HE'S A ROLE PLAYER
Among his hundreds of roles, John Goodman once played Babe Ruth. Now the actor is exploring the other side of baseball, starring as a scout turned team executive in the new Clint Eastwood movie Trouble with the Curve.
Q: What drew you to this project?
A: The scouts are the unsung heroes. It's highly unglamorous; you got to love baseball—you just go to high school games and legion games, day after day. But these guys know baseball better than anybody.
Q: You played the larger-than-life title role in The Babe. What was the highlight of that shoot?
A: We shot at Wrigley Field ... but it was a tough shoot. We were wearing those old-style uniforms when it was 105°.... I had a rubber nose, and I had to keep wringing it out because it would fill up with sweat.
Q: Before you played the football coach in Revenge of the Nerds and an LSU lineman in Everybody's All-American, you were a real-life walk-on at Southwest Missouri State. Why didn't things work out?
A: I was too damn lazy. And too damn slow. I was an offensive lineman who couldn't block anyone, and I picked up all these injuries—shoulder, back, knee, everything. All the injury and none of the glory. I was better suited for the theater department.
Q: As a Cardinals fan and St. Louis native, what was it like following the team's World Series run last October?
A: I'm getting goose bumps just thinking about it. I was in New Orleans, but I remember driving around and trying to pick up KMOX and listen to the games on the radio. I have such wonderful memories of summer nights with Jack Buck and Harry Caray on the radio, the old guys are sitting around the driveways, all over the neighborhood, with a few cold longneck Budweisers. It don't get no better than that.
PHOTO
D DIPASUPIL/FILMMAGIC/GETTY IMAGES (GOODMAN)