Luke Wilson, Makers of '12 Mighty Orphans' Talk Filming in Cowtown

“12 Mighty Orphans” has become a story that’s reached near legendary status in Fort Worth. Few who reside in the city limits haven’t heard the tale of 12 undersized orphans battling for one of the Lone Star State’s most coveted prizes: a football state championship. While there’s a book and an upcoming film that bear the same name, “12 Mighty Orphans” is really a decades-old tale. The Mighty Mites have long been part of the Fort Worth lexicon and their underdog tale akin to the “Tortoise and the Hare.” 

But, for those who are either new to the city or haven’t had a chance to take a deep dive into Cowtown’s folk heroes, we’ll give you a condensed version of the story. In 1927, Rusty Russell became the head football coach of the Fort Worth Masonic Home, an orphanage that had an enrollment of 160. Despite having a team of small-boned students and competing against larger schools with deeper pockets, the Mighty Mites (as they were colloquially called) were one of the state’s best teams for much of Russell’s reign as head coach — even playing Corsicana High School to a tie in the 1932 state championship.

The story eventually went beyond state lines when The New York Times’ best-selling author, Jim Dent, recounted the history of Russell and the Masonic Home in his 2008 book, Twelve Mighty Orphans. Undoubtedly a story fit for the silver screen, the book was made into a motion picture starring Luke Wilson, Martin Sheen, and Robert Duvall, which is set for wide distribution June 18.

Director Ty Roberts took great pains to ensure the movie portrayed the Masonic Home in as authentic a way as possible, filming in and around Fort Worth, including Weatherford and Cleburne. And he recruited a largely Texas-based cast and crew, including the film’s star, Wilson, who grew up in Dallas. We caught up with Wilson, Roberts, and producer Houston Hill via a Zoom call on an unseasonably cold day in Fort Worth. The trio chatted about filming in Fort Worth, the film’s grittiness, and the meaning of Wilsonaissance. Of course, like most friendly conversations, we kicked things off chatting about the weather.

FW: Hi, Luke, how’s everything in sunny California?

Luke Wilson: It’s good. I just got back here from Georgia. It was already kind of heating up in Georgia, so nice to get back.

FW: Well, we’re wearing sweaters today in Texas. And I know you’re well aware of the indecisive weather that we have in North Texas. 

Wilson: Yeah. I always love that. That’s one thing I really miss. There are times out here where you wake up and you’re like, “What month is it?” When you look out the window when you’re in Texas, you can kind of get it. I mean, I just love those weather changes. 

[Director Ty Roberts enters Zoom call] Hi, Ty.

Ty Roberts: Hey, Luke, how are you?

Wilson: Good to see you, boss.

Roberts: Good to see you, sir. Is this going to be recorded for video purposes?

FW: It is.

Wilson: I was wondering the same thing. Can we freewheel or do we need to actually …

Roberts: Take a shower? [laughs]

Wilson: And keep in mind, this is the first press [we’ve done for the movie]. So, I’m not saying we’re going to be rusty, but we might not be in the flow that we’ll be in at some point.

Roberts: Well, I actually prefer this over when you’re late in the press tour and they’re all wearing sunglasses. Like, really?

FW: First, thank you guys so much for taking the time to do this. So, to kick off the interview, how familiar were y’all with the story before you started filming?

Roberts: I had heard of the book a while ago, but really [producer Houston Hill] was the miner of this story. He kind of pitched it to me, and I was a little hesitant at first because, you know, the tropes of great sports movies kind of fall within the same underdog story and the coach that comes in and turns it around. I just didn’t know the details of Rusty [Russell]. 

Wilson: I hadn’t read the book, but once I got hired onto the movie, I had friends that were like, “Yeah, read the book.” It was great. I just don’t know how I missed it. You know? I’m poking around at Barnes & Noble in Dallas and always liking sports-related books but had not heard [of the book] before I read the script. It’s not like it was some little San Marcos State printing; it was a New York Times best seller. 

