Growing up the son of a single mother who waited tables to support him, director Taylor Hackford spent much of his youth in 1950s California fascinated by underdogs who navigate a world of privilege.
That interest has birthed a storied Hollywood career. From his Oscar-winning short film Teenage Father, to An Officer and a Gentleman, to Ray, his filmography is loaded with tales of the common man striving for uncommon greatness.
“I make movies about working-class people—ordinary Americans just trying to succeed,” he says. “Gavin Grey [played by Dennis Quaid in Everybody’s All-American] certainly is that. He’s not from the right side of the tracks. But he’s been given this gift of physical brilliance that sets him on a path.”
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Everybody’s All-American, 225 spoke with Hackford to discuss his epic Baton Rouge-set drama.
What hasn’t changed is that we still honor and revere our athletes. However, today there’s a new awareness of the residual physical damage visited on football players, so maybe my film would have more impact than it did back in the ’80s when it was released. At that time audiences didn’t respond to the tragic elements in the film, because in America we worship our idols, but we want them to stay the same. There are no second acts in American culture.
I showed Gavin past his prime. You see him with all those career scars of a wounded warrior, and nobody wanted to look at him. Dennis did an amazing job of walking with arthritis, physically paying the price for all that worship. We were voicing all those concerns back then which are now at the forefront of the conversation about the NFL.
One of my old college roommates at USC was from New Orleans, and I’d spent a lot of time in Louisiana with him. By the time I was scouting for the movie, his wife was the assistant chancellor of LSU, and so I called her and said I wanted to look at the campus in Baton Rouge as a possible setting for the movie.
So much—everything. The traditions and almost rabid enthusiasm of the fans was perfect for our story. The fact that there was a live tiger on campus was incredible. Billy Cannon being one of the last great white running backs in the country really fit one of the themes of the book.
Also, the whole mythic connection between LSU and Huey P. Long. The fact that he got Federal funds during the Depression to build dormitories on campus, but actually built Tiger Stadium which incorporated the dorm rooms, was priceless. I began the film at a big pep rally with John Goodman’s character climbing up Huey’s statue in front of the State Capitol.
There is an epic quotient in Deford’s novel. I always viewed it as a mythical film about change in America—especially the South, using football as a metaphor. Starting in the 1950s, Gavin Grey, one of the last great white running backs, is almost a noble character. He marries the beautiful “Magnolia Queen,” Jessica Lange.
They are archetypes of traditional Southern culture, but we see them experience the monumental changes of the 1960s and ’70s.
Yes, the character of Blue, played by Carl Lumley, is important. A great African American athlete before blacks were allowed to play at LSU. Later in life he becomes a Col. Sanders-like entrepreneur, and after Gavin’s fall from grace, Jessica’s character becomes an executive for Blue’s company, effectively becoming the family breadwinner. All the characters in the film shift roles as America changes, but the one thing that doesn’t change is the community’s love for the Tigers. What will probably never change in Baton Rouge is its passion for SEC Football.
I’d get the best pizza in America. I’d go back to Fleur de Lis. While New Orleans and the French Quarter will always have my heart, I loved my time in Baton Rouge. There are so many surprises: Who could imagine finding this amazing Roman pie. Whenever I’m within 50 miles of Baton Rouge, I have to detour to Fleur de Lis.
