Danny Boyle’s Goal! is nothing if not ambitious. Kicking off a proposed trilogy of football films – not the most beloved of genres by any stretch – the film, made with the assistance of Newcastle United, FIFA, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham and God (probably) sees a young soccer-ball protégée (Kuno Becker) leave behind life as an illegal Mexican immigrant in LA for the muddied banks of the Tyne and a shot at wearing the magpie strip.
As a proper boy’s own wish fulfilment fantasy, Mr. Becker swiftly finds first team glory, a prepossessing love interest in Anna Friel and a debauched spice boy best friend played by actor Alessandro Nivola. Those familiar with Nivola’s impressive trans-Atlantic CV and a career that has seen assured performances in everything from Mansfield Park to Jurassic Park III will not be surprised to hear him once again sounding impeccably English as a naughty Beckham knock-off.
“I know”, he nods. “I can’t get away from England. It started by accident really. I had met Michael Winterbottom for The Cider House Rules and we had a really great meeting, but the film fell through. Next thing I know he’s asked me to go to Hastings to play a fisherman who has just spent eight years in jail. I thought that this is potentially the most preposterous piece of casting one could conceive of, so I just had to do it. That was my introduction to the UK – living in Hastings for months. But because Michael is an important director and because the London scene is so much smaller than LA, next thing you know, all the better job offers are here. And then there’s my wife (Emily Mortimer). That keeps me here too.”
With ancestral roots in Sardinia, the 33-year old Yale graduate is rather more familiar with the rules of rituals of the beautiful game than most American actors.
“I loved doing Goal! because I love football,” he explains. “I’m always grateful for the amount of football here. When I was growing up in the States there was no satellite TV, so we’d wait patiently for the World Cup every four years to get our fix. I actually took this job because they told me I’d be training with Alan Shearer. I figured the film would be some strange European Union piece of shit. Then it turns out to be this huge Disney project in Newcastle, Real Madrid and ultimately, Germany for the World Cup and the conclusion of the trilogy. I was amazed. I thought, ‘Wow, but I still get to play with Shearer, right?’”
Indeed he did. Following his memorable cameo in Purely Belter, Mr. Shearer, along with Messrs. Ericsson, Raul and Zidane, plays himself in Goal! And yes, he did give the actors a hard time.
“After a couple of days training with the team,” recalls Alessandro, “Shearer stormed into the dressing room and demanded to know if anyone had seen Face/Off before announcing that it was shite. I thought ‘Brilliant. They’re slagging me in Newcastle. I’m one of them now’.”