CS Video: Race Movie Interviews

CS sits down with Race movie stars Stephan James and Jason Sudeikis as well as director Steven Hopkins

Arriving in theaters this Friday is Race, Focus Features‘ biopic of legendary Olympic athlete Jesse Owens. Directed by Stephen Hopkins (House of Lies, The Ghost and the Darkness), Race stars Stephan James (Selma) as Owens with Jason Sudeikis (Horrible Bosses, We’re the Millers) playing Owens’ coach, Larry Snyder.

ComingSoon.net had the chance to sit down with Race stars James and Sudeikis as well as director Hopkins. In the player below, you can check out our behind-the-scenes conversations about what it was like to actually film on the site of the Olympic races, how the training techniques were different in the ‘30s and what James had to do to get ready (He’s already an athlete, but this film involved a lot of changes to what he was used to.) We learned about the friendship between Owens and Snyder, what it was like for Sudeikis to play his first dramatic role and Leni Riefenstahl (Carice van Houten of Game of Thrones), the Adolph Hitler’s personal filmmaker and how she documented the event, giving James and the rest of the cast and crew visual references to work from.

Based on the incredible true story, Race follows the legendary athletic superstar whose quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler’s vision of Aryan supremacy. Race aims to be an enthralling film about courage, determination, tolerance, and friendship, and an inspiring drama about one man’s fight to become an Olympic legend.

Race also stars Jeremy Irons (The Borgias, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), Shanice Banton (Haven, Lost Girl), William Hurt (A History of Violence, Humans), and Carice van Houten (Game of Thrones, Valkyrie) as German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, who documented the historical event for her famous two part documentary, Olympia.

If you haven’t already checked it out, click here to watch the Race trailer. You can also check out the official poster for the film in the gallery viewer at the bottom of this page.

Are you going to check out Race when it hits the big screen February 19? Let us know in the comments below!