•According to a report by Michael Peyton for IGN, David Corenswet says his upcoming role in the football drama Mr. Irrelevant shares much with his turn as Superman.
In an interview with IGN, Corenswet discussed Mr. Irrelevant, which reaches theaters this December, and its protagonist, John Tuggle.
“John Tuggle is a very Superman-like figure in a lot of ways,” Corenswet says. “I want to watch films that leave me feeling hopeful, optimistic, energetic. When the lights come up in the movie theater, I want to look to the people next to me and say, ‘Wow, we should be a little nicer to each other.'”
Mr. Irrelevant tells the true story of John Tuggle, “the last player selected in the last round of the 1983 NFL draft.” Corenswet plays Tuggle, with Michael Shannon as football coach Bill Parcells and Isabel May as Tuggle’s love interest Katie.
May says playing Katie was a reprieve from some upcoming roles. “Of course I want to be a part of films that make people feel good,” she says. “But I also did films after this film that will make people not feel good.”
“I haven’t made another film except for a Superman film since this film,” Corenswet adds. “[In one upcoming film] I play a pretty deplorable person… But I want to play everyone, every kind of flavor of a person.” He says he was “excited to go to work every single goddamn day on this film.”
The real Tuggle died of cancer in 1986, and the film covers his health struggles as well as his NFL efforts. Corenswet, whose own father died of cancer, says those scenes were a personal challenge.
“The second half [of the movie] was harder for me because that was all me,” he says. “The first half is all my football double Jacob who gave and took all of the very hard hits over and over.” He describes the physical toll: “If you’re doing a scene where you’re coughing, the scene might be 30 seconds or a minute on screen, but you spend all day coughing as an actor.”
May said one lighthearted scene proved trickiest for both of them to film.
“There’s a scene where I’m taking a shower and David was having a really justifiably difficult time trying to figure out how not to be creepy,” May says. “But also still, if he didn’t go in the shower, it wasn’t as fun.”
Corenswet recalls director Jonathan Levine asking whether they would fail to solve the scene’s blocking. The solution came from within the shower: “[Isabel] just piped in… ‘What if I don’t open the curtain?’ And that immediately solved everything.” He calls it “the story I tell when I try to explain to people how good you were to have on set.”
Neither actor spoke with Tuggle’s family during production, but Katie—whom Tuggle became engaged to before his death—and others close to him have seen the film.
“Our producers showed the film to his sister and his family and to Katie, and they all said it felt like they were actually watching John,” May says. “They got to see him again.” Corenswet adds: “David tapped into something extraordinary.”
When asked whether the film will draw attention to Tuggle’s on-field accomplishments, Corenswet says he hopes for more.
“We can all get on board with a Mr. Irrelevant movie about [someone like San Francisco 49ers quarterback] Brock Purdy,” he says—referring to “the guy who’s picked last, who ended up being the star.” But what Tuggle learns, Corenswet continues, is that “the greatest impact an individual has on the world is not in the record books and it’s not on the trophies in the glass cases. It’s on the people who you interact with and inspire.”
Mr. Irrelevant premieres in theaters December 25.
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