When WWE legend Shawn Michaels showed up ahead of Crown Jewel a few months ago with a shaved head, he had to go on the E&C Pod Of Awesomeness to explain himself at length. As you may know from John Cena, wrestling fans don’t do a great job of dealing with changing hairstyles.
“Before this storyline started, I was doing a movie! I did this independent movie in Texas where I played a younger version with my hair and then I played an older version of me that got sick and everything else, so that’s why I ended up shaving it for the movie. And then, I get called in to do this thing, and I thought, ‘do you know what? Hunter has got his head bald. I’m just going to go ahead and leave it that way.’ And It was thinning up there anyway, man, and so it was better to just chop it all off.” Michaels added, “and now, it has gotten to where my wife likes it and [Edge and Christian] know the short stuff is much easier to manage.”
That Texas independent movie turned out to be 90 Feet From Home, which is a great convergence of all of my interests: pro wrestling, baseball, rural dramas, and anyone who was in the underrated martial arts classic Best of the Best. Also there’s a Superman in there! The description via IMDB:
A former, troubled Major League Baseball player returns home to confront his abusive step-father. Starring WWE Superstar Shawn Michaels, Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight), Allie Deberry (A.N.T. Farm), Steven Michael Quezada (Breaking Bad) and Dean Cain (New Adventures of Louis and Clark).
Check out your first look at the trailer below.
We reached out to HBK for a comment on the film, and he had nothing but nice things to say.
“I’m very thankful to B22Films and Brett for giving me a chance to play such a challenging and interesting role. As a former WWE Superstar, it’s rare to get the opportunity to play a role with such range and depth. I’m eternally grateful they took the chance on me.”
That’s a strong statement coming from the guy who said “I’m sorry, I love you,” which for me is still the high-watermark of North American sports-entertainment pathos.
Brett Bentman also talked to us about directing the film and casting Michaels.
“Telling a tragic story is challenging. You want to do right by so many people, your investors, your cast and crew and most importantly, the subject of the story. I wrestled with that for a while during prep, but once I started to see the film through the camera, I knew we all had something very special on our hands.
… When we set out to find our “Jimmy Devine” it was a “comb the desert” sort of thing. No one really fit for a number of reasons. Luckily, I get to work with my best friend, who also happens to be my wife, and we were able to think outside the box and find Shawn. He was someone I grew up watching on my living room TV set as a kid in rural New Jersey… an icon, really. It’s funny how these things work, because when Shawn stepped on set, he WAS Jimmy Devine and looking back, we can’t imagine anyone else in that role.”
You’ll be able to see the film later this summer.
