A pivotal scene in the acclaimed film Jockey was, for the most part, unscripted. According to Thoroughbred Racing Commentary, it was the 42-year-old Louisiana-born jockey Logan Cormier who helped bring the scene to life.
Leo Brock, Cormier's character in the film, is critically injured and in the hospital. He is visited by the main character, Jackson Silva, played by Clifton Collins, Jr., and director Clint Bentley encouraged the two to improvise the scene.
Cormier, many times injured over the course of his career, also has experience with returning to the saddle after a 16-year hiatus that included a nine-year stint in jail for crimes linked to serious drug addiction. He'd never played a role on screen prior to Jockey; instead, Bentley brought Cormier into the role simply because the rider had already lived it.
Cormier was able to improvise the pithy, dramatic line that sticks with viewers: “I'm not afraid of dying. I'm just afraid of not being able to ride.”
“That was not scripted – that was just them [Cormier and Collins] finding the emotion of that scene,” Bentley told TRC. “You think about somebody who'd never been in front of a camera before … how much raw talent does he have to deliver a performance like that in that scene?
“Forget a first-time actor. Even if you are working with just a day player, a side actor who comes in—that's a really hard scene to do. I cannot overstate what an incredible job he did at getting that emotion across.”
Read more at Thoroughbred Racing Commentary.
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