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Bringing The Boys in the Boat to the big screen was a decade-long process — but one worth the wait, says the book’s author, Daniel James Brown. “It’s been quite a trip,” he tells PEOPLE. “It’s been a lot of fun.”
Brown spent years researching and writing his 2013 account of the University of Washington’s Depression-era crew team, who transformed from amateur athletes to Olympic gold medalists. Director George Clooney, he says, did justice to his work.
“I came away pleased,” says Brown. “I think he did a good job of capturing the spirit of the story.”
The film stars Fantastic Beasts star Callum Turner as Joe Rantz, who’d been abandoned by his dad and stepmom when he was a young teen.
Despite being so poor he could barely afford food, Rantz, a resourceful young man, managed to attend the University of Washington but struggled to pay his tuition.
At school, he found himself in the same, well, boat as many working-class peers, who vied for just eight spots (plus the coxswain) on the JV crew team.
What attracted them wasn’t athletic glory: Earning a seat came with a campus job, allowing them to stay in school and afford a cheap place to live.
Like the book, the movie — which costars Joel Edgerton as the team’s stoic coach Al Ulbrickson — tracks their odds-defying story from humble beginnings to the 1936 Olympics, held in Nazi-occupied Germany.
Clooney consulted with Brown from the get-go. “He actually called me when he first signed on to direct the film and had a long conversation then,” says Brown.
Though the director invited Brown to the U.K. set when filming took place in 2022, the writer declined due to a COVID-19 surge at the time. However, Brown got to spend time with Clooney when they watched the movie together.
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“I first saw the film in August,” says Brown. “Clooney had us down to Burbank to watch a screening down there, and that was nerve-wracking. He was there with [his wife] Amal. They were so sweet. Just really, really nice.”
“He’s very charismatic,” continues Brown. “Off camera and in private, he’s exactly who he is on camera. I got to know him a little bit.”
In addition to having high praise for Clooney, Brown also has kind words for Turner’s performance.
“Joe was kind of complex because he had this really awful childhood that scarred him and made him kind of a loner,” says Brown. “Callum captured Joe very well. He had that sort of reticence at first, like he didn’t know how to connect with other people, and then that evolved as the film went on, which is what happened with Joe.”
Brown says he has now seen the movie “several” times — and it improves upon each viewing. “The second time I saw it I liked it even better because I was less nervous,” he says, “and so I started relaxing.”
The Boys in the Boat is in theaters now.
