Annapolis: THE MOVIE

usna09mom
Sat, 14 Jan 2006 21:13:08 +0000

“I do a lot of research for all of my roles,” says Franco of his method. “If I feel close enough to a character, sometimes too much preparation can be damaging. But I definitely didn’t know anything about boxing and I didn’t know anything about being in the naval academy.”

Turns out they didn’t need to. And while Franco won’t be entering tough guy boxing competitions, he feels he captured the required pugilist posturing. “I understood training isn’t just sparring,” he says. “The trainer has mitts that you hit and you can jump rope. And then when I did spar there’s a headgear with a bar that goes across the front that protects you.”

But you can still get hurt. “Yeah,” says Franco, nodding. "You can get hurt. And I did.

“I sparred with some pros in the ring and they went pretty easy on me,” he continues. “But then I got a little cocky one day, and I said I wanted them to let me feel what a real punch was like.”

So? “So this guy hits me,” Franco recalls, “and my jaw felt like it was crooked for the rest of the day even though it was straight.”

Naval academy research was the easy part, although Franco discovered the stress on the first year “plebes” is incredibly intense…

“The discipline of the Annapolis military training is hard, and probably the most difficult part for me,” Franco says. “But really it seems like the mental stuff required and the mental attitude one needs is really difficult, too, and would be the hardest part for me.”

Franco smirks. “And include all the math and physics requirements that you need to have. And I can’t believe that these teenagers, basically, are committing themselves like this at such a young age. I have great respect for them.”