Initially it wasn’t that easy finding the right kid to play the young Stacy Peralta, either. “We were having such a hard time casting Stacy because he’s really strong in a quiet way; sort of like a pillar,” says Hardwicke. “A little bit sensible but still kind of sexy, fun and athletic. And that’s difficult to find.”
But like Rasuk’s casting, Beanie Barnes suggested a movie that cinched it for Catherine. “We saw John (Robinson)’s work in Elephant and I was just praying that he would come down and want to do this part,” she adds. “He’s from Oregon, so the day he flew in for it, I was so excited to see him and he just blew us away. He was so much like the real Stacy.”
Peralta agreed. “You don’t go through life thinking that someone’s going to play your life,” says Peralta. “It never occurs to you, so when all of a sudden your life is being turned into a film, you have to think about who could actually play you. When I met John, there were aspects of him that reminded me so much of myself as a kid, that it was eerie. I was kind of like the more peaceful kid, always having one foot in the door and one foot out the door, always looking at the situation while I lived it. John had that sensitive approach. He was perfect.”
For the native Oregonian, skating was part of his youth, and stepping into the life of Stacy Peralta was easier than he expected. “I had been snowboarding my whole life,” says Robinson. “I went to surf camp in Southern California every year until a few years ago, so I had been surfing for a long time as well. I long-boarded, so I had more of the surfer style of skating which was cool ‘cause it’s kind of what I needed to do in the role.” As a result, John was able to do over half of his own skating stunts.
“Stacy was this really controlled, fluid skater,” says Robinson. “And that really carried into his personality.”
“Most of us just wanted to skate and have fun. Then people started getting paid and egos were starting to grow. All of a sudden it was Dogtown vs. the world.” -Jay Adams, 2001
Who in the world could bring Jay Adams to life? Wilder and harder to rein in than the rest of the gang, Adams represents the sport’s dazzling highs and hardcore lows, but Emile Hirsch wore the role like a glove. “Emile is just a stunning actor with such a huge range, he could go any way you needed him to go,” says Hardwicke. “He looks like Jay, he skates like him and sometimes you could just almost feel that Jay took over his body.”
“[Jay’s] gift and his curse was this crazy kind of spontaneous energy,” says Hirsch. “At the same time, though, it wouldn’t let him be pro. He couldn’t market himself the same way as the other guys. Jay was never really into the business side of it. He was more the skate and destroy kind.”
Hirsch ultimately went to Hawaii to hang out with Adams and get a feel for him. “I watched him and talked to him about his life and really picked up a lot of stories and nuances about the guy.” Hirsch, like his co-stars, had to learn how to skate in the true Z-Boy style. “I hadn’t really surfed before,” he adds. “I boogie-boarded so I was used to being in the water. And I’d skateboarded since I was ten, so I actually had a lot of street skating skills. But I had to adapt to a whole different type of skating which was pool skating, and I had never done pools before, so that was a challenge. Most of my stunts were done by my double Griffin Collins, who really rips the pool. But during the shoot they let me bomb Bicknell Hill, which is this famous hill in Venice. It was a great time!”
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