Based on a true story, The Express follows the extraordinary life of college football hero Ernie Davis (Rob Brown).

Raised in poverty in Pennsylvania coal-mining country, Davis hurdled social and economic obstacles to become one of the greatest running backs in college football history.  Under the guidance of legendary Syracuse coach Ben Schwartzwalder (Dennis Quaid), he became a hero who superseded Jim Brown’s achievements and set records that stand to this day.

Decorated veteran Schwartzwalder was a Southerner with a single vision of a national championship and hardened ideas about how the world worked.  But though he and Davis clashed mightily, he taught the player everything he knew about football, just as Davis helped him learn the true meaning of victory.

As the growing civil rights movement divided the country in the ’60s, Davis became a symbol for achievement that transcended race.  Refusing to flinch from others’ prejudices, he achieved all his goals—until he faced a challenge that would make most men crumble.  He joined the ranks of black pioneers by teaching a generation tolerance, inspiring a movement that smashed barriers on and off the field.

Anyway, I recently had the chance to participate in a roundtable interview with Rob Brown and it’s below. In the film, Rob plays Ernie and it’s a solid performance from someone that clearly has a lot more going on than just his acting career.

As always, you can either read the transcript below or listen to the interview by clicking here. And if you want to watch some movie clips from “The Express,” click here.

Question: That was a really nice performance.  Congratulations.

Rob Brown: Thank you.

It must have been a very irresistible opportunity for you to play this character.  Did you know much about him before you took this on?

Rob Brown: No. I knew that he went to Syracuse. I knew he won the Heisman and that was it, but people keep asking me oh, what attracted you to the role.  I’m like man, what didn’t attract me to the role?

Did you do a lot of research? 

Mostly just watching film.  Game film actually, because there’s not much medium on Ernie.  Gary gave me a disc of Ernie speaking for the first time like a month before we wrapped, so I haven’t heard it.  I haven’t even listened to it.

Now, you played a wide-receiver was it much of sort of head trip for you to go to wide receiver to running back?

It’s football. At the end of the day if anything I was like a kid in a candy store because playing receiver, you know, you’re in a parameter, you’re on the outside, you’re on an island so to speak.  You run a route.  You’ve got to run your route.  Guy’s got to protect it, got to pick up blitzes.  The quarterback has to make a great throw.  You catch the ball and that’s it.  You play running back, you’ve got the ball in your hands for most of the time.  It was a lot of fun.  I kind of felt like why didn’t I play running back?

There is a huge difference between playing football in real life and obviously playing football…shooting football scenes in the movie, what were the biggest challenges for you in still being adrenalin charged on film take after take after take?

No, we played.  The differences were in the game today as opposed to playing ball 45 years ago.  That was the difference, so a lot of guys lead with their head these days, or their chest.  Back then people used their shoulder more often so Coach Allen Graf had to stress things like that.  Little things like if I was to score today I’d give my friend a high-five.  This movement didn’t exist back then.  People didn’t do this all these chest pumps and stuff so things of that nature were different.  But playing it’s just football and coaches say things all the time…say things like no disrespect to Saved by the Bell but we’re not trying to make no Saved by the Bell football movie here.  We’re trying to get it cracking, so in a lot of ways we just played and we had a lot of guys who are basically division one ball players.  A lot of USC guys because Coach Graf he’s an SC guy.  He wears his ring all the time and his son played center.  He’s like I’m Carson Palmer’s center, things like that.  So we had some real deal football players and football is…well at least I hope looks pretty real.  Looks great to me.

Did you get any real hits?

Whenever I could I tried to stick a shoulder in somebody or you know try to do something I wasn’t supposed to do.  I was told very early on that I couldn’t take any hits because that would jeopardize the production.  If I get hurt we’re messing up, so I did as much as I could and then up until they said no and then brought in one of 4 doubles I had. 

How about research on Ernie’s family? Could you talk to any of Ernie’s family at all?

