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The Benchwarmers   Full Production Notes
Starring: Rob Schneider, David Spade, Jon Heder, Jon Lovitz, Tim Meadows
Directed by: Dennis Dugan
Screenplay by: Allen Covert, Nick Swardson
Release Date: April 7th, 2006
Running Time: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for crude and suggestive humor, and for language.
Box Office: $59,843,754 (US total)
Studio: Columbia Pictures
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The Benchwarmers Poster
Tagline: 3 old losers should be able to beat 9 young jocks... Right?
In Revolution Studios’ comedy The Benchwarmers, three underdogs (Rob Schneider, David Spade and Jon Heder) form a three-man baseball team to challenge a full squad of elementary school baseball bullies. Their success leads to a high-stakes, winner-take-all game with the best kids in the state. If they win, they will become an inspiration for every kid who has ever been a benchwarmer.
Gus (Rob Schneider), Richie (David Spade) and Clark (Jon Heder) are three underdogs who spent a great deal of time on the bench when they were kids. Now, they’re getting a second chance.
Mel (Jon Lovitz) is a local billionaire whose son Nelson (Max Prado) is always being intimidated by the other kids. One day, Gus and Clark rescue Nelson from a bunch of bullies on the baseball field. When Max tells his father about the incident, Mel makes Gus, Clark and Richie a tantalizing proposition: He will put up the money for them to travel and play in a tournament against the young baseballers as a way of helping his son and other nerds like him to exact revenge against the bullies of this world. It will be called “Mel's Tournament of Little Baseballers and Three Older Guys.”
The winner will get the greatest stadium ever built -- at Mel’s expense. In order to prepare Gus, Richie and Clark for the tournament, Mel hires baseball legend Reggie Jackson to train them. Reggie works with them on timing by having them sit in the back of a truck as it drives down the street, swinging a bat and demolishing mailboxes. He also teaches them fielding by tossing a hot potato at them, which they catch barehanded and toss quickly to one another. Amazingly, the training pays off and they become an inspiration to benchwarmers everywhere.
About the Production
“Adam Sandler had this idea," explains Rob Schneider, “for a movie about three older guys, who weren't really that great at sports when they were kids, who get a chance to play against other young baseballers and beat up on them.”
Director Dennis Dugan says, “I got involved with The Benchwarmers when Happy Madison, Adam Sandler's company, sent me the script. I had done two comedies for them and they knew I was a huge baseball fan. So they thought it would be the perfect marriage.”
Dugan admits he related to the concept of being a benchwarmer because he was one when as a kid. “A benchwarmer is the athletic kid who isn't an athlete, someone who really wants to play and be included, but who always gets picked last — if he gets picked at all — and always sits at the end of the bench.”
Glad to be working with Happy Madison again, particularly on a movie about baseball, it was only when he was in production that Dugan realized “how difficult it is to shoot a movie about baseball, because the field is so vast. It's not a linear sport like basketball, hockey or football, which basically work on one line. Baseball is different. It starts here and then the ball goes there and someone runs there to get it, and if he does, someone cheers way over there somewhere. So it’s composed of thousands and thousands and thousands of shots. So there’s one line in the script that basically says ‘Nelson hits a double down the right field line,’ and I suddenly realized it was going to take four hours to shoot that one line. So, I had to make an account for every shot. I had to be part director and part CPA.”
As a former actor, Dugan had a special facility for communicating with his cast. “Having been an actor, now that I’m working behind the camera, I can empathize with the desire in each and every cast member to find their character and the most appropriate line reading. It helps that I understand the language of how to get them there. It makes for a truly collaborative process. On this movie, everybody had a voice and everybody came up with stuff. My job was to be the shepherd and keep them all going down the same path.”
"Dennis Dugan was great. He had more energy than anyone on the set, which is how it should be," says Schneider. "He constantly had fresh ideas and if you got stuck, he was right there to help you. Also, his son is an incredible baseball player, so he has a real appreciation and love of the game. He loves comedy and he loves the game.”
“Dugan is a genuinely nice guy. He’s peppy and he’s been around comedy for a long time with some hit movies under his belt,” says David Spade. “It was wonderful to have someone on the set who was upbeat and in a good mood and up to changing things if he had to.”
Jon Heder agrees, “Dugan was a lot of fun to work with, like a big kid. He’d get out there and kind of goof around and do funny voices. He was full of energy and excitement and he had a good handle on what kids’ baseball is like.”
