Approximately 45 miles northwest of Orlando sits The Villages in Sumter County, Central Florida. The fast-growing city, a favorite among retirees, is home to the Old Mill Playhouse, which first opened its movie doors in 2004. And, on March 17, if you were among the 125,000 citizens of The Villages, or anyone lucky enough to be in the vicinity, you had the exclusive opportunity to go to the Playhouse and attend the world premiere of Heartbreak, the newest billiards movie to hit the silver screen. Alas, the rest of us hapless ones — including myself — will need to wait until at least this summer to have a chance to see this film.
The movie premiered with little fanfare. There is a compelling trailer available here, and there is a summary available on IMDB from the film’s producer, Randy M. Dyer. Heartbreak is “based on the life of a one-time award-winning professional billiard champion down on his luck who encounters a young Korean woman seeking to become the billiard champion to save her son’s life. What ensues is an emotional and dramatic journey leading to a climactic event that will change their lives forever.”
Unable to learn much online, and frustrated by my own inability to make the trek from New York to Florida to see the premiere, I struck gold on Twitter when I successfully connected with, and subsequently interviewed, the movie’s two leading actors, Brett Rice and Jane Park Smith, and the Executive Producer (and former billiards pro and Pro Billiards Coach) “Coach” Wayne Catledge.
As it turns out, the seeds of Heartbreak have been germinating inside Mr. Catledge’s head for 10-12 years when he was first coaching female billiards players in Asia. Observing the training regiments of billiards athletes like Kim Ga-young and Eunji Erica Park, Mr. Catledge considering producing a documentary about their approach to billiards and their work ethic. Soon, that idea morphed into making a full-length movie.
Like many passion projects, Heartbreak had numerous starts and stops. The script was the biggest challenge. “There were so many scripts that did not fit…that did not respect the industry. They were too focused on the “dark side [of billiards]…I wanted to prove billiards is an upstanding sport and not just [show] the underbelly…I was looking for hope and inspiration like in The Sound of Music,” said Mr. Catledge.
Jane Park Smith as Mina Lee
According to Jane Park Smith, who plays the lead character Mina Lee, “billiards is such a vital part of the movie. Heartbreak shows billiards in a dynamic, redemptive, light.” This required the perfect casting of actors, according to Mr. Catledge. And, given the amount of billiards in the movie, the actors needed to seem like real players. (In fact, the actors perform every shot in the movie, except two.)
The decision to cast Brett Rice in the lead role as Harry Platt was an easy one. Mr. Rice, who has been playing pool for 50 years, elaborated, “I am a better pool player than I am an actor… My grandfather was a shark. We played one-pocket growing up. He taught me the game when I was 10 and told me if I ever beat him, I’d get a shot of bourbon. Five years later, I finally took that shot. I played all the time. I used to play in the Army. I even paid for my apartment through pool.”
For the casting of Mina Lee, Mr. Catledge knew Ms. Smith would be perfect, albeit she had never played pool. “She was cast because of her martial arts and her long expanded fingers would make a great pool bridge. I knew I could train her.”
According to Ms. Smith, that instinct was well-founded: “I didn’t know how to hold a cue stick…I was a blank canvas. [The training was intense.] If we weren’t shooting or resting, Coach had me do drills, bridges, stroke lining….All pool all the time, so much so that the first week, I would wake up in middle of night having dreams about making shots. It turned out better than I could have imagined.”
Ewa “The Striking Viking” Laurance
Adding to the authenticity of Heartbreak are cameos by some of the sports best-known female players. Ewa “The Striking Viking” Laurance has a key role because she is, according to Mr. Carledge, “a great ambassador of the game. [I] always loved her presence, how she handled herself. She was all in.” Dawn Hopkins and Shanelle Loraine also appear briefly.
As I’ve not yet seen the movie, I cannot yet comment on whether this trio achieved its goals and delivered a billiards movie that, at its core, is about “hope,” “redemption,” and “unity.” However, even without yet seeing Heartbreak, I can attest to the passion for pool that is the connecting fiber of the film, as it pervaded each person’s interview response. Nowhere is that passion more on display than in Mr. Carledge’s comments to attendees at the world premier:
Pool is a colorful world of dauntless personalities puzzling through an enthralling kaleidoscope of patterns. You will face unpredictable facets of the game and wrestle with bold, nervy souls testing you in the crucible of solitude. In such wrenching pressure where it is only you, without help from a teammate, can the greatest champions arise. You and only you can achieve victory. That is such a blessing for the elite, for victory seldom comes without much failure.
Everyone has a unique story to tell and I truly love listening to the many colorful variances in the universals. The grips, the stances, the strokes, the patterns, the breaks, the safeties, the preparation, the mantras, the drills, the diets, the cue, the cloth, the table, the rack, the bridge, the chalk, the powder, the gloves, the taper, the design, the joint, the shaft, the butt, the tip, the tip shape, the rails, the pockets, the balls, the slate, the diamonds, the lights, the air, etc. etc. etc., all lend tremendous variances in playing conditions before you ever face your opponent! The odds are always stacked…
And we haven’t even talked about gamesmanship or sharking. What a colorful sport and treacherous discipline!
