In George Clooney‘s The Boys in the Boat – based on the true story of the University of Washington’s junior varsity rowing crew competing in the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany – Hadley Robinson plays Joyce, a student who falls for Joe (Callum Turner), a blue collar guy who has just learned he’s a natural at rowing after trying out on a lark, basically to earn meal money. As Robinson says, at its heart there’s a old Hollywood, 1930s romantic aspect to The Boys on the Boat that Clooney taps into.
You might know Robinson from playing Sallie in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. Or as Vivian in Amy Poehler’s Moxie. But sports fans might know her for her acclaimed role as Jeanie Buss on Winning Time, which was kind of unceremoniously canceled after two seasons. Which, as Robinson tells us ahead, yeah, she was kind of shocked that happened, too.
Before this movie, I did not know anything about rowing. If someone asked me now I think I could say, “I know a little bit about rowing now.”
Oh, good. That’s a good thing. It’s a good takeaway. I knew nothing either.
It would be funny if you were the world’s leading rowing expert before you made this movie.
Oh, man. I feel like somehow that would interfere with the character because Joyce doesn’t really know anything about it.
So if you walk in and you say, “Hey, I’m the world’s foremost rowing expert,” you might not get the role.
Possibly. I mean, there’s a scene where, I don’t want to give anything away, but I’m intentionally not supposed to be that into rowing, I believe – or good at it.
Is that really a spoiler? I don’t think that’s a spoiler.
Depends.
A spoiler would be like, “Who wins?” But I don’t even think that’s a spoiler. If the Nazis had won the race, I don’t think this movie exists.
We wouldn’t have a movie, it would be just part of a movie.
We wouldn’t.
So I’m really glad, for many reasons, that they did not.
So we did spoil the movie. The Nazis do not win in the end.
Yeah, just so everybody knows, the Nazis lose. Oh, man.
Did you audition? Did someone call you? How does this work?
Yeah, I auditioned. I did a tape, and then, pretty soon after, I think it was a week in, I didn’t even do a callback. I got a call a few days later. And it was like, “Hey, you got the offer?” And I was like, “Wow, that happened very quickly.” But yeah, I did the tape. I felt okay about it. So it was a huge surprise.
Is that unusual? When you say you felt just okay about it and then you get it? Or is that how it sometimes works? Where there are times you feel like, “Hey, I think I nailed it,” and then, you don’t get it.
Any time I nail it, I do not get the part. “That’s okay,” then I get the part. So I’m starting to think maybe I should just lean into being a mediocre actor.
Wait, I can’t imagine your tape was mediocre, but what do you think happened there?
You know, I’m my worst critic. I think it was good. I mean, who knows? Who’s to say? I’m sure it was fine. But I was miming rowing in the tape, so it was me doing this [rowing motion], and faking it, and I just was like, “Hadley, you’re not selling it. You’re not selling it, honey. You got to sell the rowing thing.” And I think that was the issue I had.
That will be my headline: “I don’t know why they hired me, to tell you the truth.”
But it ended up being the perfect fit. And everybody got along so well and everybody’s incredible in this movie. I just think everybody’s so talented, and was perfect for the part. All the boys look exactly like the real-life person they’re playing, and they capture their energy and essence perfectly.
It is weird watching this, because everyone does have a kind of ’30s look to them. I mean, I’m sure that has to do with the makeup and the dress, but there is a world-weary look on a lot of faces.
It’s like, dusty, cheek bone-y, kind of thing going on. I know what you mean. I don’t know how that all happened, but everybody does look very 1930s-edque.
Did you like living in the ’30s for awhile? I don’t think I would. I don’t think I’d want to live in that era.
Right, Depression-era…
I’d say no on that.
But this was the Hollywood version.
That’s true.
So we were kind of leaning into the romance. What little romance there was from that time, we definitely leaned into it. And it’s so beautifully done. I think I learned a lot through living through that time, to be honest.
What did you learn?
I think the themes behind this story are all about scrappiness, and guts, and resilience. And you had to be, to exist in this time. It wasn’t about competition for the sake of winning, for the sake of money, for the sake of glory. It was competition out of a need to survive, because you didn’t know how you were going to eat at the end of the day. And I think having that mindset for a little while isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
When you’re in a George Clooney movie he’s directing, is that weird at first. Like, hey, that’s George Clooney.
Yeah, that was pretty wild. He’s George Clooney. He’s the household name. He’s a star, in every sense of the word. So, to sort of see him every day, I would be double-taking. I had whiplash at the end of the shoot day. I mean, he’s just the most gracious, in general, and humble guy though. So that kind of balanced it out.
So when you get this part, how many times do you just drop in conversation, “Well, I’m the co-lead in the new George Clooney movie?” I’d be saying that nonstop.
Well, I actually tried to avoid saying it, because I think people would have full-on meltdowns. I’d be like, okay, you’re freaking me out here. You’re making me nervous. If you could have less of a reaction, please?
I’m sad Winning Time is not coming back. I really enjoyed you in that show. What happened there?
I think it was multiple reasons why it didn’t come back. And I think it had a lot to do with… I think it was really difficult for a lot of actors to be performing at that level, physically, for that long. I think it was a lot of different reasons, which I wasn’t completely sure of, but I know that there was a fan base there and people really enjoyed it, which made me happy.
Were you surprised? I was surprised.
Yeah. I was a little surprised. I think for a little bit there had been talks, or at least, the question, yeah. And then it was surprising, for sure.
Well, you have more time to do movies like this now.
Exactly.
I’m trying to look at the bright side.
Exactly. And I want to continue doing movies like this, so it all works out.
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