Mar 24, 2008 7:18 pm US/Central
Clooney, Zellweger Visit Duluth For Movie Tour
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) ―
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The stars arrived aboard a train, wearing period clothes reflecting the movie's 1920s setting and signed autographs for the fans waiting to see the pair.
CBS
Even though their new movie "Leatherheads" wasn't filmed here, actors George Clooney and Renee Zellweger stopped by to thank Duluth residents for the role their city played in the football comedy.
Clooney and Zellweger kicked off a whistle-stop tour to promote "Leatherheads" with an appearance Monday at the Depot, an old train station in downtown Duluth. The stars arrived aboard a train, wearing period clothes reflecting the movie's 1920s setting.
Clooney, who also directed "Leatherheads," said he understands Duluth is "cold in February, so we ended up trying to find someplace a little warmer." The movie was inspired by the old, rough-and-tumble Duluth Eskimos pro football team of the '20s but was filmed last year in the Carolinas.
"But the spirit of it all was about this," Clooney told a news conference packed with reporters and fans. "We wanted to represent the town."
In "Leatherheads," which opens April 4, Clooney plays Dodge Connolly, an aging player on the Duluth Bulldogs in 1925, while Zellweger plays Lexie Littleton, a feisty Chicago newspaper reporter. John Krasinski (TV's "The Office") plays Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford, a WWI hero and former college football star who is lured to the Bulldogs and becomes the third side of a love triangle with Dodge and Lexie.
Clooney said the filmmakers wanted to call the team the Eskimos, but since there is drinking in the movie, the National Football League would not allow the actual name to be used.
"Oh, they don't drink in the NFL," Clooney said to laughter. "I was shocked to hear. I couldn't believe it. I was watching a Bud commercial at the time, I think."
Clooney himself lent his voice to a Budwesier commercial.
Clooney said the filmmakers used archival footage to try to match the look of Duluth, a northeastern Minnesota port city at the western tip of Lake Superior.
"We didn't get it perfect," Clooney said. "We did the best we could to try to match some of the factories in the background."
And while Zellweger's character disparages Duluth, the actress said: "I didn't write it. I just do what I'm told."
"My character really likes Duluth, so you've got a problem. He's a fan," Clooney joked back.
Zellweger, a Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner for "Cold Mountain," described her character in "Leatherheads" as "dream come true material for an actress."
"They don't make 'em like that anymore -- this is, sort of modeled after that good, old-fashioned Hollywood storytelling style. She gets to be everything -- she's witty and sharp, and she's the nemesis but not. She's `the girl' but she's also, you know, his biggest challenge in the film. She gets to be beautiful and accomplished. And she's a spitfire," Zellweger said.
Clooney and Zellweger will also promote the film at stops in Maysville in his home state of Kentucky and in Salisbury, N.C., and Greenville, S.C.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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