If Roy "Tin Cup" McAvoy (KEVIN COSTNER) had played it safe, he might have been golfing on the pro tour instead of giving lessons at a driving range in the tiny West Texas town of Salome.
Had he played it safe, he might still be dating Doreen (LINDA HART), the owner of a profitable exotic dancing establishment, instead of becoming hired help at his own place of business -- which he lost to her on a sucker bet. If he'd played it safe he wouldn't be sacrificing his dignity to David Simms (DON JOHNSON), a PGA star and longtime rival, by accepting a job as his caddie.
Tin Cup should have controlled what his best friend, Romeo Posar (CHEECH MARIN), called his "inner demons." When Dr. Molly Griswold (RENE RUSSO) walked onto his green, he should have settled for giving the lady psychologist golf lessons and never allowed those demons to lead him into falling in love with her.
But something about her rational mind, her sharp wit, her long legs...something about the completely unexpected electricity between his small-time self and her big-city polish makes it clear to Tin Cup that once again, he's not going to play it safe. Even though Molly Griswold is already David Simms' girlfriend.
Roy "Tin Cup" McAvoy has to win Molly Griswold with a gesture so grand, a triumph so complete that nothing less than her undying adoration would be an appropriate response.
And suddenly, inspiration strikes: the way to regain his dignity, his driving range and the attention of the woman with whom he is by now stammeringly smitten, is simple: All Roy has to do is win the U.S. Open - the most difficult tournament in the pro golfing world.
Warner Bros. Presents, In Association with New Regency Enterprises, Kevin Costner and Rene Russo in "Tin Cup," starring Cheech Marin and Don Johnson and directed by RON SHELTON. "Tin Cup" is written by JOHN NORVILLE and Shelton, and produced by GARY FOSTER, Shelton & DAVID LESTER. The distinguished behind-the-camera team includes cinematographer RUSSELL BOYD ("The Year of Living Dangerously," "Tender Mercies") and editor PAUL SEYDOR ("The Program"), both veterans of the Shelton productions "Cobb" and "White Men Can't Jump." The production designer is JAMES BISSELL, whose credits include "Jumanji," "The Rocketeer" and "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial." Costume design is by CAROL ODITZ and the music is composed by WILLIAM ROSS.
About the Production...
"Tin Cup" is the first Shelton production that has resulted from a script collaboration. In teaming with first-time screenwriter John Norville, Shelton sets a comedy about relationships between men and women in the context of a familiar sport whose popularity is widespread and growing.
Shelton and Norville, longtime golfing buddies, wrote the script with Kevin Costner in mind. The character they conceived was an Everyman with superior skills and potent demons, likeable to men, lovable to women, equally full of blather and heroic aspiration.
"Roy McAvoy is the archetypal American hustler-con man-loser who has a gift for self-destruction," says Shelton. "He also has a gift for playing the game of golf. But that gift is continually overruled by his penchant for self-immolation. There's a little bit of Roy McAvoy in all of us.
"McAvoy is the man who always has to 'go for it.' He romanticizes the idea that to go for it is brave. It's manly. It's heroic. When, in fact much of the time, it's stupid and idiotic and suicidal."
"Kevin wasn't an avid golfer before we started talking about making this movie together," Shelton relates. "But I knew from working with him in 'Bull Durham' that he was a wonderful natural athlete. He is also under-used (and under-recognized) as a comedic actor."
"Many times in our business people say they want to work together again - especially when they've combined on something successful," says Costner. "But in the case of Ron and I it was a real desire. We have similar tastes in films and share a fondness for certain themes. I probably could have worked - on some level - in every movie he's done since 'Bull Durham.' But we waited for the right one and 'Tin Cup' was it.
"What appealed to me about the character, as I read the script pages, was seeing his flaws," notes Costner. "The glitches were the things about him that I embraced. His eccentricity, his pontificating, his being a guy who just rages at the world with a sense of disjointed poetry. Those are the things that I loved about Roy McAvoy."
