I knew very little about Bobby Jones. I just loved the story, and I felt that (despite having just played Jesus) I couldn't think of a finer man to play. I read the script and saw how the other characters saw him, and what he said and how he lived. That's what attracted me. I did my own investigating, and talked to a lot of people, including Bobby's granddaughter, and asking what they thought of him, how they remembered him.
But no man is perfect. We tend to forget all the other things that maybe he wasn't so great at. Like his temper. But in order for a piece of coal to change into a diamond, it has to undergo some serious heat and pressure. I just kept thinking, here's a guy with three degrees. He's a lawyer, and an engineer, and he knows English literature. Being so smart, being an engineer, and trying to hit a golf ball must have been so frustrating at times. I kept imagine Bobby thinking, "Ok, I did all the math so why is this ball going way over there? Why did I slice it?" I thought about that, about utilizing that frustration, and it made it easy for me to throw a golf club.
When you play someone like the Count of Monte Christo, nobody ever says, "Well he walked this way or he looked like this or he fenced this way." And then with Jesus, people might not know quite the way he walked or sounded, but everybody has some idea about it. But when you play Bobby Jones, everybody in Georgia knew how he talked, walked, ate, spat, drank. So I think that made it pretty hard.
Then there was the golf swing. There's nothing I hate more than watching a basketball movie, because I used to play in college, and spot immediately a guy who doesn't really play. Maybe he addresses the free-throw line wrong or his elbow is out or something, but I can just tell if he doesn't have the knack. I didn't play much golf before this. I hit it around a little, but I just substituted what I knew about shooting a basketball for hitting a golf ball. The one thing that all athletics have in common is balance. As soon as I found my center and balance, it was much easier to learn. I think we got it about 95 percent there but I wanted to make sure that any professional golfers who saw this film could slow the stroke down and believe that I had it.
But I think it would be a shame if people were to think that this movie isn't for them because they aren't into golf. This film transcends golf. It's about a human being with an extraordinary amount of integrity, something money can't buy. Any time you have an ailment as a young person and you have to overcome it, it gives you an edge. You have to work harder at things, and that work ethic pays off later in life. You find that people like that tend to want to excel. They can't settle for being average. They have to step up and do things better than that. I use that in my own life, for example in sports. I had to work for it. And acting was the same way. Maybe my work ethic is how I compensate when things didn't come easy.
It's a great film for young people who are trying to find their way. Nowadays, sports stars and other celebrities say, "I'm not your kid's role model." It's an excuse to act however they want, to make huge amounts of money. But Bobby wasn't about that. He was a guy who embraced the idea, who said, "Yes, I am a role model. I'll take that responsibility." His pureness drew me to him. That's my own heart, and exactly the kind of characters I like to follow and at least try to emulate.
