Rudy who is the wild man now

Like everyone else, do you cry at the end? It always gets me too. One of my favorite experiences was having really big guys — football players, or working people — come up and tap me on the shoulder, because they need a personal aside, a personal moment.

But my husband made me watch it, and it made me cry. I thought it was beautiful. And even better, it made my husband cry. Was that part of what attracted you to the project? The thing that really grabbed me was the story, because it felt like my story. I was always the last kid on the bench in Little League, and on the cross-country team I ran on. I always felt like the thing I could contribute to teams I was on was to try harder than everybody else.

And also with my career — really wanting to prove to myself that I could carve out a career. That was a gift. It is surprising, given that they have two sports classics to their names.

How would you characterize your own football skills? Did you have to prep for the part, athletically speaking? I had to get in the gym, because I was really skinny. So I was in the gym for a little bit. Then when we got to Notre Dame, they have their strength and conditioning facility, and they put me through the paces there.

I love playing sports — I love it. How much of that did you handle yourself? I did most of it. When you get hit really hard, sometimes it takes a little bit to get your head together. Still, I think we all understood that I had to do enough of it so that it was credible. There are no car crashes in the movie, there are no gunfights. I wanted to do it. I was watching him at the beginning, and stunt guys have very specific training on how to fall, how to protect themselves, so they can keep doing it over and over again.

It looked to my eye like a stunt guy who was doing expert stunt work. I really wanted to do it, and they finally let me do it. I got lots of bruises, and I would take Polaroid pictures of those bruises. The real Rudy Ruettiger was on set for most of the shoot. He was there all the time; he was a constant presence.

He was sensitive to that. The name means, to have a dream. This name, Rudy, has become almost mythologized. It was like being with someone who had had the same experience that I had had, only on a scale, and in a realm, that was really spectacular. There are human beings who were friends of his, or colleagues, who are amalgamated in the movie.

So it was really helpful, performance-wise, to have him share his stories and experience. To be specifically responsive to what we were doing. It made it fun, and it made it real. I loved that in the script. But it was very clear that that would be its own movie. My absolute favorite thing in the movie is the score. I think what Jerry Goldsmith accomplished with that score is breathtaking. I think the film is so lucky that he did that, that he had such a great relationship with David Anspaugh.

The movie is the music and the music is the movie. I presented Jerry with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, and he was so proud of it, and so grateful to the filmmakers. The political world, and in so many other places — the movie has taken off. Have you been back to Notre Dame and seen any games in recent years — and are you a celebrity when you step onto the campus?

I went to a game in , and they had spent millions of dollars upgrading the stadium — that was interesting, to be back in there. You know, sometimes I am; other times I think I kind of blend in. So was Astin so moved by everything that he jumped offsides? Some people may still debate it, but it'll be pretty hard to hear them, since Rudy himself has officially dropped the mic.

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