Here’s a pop quiz. Name a professional athlete who appeared in a movie.
There have been a considerable number over the years, ranging from the highly indelible (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as co-pilot Roger Murdock in Airplane) to the highly forgettable (Shaquille O’Neal as the title genie in Kazaam). And the list goes on… Jim Brown, Carl Weathers, Ray Allen, OJ Simpson, Michael Irvin, Jason Lee, Howie Long, Michael Jordan…
OK, now name a professional female athlete who appeared in a movie.
Wow. That’s much tougher. Well, there’s the former mixed martial artist Gina Carano from Haywire. And, there’s Esther Williams, the competitive swimmer who starred in films in the ‘40s and ‘50s. Umm…
Fortunately, also at the top of that short list belongs Women’s Professional Billiard Association (WPBA) tour professional Jennifer Barretta, the star of last year’s highly anticipated movie 9-Ball. She not only appeared in the movie, but headlined it. And, she did it while continuing to play professional pool, rather than the more common path of retiring to pursue an acting career. This puts her in a very small pantheon of athletes, male or female. (Interestingly, she is joined by one other professional billiards player, Efren Reyes, who starred in Pakners, a 2003 movie from the Philippines.)
The irony is that Barretta’s starring role almost never happened.
A week ago, right before she departed for the 9 Ball Women’s World Championships in Shenyang, China as one of only 4 Americans representing the USA, I had the distinct pleasure to interview Barretta about her experience filming and starring as Gail in 9-Ball.
“[Director] Tony [Palma] had asked [professional billiards player] Karen Corr to do a walk-on. He then asked her if she knew other players. She thought of me. So I came expecting to do a walk-on. But, when I got there, Tony said he wanted me to read for the role of Gail. Like now…And the next thing I knew, I had gotten the lead role as Gail.”
As excited as Barretta was to have been chosen, she was also skeptical. “Not everyone can get a pool movie made,” she said. In fact, that skepticism was initially well-placed, as it was years between the audition and the actual filming. “I had actually given up on the role.”
It was to Barretta’s great surprise then when she got a call from Palma years later saying he was proceeding with the movie. “I thought I was going to show up in Maryland and he would maybe have a handy-cam. But, I got there, and there was set design, grips, gaffers…it was a real movie.”
For those not familiar with the movie, it follows the life of a young Gail, who is left in the care of her creepy uncle, after her father is murdered. The uncle, sensing great pool skills in his niece, turns her onto the life of hustling and uses her as a way to make money for himself. But, as Gail gets older, she aspires to break out of that lifestyle and join the American Poolplayers Association (APA) to become a professional 9-ball champion.
For Barretta, playing a pool-player was not the challenge. In fact, as someone who had started in the APA, Gail’s quest was familiar. “The real challenge was playing someone who had been so emotionally abused…It was exciting to act and be somebody so different. I got to test the limits of what I was capable of.”
The real challenge in playing Gail (or simply committing to star in the film) was the potential disruption to her own practice and tournament schedule. In 2012, Barretta was the 7th-highest ranked player on the WPBA tour. As one would imagine, that level of excellence requires constant practice. For Barretta, it’s typically 5-8 hours a day, including honing particular self-defined weaknesses each year. “I study pool like an education,” she says. “I set goals. Every year, I pick one thing. This year, it’s my break. I’ll do just breaks for 2 hours straight. I have a break trainer.”
Fortunately, when it came time to shoot scenes, director Palma was very sensitive to Barretta’s schedule. “Before he booked shots, he would make sure I was free. We would be away for 2 weeks tops over the 2 years. Otherwise, when I’m home, I practice.” Of course, that’s not to say the shooting never interfered. “There was one time when we filmed and then I got home and went to Vegas the very next day [for a tournament]. But, it’s worth it…how many times in a life can you do a movie?”
Critical reaction to the movie was mixed, but for Barretta, the film has had a tremendous personal impact, including among her peers. “I was recently out in Vegas for the biggest amateur and professional pool event. I could feel the difference. I was treated like a movie star. So many people came up to me. I had professionals come up to me, asking me to sign a copy of their movie. I think a lot people [in the billiards community] have seen it.”
Carlos Luna Photography
Whether the movie has had a broader impact on the popularity of billiards, similar to what occurred after The Hustler and The Color of Money were released, is harder to gauge. “It’s tough to say if it had an impact. Either way, people are playing, and it’s available in millions of households. It’s like when Poolhall Junkies came out. This is a movie available worldwide with a touch of a button.”
For Barretta, it was an incredible experience that has gotten her more interested in acting. Fans should expect to see her in a couple of small roles in some upcoming films, and she’s more than eager to reprise her role as Gail if Palma films a sequel. But, otherwise, she won’t be trading in her cue stick for the big screen any time soon. “It’s not like I’m going to run out and get an agent.”
To learn more about Jennifer Barretta, visit her website. To learn more about the movie 9-Ball, read this blog for my upcoming review in 2 weeks that includes an interview with the director Tony Palma. You can also like the movie on Facebook.
A version of this article will also appear later this week on About.com in the highly engaging Pool and Billiards section.