For co-screenwriter Nick Swardson, Dugan was a welcome, encouraging presence. “He gave me a lot of freedom, which writers rarely have on the set,” he explains. “He really respects and loves comedy, so he welcomed any new jokes or line changes. It made for a really productive creative process.”
Dugan also had support from Sandler, one of the producers on the film who, throughout production, served as a combination booster, inspiration and comic benchmark.
"Adam's presence was always felt, whether he was on the set or not," according to Schneider, "because this was a story he had always had in his mind and I was playing the role he might have played. That was a big responsibility for me, because I think of Adam like a brother and I wanted to make sure that we were doing the movie in a way that would justify his enthusiasm for it. It certainly has the anarchy of all his movies – maybe even more. For me it was like a master's thesis on the form of a quintessential Adam Sandler comedy."
Like Dugan, production designer Perry Andelin Blake also got involved with The Benchwarmers because he’s such a huge baseball fan. “Some of my favorite movies of all time are baseball movies like The Natural and Field of Dreams. So when I was able to do a movie about kids’ baseball, I got really excited.”
“Adam visited the set all the time,” says Blake. “He had a good sense of the kids who were playing because, in many ways, he’s a big kid himself. I think he can still remember what it was like to be a kid and what it was like to play baseball. He's a naturally good athlete, but he still probably remembers the times that he struck out and what that felt like, or being booed or being a member of a bad team. He had a really good sense of the heart of the movie and the fun and humor of the subject. He was there to give everyone encouragement to make the movie fun, lively and colorful.”
Co-screenwriter Swardson, who had previously worked with Sandler on Grandma’s Boy, received a call from the actor one day. “He said, ‘I have this idea I just sold and you’re going to write it. It’s about three guys who sorta play ball against other kids when they’re older because they got picked on when they were younger and didn't get to play. You’re going to write it and it will be great.’ And he was right. It was a great idea. It was original and cool and fun and I was thrilled to be working (with Allen Covert) on it.”
“Adam is great because he hangs out and watches a lot,” recalls Spade. “Sometimes, when you get into a rut, you can almost hear him thinking, ‘Hey Spade, make something up.’ And soon you find yourself asking the director if you can do another take or try something different. It encourages you to work on your feet.”
Napoleon Dynamite’s Jon Heder says Sandler’s comedic style is palpable throughout the film. “It was cool to have Adam as the producer because it’s just his kind of comedy,” says Heder. “It was nice having him around as backup to make sure it was all running at a smooth comedic pace. A lot of the jokes are very much his style. Even though he's not in the movie and just on the sidelines, you can still kind of sense his presence — as if he's a ghost hovering in every scene.”
Actor Jon Lovitz saw classic Sandler themes in the story. "Adam is always fighting for the underdog and these kids are odd men out," he says. "My character is financing the games because his son always gets picked on by bullies, and I want to put an end to it for once and for all. That's the true heart of the story. Adam came to me, Spade and Schneider and offered us our parts. He's a really great guy that way, very loyal to his friends, which is almost unheard of in show business. In fact, the only time I've heard of it is with Adam Sandler."
In addition to getting input from their director and producers Sandler and Jack Giarraputo, The Benchwarmers' cast developed a strong interpersonal camaraderie. “Lovitz, Spade and I were friends from stand-up and ‘SNL’ almost 20 years ago. And Heder is a natural comedian,” says Schneider. “So you had guys who really knew how to be funny. It was the ideal situation."
“Even the smaller roles in this film were funny,” says Spade. “Having Jon Heder around was great because it kind of mixed things up a bit and he’s a genuinely hilarious guy — a great match for the three of us. We needed a really good goofy guy.”
Adds Lovitz: "Jon Heder's a great guy, very smart and articulate. He's really funny. He has his own style and timing. He's just naturally gifted that way."
Heder returns the compliment. “It was exciting to work with all these guys, to be around the ‘Saturday Night Live’ gurus,” he says. “They've all been around the business much longer than I have and I learned a ton from them — about the business of comedy, about acting, all sorts of stuff. Spade, Lovitz and Schneider are all very different comedians, so it was really great — like attending comedy camp.”
“Schneider and Spade are both great comedians. You can give them anything and they will pretty much deliver on it,” says Swardson, “which makes it so much easier to write for them. “Spade has got sarcastic down better than anybody — he even has his own cadence. Schneider is more the straight guy in this. He is more serious. His jokes are just in a different tone from David’s. And Heder’s got this great timing and rhythm.”
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