Continues Costner, "The fact that men still don't understand women and are confused by them and vice versa is the charm of life. And it's the charm of the movies when written in an original way."
In choosing Rene Russo to play Molly Griswold, Shelton thought he saw skills hinted at but not fully realized in her other films.
"Rene has a real comic gift," says Shelton. "She's played so many strong, tough women - in movies like 'In the Line of Fire' and 'Outbreak' - that I think this role gives her a chance to play a bit of the daffy side without compromising her strength, intelligence and independence."
Russo claims that the bigger stretch for her as an actress have been movies in which she was asked to play it straight.
"Of all the characters I've played, Molly definitely comes the closest to who I am," admits Russo. "There are days when I feel really strong and things are moving along just fine, right on course. And there are other days when I have absolutely nothing together. That's what I think is great about Molly: sometimes she seems like a totally organized professional woman and other times she's completely nutty. She runs the entire spectrum of personalities."
Cheech Marin was cast as Romeo Posar, Roy's conscience and caddie. "Cheech is a national treasure," says Shelton. "He's a terrific comic actor and I would suggest he's even got a romantic leading man side in him. He's also just great to have on set when you're making irreverent comedy because it's hard to have an arch moment when Cheech Marin is standing there. In that way, he grounds us all."
Marin sees his character as something of a grounding force for Tin Cup's highly explosive temperament. "Romeo and Roy, besides being best friends, have a sort of master-student relationship," Marin explains. "But who's the master and who's the student keeps changing all the time. Romeo, as a coach and teacher, has to be very gentle because he's dealing with a time bomb. Romeo is the only guy who knows the truth about Tin Cup and, ultimately, the only guy who tells the truth to Tin Cup."
This candid comraderie finds its polar opposite in the person of David Simms, the slick PGA pro played with oleaginous charm by Don Johnson.
"He's like a well-mannered prep school boy," Johnson says of Simms. "He knows exactly the right thing to say, the right place to stand, how to treat the mom and dad of the girlfriend. He's not really a bad guy - there's just something about him we can't stand. One of Simms' main characteristics is that he never takes anything personally. He is above insult. He doesn't spend a lot of time worrying about what everybody else thinks of him."
Johnson agreed to take on the role of Simms for two reasons. One was his love of golf; the other was that, as an actor, he trusted Shelton to guide him through the perils of playing a part unlike any he'd previously attempted.
"I think a key to Ron's work is that he truly likes all the characters that he creates," says Johnson. "As an actor, you can't portray even an insincere guy like Simms without understanding what he likes about himself. Through both his writing and directing, Ron provides you with clues in the form of a character's flaws and foibles that help you find his humanity. That's what made it a lot of fun for me to play this guy."
Among this collection of flawed beings is one with as much on the ball as any Shelton has ever created. Doreen, an exotic dancer and owner of The Golden Tassel, is a clear-headed businesswoman who doesn't get distracted by emotion. This probably makes her the exact opposite of Tin Cup. And, even though the two have enjoyed a comfortable romantic life and are now amicably parted, Doreen isn't too sentimental to accept McAvoy's driving range in payment when he loses a bet to her -- and then hire him to operate it.
"Doreen is about the smartest person in the movie," says Linda Hart of the character she portrays. "She's very clear about what she's doing and really says what's on her mind. She's a sharp businesswoman in a business where there's no shortage of men. She's probably one of the most solid citizens in Salome, Texas, which may say as much about Salome as anything else."
On The Tour. . .
Production began in Tucson in mid-September and continued in Houston until mid-December. The movie was set in the summer and often the film's wardrobe was uncomfortably incongruent with the location climate.
"There were nights in October when we were filming in the high desert and the temperature was in the 30s," recalls Russo. "I was dressed in a miniskirt and short-sleeved blouse, having to pretend it was balmy. Now that's acting."
But for the most part, the elements were extremely kind to the filmmakers in what were potentially troublesome circumstances.
"Weather is always a concern - especially when you're doing a movie with thousands of extras in an outdoor setting," says producer David Lester. "But we did our homework and prepared as best we could. Of particular concern was our U.S. Open, which covered four days in the story and which was to be shot over a period of three weeks during November.
