His recognizable face is synonymous with one of the most iconic baseball films of all time, which makes his latest project that much more prolific. Patrick Renna, best known for his role as Hamilton “Ham” Porter in 1993’s “The Sandlot” shares the screen with Greg Kinnear, and North Texas-native Luke Wilson in the upcoming film “You Gotta Believe.”
This film chronicles the real life 2002 Westside All-Stars little league season, which ended with these underdogs entering the little league world series, against all odds. Over the years Renna, who plays Kliff Young in this upcoming film, has done his best to stray away from being type cast in baseball movies. However, he says “You Gotta Believe” seemed to hit home when he read the script. Directed by Ty Roberts, who directed “Twelve Mighty Orphans,” also starring Wilson, this film places a spotlight on another Fort Worth-centric story.
In a nutshell this film is about a little league team that came together to play in honor of a teammate’s dad who had been diagnosed with cancer. The rest, well you’ll have to wait and see the film.
Most recently Renna has appeared on two episodes of the Netflix series “Glow.” But to the mainstream he will forever be the kid from the “Sandlot” best known for the line, “You’re killing me Smalls.”
We recently had a chance to chat with Renna about his role in “You Gotta Believe,” his real-life passion for baseball, and what it was like behind the scenes of his most famous film.
FWM: What made you decide to take on another baseball film?
PR: The Ratliff part of the story is what makes the whole film and also, hey, come on, its got baseball and young kids in it. These kids were the same age I was when I did my first film, that was pretty nostalgic for me. And then just the role that I got to play, which was pivotal in convincing the coach to kind of jump on and take the team. And so, it was a cool little role and all those things together. I was pretty excited to do it.
FWM: When you were making the film, did you learn anything more about the background of what happened?
PR: Oh yeah, completely. Robert Ratliff was on set, so I got to meet the actual son of the guy who inspired this story. I mean I read the script and yeah, it got me, I have a family and anytime you hear something like that, it breaks your heart. The fact that this situation was used for good I think is part of what makes this story. It's bittersweet, but it's touching for sure.
FWM: What sets “You Gotta Believe” apart from other sports films in your opinion?
PR: There haven't been many movies like this in recent years. It's kind of cool to see another movie come out that you can take the whole family to, that will inspire you. And it's about baseball and friendship and overcoming obstacles and that's what movies are about. That's what movies are made for, to tell the stories.
FWM: Do you yourself play baseball in real life outside of the movie realm?
PR: Yeah, I Love it. I play second base. I kind of moved on to softball now, but I've played it my whole life, and yes, I love it.
FWM: Do you get recognized if you go out in public when you're playing ball?
PR: Yeah, I mean I think 'The Sandlot’ has been passed on to multi-generations now, so it's kind of crazy. And I can't grow a beard so there's no hiding my face.
FWM: What did you do to prep for this role? What kind of research did you do, if any?
PR: I mean, diving into the true story for sure. I wanted to see where this all came from and it's pretty cool. It's pretty inspirational. It was just cool to meet the real-life version of what we were portraying, and Robert Ratliff was just so appreciative that I was doing it. And again, the first film that I did was kind of in his life. That meant a lot to me to know that I was in his living room, maybe during the tough times in this film, and maybe they helped out a little bit.
FWM: How much has ‘The Sandlot’ changed your life?
PR: It has, man. I think it’s because 'The Sandlot’ means so much to other people, it's definitely changed the trajectory of my life. But isn't that why we do what we do as actors or journalists or directors? We're trying to make something that means something to people. Knowing the first film that I ever did, for it to mean that much to people and get to experience it my whole life, it's pretty cool.
FWM: Could you give me an example of what happened behind the scenes on “The Sandlot?”
PR: God, I have stories for days. It is funny. People ask me what I remember about it. I remember the filming of it. I actually haven't seen the movie that much, but I just remember the days of filming. It was 102 degrees out and we're sweating and the dead of the summer in Salt Lake City, Utah and playing baseball and having a blast. And this is the days of film too, so it's not like you could just keep rolling. You had to nail things and a lot of it was improv, but it was improv through the director. It was approved improv. It wasn't like he just let the kids run wild. He would come up to us and he'd say, it was kind of like ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ improv, but there's guidelines. So, he would come up to us and go, 'okay, I kind of want to shift this around a bit, do something like this, but just be natural.' And so, then we'd go and do it. But again, it's film, so you don't have a lot of chances, you can't mess it up.
