The outsider who married in can tell the truth about the Shue family.
“Soccer isn’t a sport in the Shue family,” said Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim, who is married to Oscar- nominated actress Elisabeth Shue. “It’s a religion.”
Sitting at the same breakfast table, nodding his head, is actor and producer Andrew Shue, Elisabeth’s brother and the driving force behind this week’s “Gracie,” a fictional movie based on real events in the Shue family.
“I felt there’s never been a great soccer movie,” Andrew Shue said. “They’re always trying to make soccer movies, instead of good stories that happen to include soccer. I mean, you don’t describe ‘Rocky’ as just a boxing movie.”
“Andrew’s fought for 10 years to make a good soccer movie,” said Guggenheim, chipping in ideas and finishing sentences with the ease of the brother-in- law he’s been for years now.
Shue, Guggenheim and “Gracie” star Carly Schroeder were in Denver on a national tour to promote their heartfelt movie. Elisabeth Shue was not on the tour, opting to stay home with family obligations.
“She’s probably out playing tennis right now,” Guggenheim said. “The thing you need to know about Elisabeth, she could care less about acting. She wants to go out there and beat boys in sports. All she’ll want to talk about today is that she hit some balls really hard, and that she’s ready to beat Andrew.”
Their father, Jim Shue, was captain of the Harvard College soccer team in the late 1950s. Oldest brother Will scored the winning goal for the New Jersey state high school championship. John was a regional all- American in college, and Andrew played professionally in Africa and the United States.
Through it all, Elisabeth struggled for attention in the family, and became one of New Jersey’s first female soccer stars in order to keep up with her brothers. Will died in a car accident in 1988, and ever since, Andrew felt Will and the family’s experiences should be honored in a movie.
While Andrew worked on scripts and financing, he persuaded Guggenheim to direct, before Guggenheim’s career took off with the popularity of the Al Gore global-warming documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.”
“I didn’t want to screw up the family story, that was a terrible burden,” said Guggenheim, able to chuckle about it now that the movie is in the can and getting strong reviews from family-film advocates. Elisabeth’s first reaction to the idea, he said, was, “How dare you steal my story.”
She warmed to the notion, though, and plays Gracie’s mother, Lindsay, in the film. Schroeder recalled how Elisabeth took her on a “girls’ night out” before filming began in the Shue’s New Jersey hometown.
“We talked about everything from boys to soccer, and she showed me the fields where she first started to play,” said Schroeder, who turned 16 on the set of the fast, 40-day shoot for “Gracie.”
Schroeder had to work out intensely to become a convincing soccer player, but was a soul mate of Shue’s on the competitive level. Her favorite memories of her martial arts training include putting boys in unbeatable choke holds.
Shue told Schroeder, “I don’t want you to play me,” Schroeder said. Meaning, don’t try to re-create Shue’s childhood personality. “That took the burden off.”
Guggenheim and the Shues tapped Schroeder at the end of watching 2,000 audition tapes and countless other screenings.
“Andrew and I had hundreds of heated conversations about this,” Guggenheim said. “I said the girl had to be an actor. Andrew said she had to be a real soccer player. What I learned after meeting Carly was that it was neither – it’s the fierceness, the fight in the eyes, and she has that.”
Making a fiction of your family usually involves some apologies, and the Shues did have some explaining to do with “Gracie.” The Shue parents were divorced, making the intact family in the film a stretch. But the financial hardships were similar. Andrew remembers they recycled margarine tubs for cereal bowls.
Dermot Mulroney plays the father figure in “Gracie,” Bryan Bowen, as a sometimes overbearing, sometimes detached parent who barely glances at Gracie when he’s playing with his beloved boys.
Jim Shue, by comparison, was a committed public defender and a fully involved parent, Andrew said.
Guggenheim chimes in about those touchy post-production moments. “Before I showed the film to their dad,” he said, “I wanted to tell him that we took some liberties.”
Staff writer Michael Booth can be reached at 303-954-1686 or at mbooth@denverpost.com
