Dawson listened carefully as Herrington outlined his vision of Bobby Jones - following the arc of his character from a child to an adult, then a leader and finally a visionary. "Rowdy looked me straight in the eyes," says Dawson, "and said, 'This is not only what I want to do, but I can do it in a way that nobody else would ever do it.' I was sold."
And so was the Jones family. "They bought into that same vision," continues Eldridge. "The family had the right to review and approve the script. Bob Jones IV, Bobby's grandson, knew a lot of history and gave a tremendous amount of insight to the story. The family came together and embraced the script as Rowdy wrote it. The Jones family was very much a part of the process."
With Herrington on board and a script in hand, it was time for the team to find the perfect cast. They began by looking for the actors who would play the four key roles - Bobby Jones, Mary Jones, Walter Hagen and O.B. Keeler.
"We originally envisioned an actor who could swing a golf club the way that Bobby Jones did," says Dawson. "We wanted to be as authentic as possible. We were sending out scripts and sent one to Jim Caviezel for the role of Walter Hagen, Jones' great competitor and friend. He got it, called and said, 'I'll do Hagen, but I can do Bobby Jones. I can play this role.' We asked him how good he was at golf and he said, 'Don't worry about it, I can play Bobby Jones. I'll get the swing.'
"Assuming that he was an avid golfer" continues Dawson, "we had him come in and found out that he didn't play golf at all and knew very little about the game. But he was kind of like Rowdy. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, 'I can do this,' and I knew that he could.
"I had long anticipated, but never expected to get an actor of Jim's stature" Dawson confesses. "He's such an amazingly intense actor and such a warm and kind hearted person that as soon as we met, I knew that the parallel between him and Jones was perfect."
"Jim is a wonderful, giving actor," adds Herrington. "And he's dedicated. His commitment to this role is phenomenal. The amount of hours he put in on the practice tee to get the most beautiful swing in history, is just exemplary. He has so many facets to his personality that he takes on a role like Bobby Jones and he becomes that man. It's a beautiful thing to watch."
Jim Caviezel stepped up to the tee as Bobby Jones because of the script. He says, "I'm always looking for a good script and asking myself, 'What's the story?' The first time I read Stroke of Genius, I saw something personal inside Bobby Jones' heart. I saw him as someone pure who played golf for the love of it. I felt like I just had to play the role."
Caviezel found the role to be a different kind of challenge. "Everybody in Georgia knows how Bobby Jones talked, walked, ate, spit and drank," he explains. "I've had people come up to me and say, 'You know, you're too tall to be Bobby Jones. Why did they cast you? You're not from Georgia. Why did they cast you?' I'd just politely answer, 'Well, it*s because I'm an actor, sir. That's what I do.' Most of the time, it worked."
With Caviezel cast as Bobby Jones, it was now important to find just the right actress to play Mary, Jones' wife. Dawson says, "About two years ago, one of my dear friends in the business sent me a tape of Claire's performance in Meet Joe Black and the CD along with it. He said, 'If anybody plays Mary Jones it should be Claire Forlani.' I looked at the CD and was taken by her looks, her charm and her depth of character that came through the camera. I knew I wanted to do a project with her, but somehow in the shuffle, she got lost. It wasn*t until we cast Jim that we talked about her because they have the same attorney. It turned out that she was available.
"Claire brings the same joy for life to the role that Jim does," he continues. "She's very intense but she's also a bright light on the set. They make a perfect match. She has great humor and approaches her role with some lightness whereas Jim wants to approach it from the intense acting point of view. They have a great chemistry, which must have been similar to what Jones experienced with his Mary."
