Jon Turteltaub first heard the story of the 1988 Olympic Jamaican bobsled team when he was in film school.
Less than five years later, Turteltaub would get a call from his agent about a new opportunity.
I needed a job.
Credit: Everett Collection
This script was just sitting out there, and they werent sure whether they were making it or not.
My agent sent it to me, and said, Remember when you were the flavor of the month?
Your month is over.
Do this movie.'
Just like that, Turteltaub agreed to audition for the job, which he would later get.
The first words out of her mouth were, How do you pack for that?
So that was my welcome to show business.
E. Doug, who would end up portraying the beloved bobsled team in the Disney film.
TURTELTAUB,Director:Blue Maagawas a script before I got there.
There were versions of the script that were pretty heavy and very dramatic, and it started that way.
It really wasnt until the script found its light touch and found its playfulness that it found itself.
MALIK YOBA,Yul Brenner:I went to an open call.
I think I was the last person on the last day.
I went down there and did some improv.
And two months later, I got a call, Can you fly to L.A. tomorrow and screen test?
[That was] back in 91.
I got cast and signed on to do the movie, and then they didnt do the movie.
So I had to go do it again, and did it again and was cast again.
This time I did the movie, I actually earned my money.
I met with the director.
[Laughs]So I thought this Jamaican bobsled movie was dead.
I tried to push my heritage.
Like most auditions, I didnt know if any of that was working.
Then I got a call to do a screen test at some undisclosed location.
It was really like a hush, hush project.
RAWLE D. LEWIS,Junior Bevil:I was an intern is I guess what you would call me.
I was helping them cast the movie.
The director and producers were behind me and I was in front of them reading with actors.
I had no idea.
We had to do a table read for all the Disney people.
So they had me to the table read which I thought was weird.
I was so young and naive I started to say, Wait a minute, Im just a reader.
But I caught myself, and then they had a screen test.
I show up with all the papers to read with the other actors.
The director goes, What are you doing?
I go, I dont have all the scenes memorized.
And he goes, No you dont get it.
And thats how I ended up in the movie.
TURTELTAUB:Jeffrey Wright was one who we got really far down the road with.
Those guys found it within each other.
YOBA:I wrote the Jamaican bobsled song for my audition.
I pulled the song out and pretended it was an improv, but it was actually pre-written.
We were all there represented and I thought, This is pretty rich.
And luckily everybody who I tested with got the role and we all went off to Canada.
Going into the film, Turteltaub was clear with the cast that they were not portraying specific people.
The film was based on a true story, but the script was what Turteltaub called shamefully loose.
TURTELTAUB:We would never get away today with the changes we made to the true story.
But at the time we just kept refining the true story to make it into a better movie.
And shape the character and the tone of it so that it played well as a movie.
The feeling is the same.
The tone is the same.
The ambition is the same.
The absurdity was the same.
And the main key events were the same.
DOUG:I think it was more of getting [the real-life bob sledders] essence.
LEON:I wasnt really playing an actual person.
Its inspired by the story, but the names are different, characters and additional things are different.
Ive met all the bobsledders, but the thing is, the movie is based on that story.
LEWIS:I met some of the guys and talked to them.
The basis of it is that they took the best of that and amplified that.
TURTELTAUB:I wouldnt want to change anything that would harm the movie in any way.
I actually ran into him in Toronto like two years ago.
I was up there filming something and he was living in Toronto.
TURTELTAUB:They had to learn how to push; they had to learn how to jump in.
But as any bobsledder will tell you, once you jump in, youre a passenger.
You dont have to bobsled.
Only the driver has to know how.
[It was] very bumpy, very rough.
[Laughs]
LEWIS:They only allowed two weeks for that part.
I really started to have respect for these guys once we started training to run and jump in.
Thats all we had to do.
We just had to learn to run and jump in that sled and not look like idiots.
I think they were sweating bullets for a while, because we were all over the place.
We were slow getting in.
Im sure everyone would like to tell you that we were all badass, but we werent.
Once we were filming, we were okay.
I think we were better.
I remember us being better at it.
DOUG:For me it was terrifying.
Even though we werent really permitted to go down, theres a possibility.
What if it gets out of control and we have to go down?
I was very tense about that.
Rather, Disney was having constant debates about the use of Jamaican accents in the film.