Houston Hill: Well, my parents brought it up to me back in 2009 or ’10. And I reached out to Jim Dent’s dad on Facebook, of all places, trying to get the rights. And he had just sold them days before to a group out of Dallas — some commercial real estate guys who had a son who was an actor. So, Jim was like, “Hey, that was gone, but I got this other one for you.” And that movie went on to be “My All-American,” which was about Freddie Steinmark, another football movie. About 10 years passed, and then Ty and I made the “Iron Orchard,” which is a movie we did about West Texas.

I was at my mother-in-law’s house in San Antonio and saw the book, and I was like, “Man, we should check back in with that.” Of course, I sent it to Ty, and he’s like, “Man, I don’t want to make a sports movie.” So, I convinced him to read the book, and he got fired up about it. We eventually met with the rights holders, and I mean, after going through the ringer a bit, we got the rights.

It took us a while, but once we got the rights, the movie came together pretty quickly.

Roberts: Once Luke got involved, it became real, and we were able to build upon that and kept that momentum. 

Wilson: It is unbelievable how those things happen. It is like catching a wave. Sometimes there are these great ideas and great scripts, and, for whatever reason, you can’t get them made. So, when something like this happens and it just kind of hits a groove, you feel very lucky. It’s just so hard to get anything of quality made, too, so that’s especially rewarding.

FW: What do you think made this such an outlier, as far as that’s concerned? What about this film made it go so quickly and so smoothly, and you sort of caught that wave?

Hill: I think it’s this book and this story meant so much to so many people. Our partner, George Young, Jr. loved this book; it was his favorite book. He said, “If I was ever going to invest in a movie, it’d be this book and this movie.”

And there was a ticking clock. I mean, the story was in danger of kind of dying. I think there was a sense of urgency. And then there was just this story, this Texas story that people wanted to be told. Even today, I think it’s still the No. 1 book of women’s book clubs in the state of Texas. It just resonated with so many people.

FW: That’s a good segue to my next question. The cast and crew include a lot of Texans. Was this a conscious decision? And what kind of effect did that have on the authenticity of the film?

Roberts: Oh, absolutely. I prefer to work with a local cast and crew. Even if they’re like Luke, who’s originally from Dallas, but he’s based in LA now. Finding Luke to play Rusty was sort of the pinnacle of it all because Luke played football in high school. He has the sort of demeanor that I envisioned for Rusty. A very smart guy, but also funny and charismatic and quirky. 

We cast a lot of the 12 Mites as local actors. We brought in a few here and there for the bigger roles that we felt needed some experienced actors to carry the weight. But, at the same token, you’ll see performances by Slade Monroe, who’s kind of a first-timer from the DFW area, who delivers some super touching, powerful scenes in the movie.

Luke brought in Ron White. I don’t know how, but what a great character he is as an old-timey sheriff. I mean, how did you even know Ron, Luke? What a perfect choice for Sheriff Red Wright.

Wilson: I can’t remember right now how I met Ron, but I always thought he had such a great face and voice and thought he would be so good in a movie. He’s really into movies, and he’s like all those comics; they’re really sharp guys. From Tracy Morgan to Adam Sandler, they’re all writers; they don’t miss a beat.

And to have Ty be so open to ideas like [bringing on Ron White] is always so meaningful. It’s just great when somebody who’s in charge is receptive to that kind of thing.

It’s like putting bricks together to where you make something that has real feeling and a vibe. I think it comes from people like Ron and, of course, all the boys and Vinessa [Shaw] and all the other actors.

Roberts: Let me just say this, I was beside myself when Luke was willing to share these contacts with me to try to get some of these talented folks involved. That’s so huge.

As a filmmaker, when you’re trying to build your film up and Luke is offering to connect us to Ron and a handful of other folks, it rounded out our cast and made the process so enjoyable.

FW: I loved how much Fort Worth is really showcased in this movie. For instance, the film shows the Star-Telegram, the Masonic Temple, and Amon Carter — all these very Fort Worthian things. Why was it important for y’all to put a spotlight on the city?

Roberts: Well, Fort Worth was almost another character. It’s hard to recreate 1938 Fort Worth, but we really made an effort to try to do that. We had Farrington Field in there, and we had some shots of downtown that we all had to digitally tweak and clean up. But it was real important because the Masonic Home is such an institution in the city, and Rusty had made such an impact [in Fort Worth]. To us, it was real important to try to keep it as realistic as we could and showcase it as best we could. 

