The Rookie
Miguel Salas talks about his role as a Big Lake Owl baseball player in the film The Rookie.
Miguel Salas (back row, first from left) joins the Big Lake Owls and their coach, Dennis Quaid (back row, first from right), for a team photo.
AUSTINITE MIGUEL SALAS, A FORMER college and high school baseball player, decided to give acting a try and found himself in the dugout for three months with Dennis Quaid in the Walt Disney film The Rookie. The 23-year-old rubbed elbows with director John Lee Hancock (who wrote the original script for A Perfect World), actor Jay Hernandez (Crazy/Beautiful), producer Mark Johnson (Rain Man and The Natural), and Jim Morris (the film is based on his life). Salas was served gourmet lunches everyday on the set and at the end of the shoot walked away with a Screen Actor's Guild card in his wallet. Salas talked to Texas Monthly about the pop flys and grounders of acting in a big studio film and Hollywood's usage of the word "next."
texasmonthly.com: Where and how did you audition?
Miguel Salas: I auditioned at a hotel in Austin. About a thousand people came to the casting call. Basically we just waited in line for about an hour. A bunch of people were in a room, and in the center of the room toward the front was a table with two people who were taking interviews. The interviews were thirty seconds with each person. They'd call a person up to the table, size him up, just look at him, and ask him a few questions about his baseball experience. Some people auditioning were aspiring actors. One of the two interviewers would ask about baseball experience. A person who waited for an hour to get this little thirty-second interview would say that he wasn't a baseball player but had done several movies. One of the two interviewers would tell him that they were only looking for baseball players and say, "Next!"
texasmonthly.com: What was the procedure when you finally made it to the table?
MS: They had us fill out baseball résumés while we waited. When I got up there, I handed it to them, and they looked it over quickly and asked me about my two years playing ball in Kingsville. They asked me why I only played for two years and asked if I had been injured. I said that I had not been injured but had decided to go to UT-Austin to business school. They asked me what position I played in high school, and I told them I had played shortstop. They asked me what position I preferred, shortstop or outfield. In college I played outfield. I was really kind of hesitant, because I didn't know what they were looking for. I stammered, and they asked me if I could play shortstop, and I told them yes. They said that was great because they needed shortstops. They told me they would see me on Saturday at the tryout. They took a Polaroid picture of me and said, "Next!"
texasmonthly.com: Where was the second round of auditions held? How long did the entire process take?
MS: Out of the thousand from the casting call, roughly five hundred people were asked to the tryout at Dell Diamond. It was a three-day tryout in early March of 2001. The tryouts lasted about three or four hours each day. They'd stick a number on your chest and divide everyone into pitchers, outfielders, and infielders. Then you just sat around and waited for them to call your number. When they finally called your number, you'd go up there and get three ground balls and three throws to first, and then they'd say, "Next."
texasmonthly.com: Were all of the tryouts at the same location?
MS: All of the tryouts were at the Dell Diamond. They chose sixty people out of the five hundred. They divided the sixty of us into two groups: high school players and professional players. I got put with the high school players because I look young. The decision was based solely on looks; it didn't have to do with skill. There were about forty high school players and twenty professional players, and we would practice. After about three practices, they picked the Owl players. There were five Owl players chosen. [Dennis Quaid is the coach for the Owls.] The rest played guys on the other team.
texasmonthly.com: Did Jim Morris play a role in deciding the cast members since this story was based upon his life as a coach and a Major League player?
MS: No. A couple of guys work only on sports movies: Mark Ellis (Varsity Blues and Any Given Sunday) and Bill Landrum (former pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds, the Chicago Cubs, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Montreal Expos). Mark Ellis was really good and knew what he was looking for—athletes. He turned down some people just because they looked too old or they didn't "look" like ball players. Some guys would walk up with long hair, and he would look at them and tell them that they didn't look like a ball player and then say "Next!" He was brutally honest. The thing about people in the film industry is that when they pick individuals, they're brutally honest, but once a person is chosen and out there, everyone is so Hollywood. They say things like, "love ya babe." It seems so unreal.
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