And I said, Aladdin is not Jamaican!
DOUG:Most of their notes made no sense.
One note made sense but it was ridiculous.
So that was a controversy and a challenge.
I ended up just having an accent thats not Jamaiican at all really.
Mine is kind of like a Jamaican Jerry Lewis.
[Laughs]
YOBA:That for me wasnt a challenge.
I had my Jamaican accent long before I did that film.
It was just deciding the consistency between the four of us, and how far we could go.
As they would say, People in Utah may not be able to understand.
[Laughs]Sometimes wed get accused of having too much accent, which I thought was weird.
OUTERBRIDGE:I was the stereotypical Eastern European.
Josef Gruhl was like your East German bad guy, so I did my thickest bad German accent.
I didnt make any effort to attempt to do a correct German accent.
I did my best to find a German accent on a cartoon show and imitate that.
On set, spirits were always high.
YOBA:One of the things that stands out the most to me was when we were in Calgary.
So he didnt have all the facts, but he had the food.
TURTELTAUB:I think about being with the four guys nonstop and how much they taught me about directing.
And how little they got paid.
[Laughs]And how much love and effort they put into it.
We all got paid very little.
I always had the guys over for dinner.
YOBA:The first dinner I remember having was John Candy inviting us all to dinner.
He picked up some music that he thought represented each character and gave it to us.
I remember thinking that was a classy move.
But we would have dinners together, and we did spend a lot of time together.
And the cool thing is, were all cool to this day, which is nice.
They dont know what they have on their hands.
This things going to be huge.
He said, But no one gets it because no one gets how big this is going to be.
I remember listening to him and going, I knew I wasnt crazy.
I feel the same way.
But I didnt say a lot because I didnt want to be that guy.
OUTERBRIDGE:It was really fantastic to be in [John Candys] presence.
But to hang out on set in his presence was really extraordinary.
For all his fame and everything that he was, he was unbelievably generous, he never got angry.
And he had nothing but time for them.
Being in that presence, you learn a lot about how you should really behave in this industry.
I just remember how much the crew laughed and how the camera would shake.
They didnt know what to do with the movie until they saw it.
LEON:One things that always stands out to me aboutCool Runningswas the first public screening of it.
the whole audience stood up, Jamaica!
And they werent even Jamaican!
It was kind of like the faithful few.
LEWIS:I actually knew it was going to be big when I was filming it.
Its going to do about 100 [million].
I remember the guys goes, 100?
At the time thats exactly what happened.
I was pretty close to nailing it.
DOUG:I always get sucked in by the whole world slowly clapping.
It always gets me.
I was in this!
I knew this was going to happen why am I not prepared for it?
[Laughs]
YOBA:When it first came out, I loved it.
I paid to go see it at the movie theater.
I took a girl on a date classy move.
Were going to watch a movie, and were going to discuss the movie in class.
So as soon as the movie starts, she said the entire class looks at her.
She felt so weird she said.
LEWIS:Sometimes I forget Im in it.
I get caught up into the story, and I think thats a great testament to the movie.
I was like, Aw, his dad showed up.
And then Im like, Wait, thats you, you idiot.
[Laughs]But thats how powerful the story is, I actually forgot.
I wasnt watching my acting or anything, I was just watching an interesting story.
Those things weigh a ton.
[Laughs]
Now, 20 years later, what isCool Runnings legacy?
For us, the movie was about dignity.
And with all of its silliness, dignity is at the heart of every scene of that movie.
LEON:Everyone can relate to a fish-out-of-water story.
Everyone can imagine what its like to be the only one of your kind some place.
That is something that universally everyone identifies with.
YOBA:Hope is the word.
I think that the movies just really hopeful, and its really funny.
And its an evergreen.
Each generation can enjoy it with a fresh perspective.
When I saw my kids get into it, that was the cutest thing.
And then there are kids younger than my kids now that love that movie.
DOUG:I think its survived because it does say something about human beings on many levels.
[Laughs]But its true!
So its a universal thing.
And I think that this movie captures that.
And also it captures teamwork.
Be yourself and be proud of that and follow your dream, as corny as it may sound.
Im glad I can go to Brussels and get free French fries because someone likesCool Runnings.
[Laughs]
Cool Runningsis available for streaming on Netflix.
(This article was originally published on Feb. 12, 2014)