Wilson: It’s so rare these days to get to film a story in the town where it’s actually set. I mean, I would say that it basically never happens. I wouldn’t have batted an eye if we were in Albuquerque. No kidding. I mean, I was just working on something where we were supposed to be in Nebraska, and I was in Georgia.

To get to be in the actual town, it’s always helpful. From my perspective as an actor, it helps to wake up in Fort Worth, and it helps to go to dinner in Fort Worth and to hear the voices and be around the people. 

Hill: Well, we almost ended up in Oklahoma. We wanted to shoot at the Masonic Home, which is now the ACH Home. It’s still there, but a couple years before we shot, they remodeled the orphanage and totally modernized it. We just barely missed it. 

So, we went out to the film commission, and they showed us the [Texas Pythian Home] in Weatherford. It was a hundred-year-old Moorish castle that’s still a working orphanage today and hasn’t changed.

Once we saw that, Ty was like, “Man, this is it.” I was like, “No, let’s go look in Oklahoma and see what’s up there.” Because we were thinking we might find some older stadiums. I don’t know if you guys noticed, but those stadiums don’t exist anymore in Texas. 

It was really the Fort Worth Film Commission that said, “No, you have to make this movie here.” They worked with one of our other producers, Brinton Bryan, and they went down to Austin and talked to the film commission and said, “Look, these guys want to make this movie here, but Oklahoma is trying to lure them away.”

The film commission stepped up and said, “We want you guys to tell this Fort Worth story in Fort Worth with Fort Worth people, Fort Worth crew.” Once that happened, it was a done deal. We were all in.

Roberts: I also wanted to add that we had countless orphan alumni as extras. I had guys call my attention between takes and be like, “Hey man, I graduated from the Masonic Home,” or “I lived at the Masonic Home in 1990, and I just want to thank you for being here and doing this.”

That happened a lot, hearing those stories. And it was super important to reflect the community. I mean, we couldn’t have done that anywhere else.

FW: I know sports films usually have the difficult task of consolidating what is a few years into one. For instance, the actual story took place over a few years. So, you have to take sort of a good deal of dramatic license. How do you balance keeping the audience engaged while keeping the film more authentic?

Roberts: Well, I always try to follow the spirit of the story and try to craft it in the best possible three-act structure that you can. And it’s really, really tough to do when you’re talking about a number of different seasons, and a number of different players, and characters, and you got to weed through it and cull the best from the best and tell the story the best way you can. Because, ultimately, you want to honor Rusty and the main characters as much as possible. But it’s almost impossible to tell it in a way that is completely factual and in sequence. 

Lane Garrison and I spent the better part of six or seven months reworking a script that we actually inherited. We boiled it down to two seasons originally. And it was still over two hours long. And we knew, as an independent outfit, we couldn’t produce that film.

So, you got to look at your budget, and you got to look at your capabilities as filmmakers. Ultimately, we boiled it down to one season, which is a creative liberty we took. But, we tried to make it as accurate as possible in the spirit of Rusty’s story and the Masonic Home story. I would love to be able to tell it 100% accurate, but when you can’t, you just honor it the best you can. 

I’m sure people are going to point out inaccuracies and whatnot here and there, but I think the spirit of the story is there. And I feel like we really did our best to honor it. 

Hill: The biggest part was reminding ourselves that we weren’t making a documentary. We were making a movie, and everybody wants to know, “Did you get this person? And did you get this season in? Did you get this?” And it’s tough. But I feel like we got the spirit of it. I think that comes across. 

We showed the movie to Rusty’s daughter who is 95 years old. She’d been in quarantine in Santa Fe, and her son, Russ, was finally able to show her the movie. And she broke down. She couldn’t believe it. She thought, “There’s daddy. There’s daddy.” And she thought we shot at [their old] home. She was like, “That’s what our apartment looked like. That’s where they practiced.” I mean, she just couldn’t believe it. So, if we got it right from her standpoint, I feel like the other orphans and the [Masonic} home kids will be proud of it.

