sexual humor, and language.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: June 18, 2004
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