"Our options for golf courses that were useable at that time of year were limited to the southern portion of the U.S. Before deciding on Houston, we did a 30-year review of their fall weather patterns and found they had an average of only eight rain days in November. We built in an adequate number of cover days to our schedule for insurance, then we crossed our fingers. We were very fortunate."
The production design was a crucial element in the storytelling. The filmmakers had the assistance of the U.S.G.A. (United States Golfing Association) in replicating U.S. Open designs and conditions in Houston. They also brought in David Eger, who had set up U.S. Open course over the past few years, including last year's Shinnecock course, to work with production designer James Bissell.
"Fairways had to be made more narrow, tee boxes moved back," explains producer Gary Foster. "They want it to be the toughest test of golf in the world and we had to adapt our course to those conditions."
Other locations needed less restructuring. A Tucson exotic-dancing establishment was one of the few practical sets that didn't require some innovative makeover.
Roy's driving range was constructed from a barren cow pasture on the road to Sonoita, Arizona, not far from the Mexican border. So convincing - and appealing - an oasis was it that passers-by attempted to pull in to swat a bucket of balls. A local newspaper reporter asked, "When did you fix up the old place? It hasn't looked so good in years." And went away unconvinced when he was told there had never been an "old place" to fix up.
Verisimilitude is key in any movie, but especially so in a film which depicts an arena that television brings into family living rooms on a regular basis. "We needed to put Kevin Costner in the same frame with real golfers in real golf situations," says Shelton. "We brought in the real CBS crew that covers golf - guys like Jim Nantz, Ken Venturi, Ben Wright, Gary McCord, Peter Kostis, and legendary sports producer/director Frank Chirkinian. We used real pro caddies, driving range coaches and other recognizable people from the sports and golf world: ESPN reporter Jimmy Roberts and sports show host George Michael. We even got the Fuji blimp."
Of course, the filmmakers also cast a few pro golfers to play themselves. Included were four former U.S. Open winners and an all-star lineup of current top money winners, among them Fred Couples, Corey Pavin, Jerry Pate, Phil Mickelson, Billy Mayfair, Lee Janzen, John Cook, Tom Purtzer, Bruce Lietzke and Steve Elkington. Pro golfers Peter Jacobsen and Craig Stadler actually made their acting debuts with speaking roles.
"What they did for the movie was legitimize our tournament," says Foster. "We had 25 of the top golf pros in the world participating in our U.S. Open. That kind of authenticity helps an audience believe what they're seeing.
But the presence of all these top pros also presented a problem: Could Costner's swing look strong enough to believeably exist in the same league with these guys? The filmmakers assigned McCord and Kostis to work with Costner and, to a lesser degree, Johnson (who was already an eight handicapper and a regular on the celebrity golf circuit). Shelton had thought all along that he would have to use a double for most of Costner's swings but the athletic actor proved to be a quick learner. The result was that Costner did all his own golfing in the movie.
"Golf seemed like a crazy challenge to make a movie about," says Shelton. "The world is divided into two groups: those who are obsessed with golf and those who think it's the stupidest game ever invented. There's no grey area in between. So, I thought if I could make golf compelling and sexy to non-golfers and combine it with a little romance between two interesting people, well, that would be worth attacking."
Warner Bros. Presents, In Association with New Regency Enterprises, A Gary Foster Production of A Ron Shelton Film: Kevin Costner and Rene Russo in "Tin Cup," starring Cheech Marin and Don Johnson. The music is by William Ross. The executive producer is Arnon Milchan. The film is edited by Paul Seydor and Kimberly Ray, and the production designer is James Bissell. The director of photography is Russell Boyd, A.C.S., and the film is written by John Norville and Ron Shelton. "Tin Cup" is produced by Gary Foster and David Lester and directed by Ron Shelton. It is distributed by Warner Bros., A Time Warner Entertainment Company.
© 1996 Warner Bros.