FW: Luke, being a Dallasite, you grew up across the metroplex. Does this movie strike a certain sentimental chord since it takes place so close to home?

Wilson: Oh yeah. It was unbelievable. There were days when I [was on set and] would wake up and think, “Gosh, here I am in Fort Worth. I grew up down the road in Dallas.” If you’d have told the eighth-grade version of me that one day I’d be working down the road, playing a football coach in a movie, I wouldn’t have believed you. 

Just being around the boys reminded me so much of me and my brothers and our friends making our first movie, “Bottle Rocket.” And most of these kids had not been on a set before. But, it’s not like they were without confidence. But they still did have a babe-in-the-woods look to them, but they were just so fun to be around.

And it made me remember how nice crew members were to us. It really brought back so many feelings. I’ve never been so sad to finish a movie as I was on this. Yeah, broke my heart to know that, gosh, this is a team that won’t come back together again. That’s why I’m so glad that we have the movie to show for it. It was an incredible experience and so much fun. My mom would come visit the set and take photographs. Yeah, it was just an incredible experience.

FW: Would you say playing a Texan is something that comes naturally to you? For instance, was it easy getting the accent down?

Wilson: Once I’d gotten hired on [to “12 Mighty Orphans”], I was working on something else. But, I had a lot of dialogue as Rusty and coaching scenes and teaching scenes. So, I got started sooner than I normally would getting prepared. I was just doing the voice to myself early on — growing up, we imitated Texas guys, even though we have Texas accents ourselves. Eventually, I worked with Ty and listened to tapes of Rusty Russell. 

It was fun showing up on a Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. to think, “Okay, I’ve got to get into character here” and remember that I’ve got this specific voice that I’m using. And then, once you start doing it, it becomes like the wardrobe. 

I think Ty has a really good handle on that Texas vibe and idea. I think that there’s a perspective people have about Texas and the way it is, but there’s also a real sensitivity, I think, that comes through in the movie.

FW: Obviously, you had some Rusty tapes that you could reference to for developing his mannerisms and his personality. But did you draw any inspiration from anyone else that you knew? How did you build this character and what their persona was going to be?

Wilson: I met some ranchers growing up. Some old legendary ranchers through my mom as a photographer. Definitely thought about those guys because, even in the ’80s, they seem like they were from, no kidding, the 1880s. And, then I had a great coach growing up who was my track coach and my football coach. So, I kept him in mind. Then it was also really helpful that Russ, Rusty’s grandson, was around a lot. It was so helpful to go to lunch with Russ in the middle of the day and talk to him about Rusty’s experiences in World War I.

I’ve never gotten to play somebody like this where I could do research and meet people who knew the person. And it was also nice to have it be somebody that wasn’t a historical person that everybody knew. I could put my own stamp on it and not have to feel like, “Gosh, am I nailing this voice? Or am I nailing this look?” So it had, to me, the best of both worlds. 

Roberts: Like Luke said, it wasn’t a historical figure. We have a Roosevelt figure in the movie, where everybody knows how he sounded and how he looked. But, Luke brought Rusty to life in a way that was very unique to his own doing. The real Rusty was real country. He really was an old-timer. But, Luke found that balance. And he listened to those tapes and internalized it and brought it out in a way that’s subtle. But, it’s there. And it works so well. Hats off to you, brother.

Wilson: Thank you.

FW: The film is rated PG-13, and it’s a little grittier and far from what I would call a campy sports film. You portray a pretty brutal assault on children, alcoholism, and you even showed a compound fracture. Why did you decide to give this film a much more realistic and grittier tone?

Roberts: One of our very early conversations was about the tone of the film. And there are parts of the book that are actually much grittier and have a lot more detail in them than we actually put into the movie. And it was a question of, “Is this a Disney movie, or is this something that’s an indie, gritty sports film for an indie audience?” And we didn’t know the right answer, but we went with a bit grittier side to it, just to remain as authentic as we could. 

I felt like it was part of its unique voice. I felt like Rusty’s PTSD and him going virtually blind in World War I was a real integral component of who he was. I thought it was a very unique complexity to a coach that we’ve never seen. 