No.  First time I met them was in Atlanta at a screening.  I didn’t know they were going to be there and Ernie’s nephew stood up and basically—mind you my heart was pounding—he was satisfied with the film.  So in a lot of ways we were just trying to just capture Ernie’s spirit and Ernie’s essence and not worry about an impersonation because you know there isn’t that much of a blueprint out there because he’s not in the media and he passed away so early.  So we just wanted to capture his spirit and still maintain his legacy without disrespecting his family.

With the emotional stuff you had to do in the movie, because it’s a very…you had very emotional moments…were they more challenging for you than physical football differences as an actor?

Yeah, football is football and that’s all fun for me.  But either way I just wanted to be prepared so whenever I work I just try to be as prepared as possible, you know, even for auditions I just like to think that I’m so prepared that I have to book it.  So I treated this no different.  I just wanted to be prepared every day I worked.

Ernie had a kind of father-son relationship with the coach ultimately—Coach Schwartzwalder—and I’m just wondering working with Dennis on this what was your relationship like on and off the screen? How did you guys get along?

Similar because you know he’s a more tenured guy so I just try to soak up as much knowledge as possible and whenever I had a question I would just ask him and he was very responsive.  In a lot of ways it’s a father-son relationship because just of where he is in his career and where I’m at now. I have a healing blister on my thumb because he took me out with Dr. Gross and Jim Beheim to the golf course last week.  You know, I’d never played before and it’s a wrap for me now. I’m hooked so…

How did it go?

It went well for my first time, you know?  I think I’ve got a knack for it.  I double-boogied a hole.  I had a chance for a birdie putt.  It felt good, so I think I’m going to get after it. 

Give it a few more games, you’ll start hating it.

All right.  I’ll keep that in mind.

What do you find most inspiring about Ernie’s story?

Most inspiring to me is just his effect on people.  People who…there’s people my age in Syracuse even last weekend when we were up there, there are people my age—I’m 24—with anecdotes about Ernie that were passed down from their parents and so forth.  And it sticks with them until this day and it’s like well, how could this guy who passed away at such a young age make such a huge impact on people?  You know, I think the most inspiring thing is the fact that people look at him as such as example.  They ask themselves what would Ernie do?  You know those bracelets What Would Jesus Do bracelets?  Now blasphemy aside, that’s the kind of impact he had on people.  People would think about things and say well what would Ernie do in this situation?  I find myself doing that even up until this point I think I’m more mature as a function of getting to know Ernie a little bit.

Is it more daunting for you as an actor to play someone who actually did exist at one time and is no longer here so that you can’t really draw?

It was a gift and a curse as an artist because there was no blueprint to go off of.  It was kind of a curse but it was kind of a gift because there’s no blueprint.  I can get to kind of do what I want and I have the flexibility to be an artist.  So, you know, I think the thing that’s daunting is just the responsibility associated with the role to him, his family, to Syracuse, to the Brown’s organization, to Jim Brown--definitely don’t want to get him upset—but with that responsibility I took it on because I figured it was a dream role and it was an honor to walk in his shoes for a minute.

Did you meet Jim Brown?

Yeah, last week for the first time.  I spoke to him over the phone a few times.

Was that scary?

Yeah, but I was like a kid in a candy store.  I got to meet Jim Brown. So when I met him, this was right before a press conference, I kind of had to bottle up my emotions because I’m too cool to go like ahh, Jim Brown in front of all these people at a press conference!

Now, do you look at life a little differently knowing that Ernie’s character—he died at the age of 23 or 24—how does that make you look at life right now?

I turned 23 while we were shooting so I put that in proper prospective.  That definitely affected how I approached things and I definitely had that life is precious approach and I needed to be dedicated and fully committed to the role, you know, keeping in mind that you know what, I could not be here right now.  And that goes along with the maturity I was talking about that I gained as a result of getting to know Ernie a little bit.

What are you working on now?  Do you have anything?

Nothing. Nothing.

So you didn’t start anything else after you finished this?

No. After I finished this I had another semester of school to get done.  So I got my degree.  I walked in May so that was my next project.

What’s your degree in?

Master of Psychology.

Do you want to use that?  You use psychology as an actor though don’t you?

Yeah. 

What university.

Amherst College in Massachusetts.

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