I think the reality of the times during the Great Depression and the harshness of orphanages was important. They weren’t flowery, always loving places. And to us, the transformation of the orphanage is what Rusty and Juanita did. They transformed it from an institution into an academic and sports machine for these kids and a place of love. 

So, you have to show the good with the bad or the bad with the good, and there were inherently some very dark storylines. 

FW: Luke, how often do you get to come back to Fort Worth? And, whenever you do, what are some of the places you like to go?

Wilson: I go back a lot. Whenever I go back, my mom always wants to head over to Fort Worth. We grew up going to the Amon Carter and going to the Kimbell and Joe T. Garcia’s and the rodeo. So it was always kind of an event when we go to Fort Worth, and my godfather, Mike Richie, he worked for the Star-Telegram. So, we’d go over there a lot to visit him. 

FW: Okay. Well, I think that just about wraps it up for us unless you guys had anything you wanted to add?

Hill: I just wonder if this is going to be a Wilsonaissance. I didn’t know what that meant at first, but somebody that saw the movie and was just blown away by Luke’s performance. So, I’m really excited for audiences to see him in this role. I feel like he just totally transformed himself, and I haven’t seen him in anything like it. So, let’s start that now, the Wilsonaissance.

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A Local Production

Producing partners Angelique and Mike De Luca talk filming in Fort Worth.

What do producers do? While everyday moviegoers may think they simply supply the money and get to pick up the golden statuette if the film wins best picture at the Academy Awards, their responsibilities are really ever expanding. Angelique De Luca, a Fort Worth native who co-produced “12 Mighty Orphans” with Houston Hill, Brinton Bryan, and ex-husband — but current producing partner — Mike De Luca, explains that a producer is really the stitching that holds everything together. 

“You wear the hats of everything,” Angelique explains. “In many cases, you’re finding the books, finding the scripts, finding the director, casting the actors, and doing the location scouting; you really have your hands in everything.”

While “12 Mighty Orphans” marks Angelique’s first foray into producing, she first ventured into the motion picture industry when she was 21 as an extra on “Walker, Texas Ranger” — the Chuck Norris vehicle that contained several filming locations in the metroplex. And, in a strange twist of serendipity, Angelique also served as an extra on “Bottle Rocket,” Luke Wilson’s first film.

With support from her mother, Angelique eventually moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. “It is a little odd,” Angelique says. “Because a lot of parents are like, ‘No way are you ever going to pursue an acting career.’ But she was totally behind me.”

Los Angeles is where Angelique would meet Mike De Luca, whose impressive resume as a producer includes “Moneyball,” “The Social Network,” and “Captain Phillips.”

The two would eventually move back to Angelique’s hometown to raise their children. “I think [Fort Worth’s] a great place to raise children,” Mike says. “So, I agreed to commute from Fort Worth to Los Angeles for my job.”

The pair became involved with “12 Mighty Orphans” through screenwriter Lane Garrison, who brought the project to their attention. With a full slate of movies in production and little time on his hands, Mike asked Angelique to co-produce the movie with him.

“I just thought it was a wonderful opportunity to do something locally,” Mike says. “It was a great thing to do a film where I live my other half of my life — where the kids are growing up. And I think it was really special and important for Angelique because it celebrated Fort Worth history.”

The film hits home with Angelique in more ways than one. In addition to the film’s obvious Fort Worth ties, Angelique also has ties to the Masonic Home. When Angelique was still nursing, her single mother had put Angelique’s sister in a Masonic home for a year. 

“My mom was just in a really hard place,” Angelique says. “And it broke her heart that she had to [leave my sister in the care of others for a year], but she was very grateful for the Masonic Home. Because they literally saved her. They helped take care of my sister but also gave my mom a broader opportunity to get back on her feet. So, the ties with our family and the story in itself is very sentimental.”

In the near future, the pair have no plans on separating as producing partners, and Angelique hopes to soon bring a couple of special projects to Fort Worth.

“I know the city is very ambitious and wants some bigger things to come in,” Angelique says. “I’m also an entrepreneur, and I have a couple of special things in the works. Believe it or not, the film industry is more of a hobby for me now.”