D.B. Sweeney can be lacing up his skates as soon as once more — 34 years after The Chopping Edge gave him heartthrob standing.
“I can not say but what it is known as, however I believe I am doing a hockey film in Could,” the actor tells Yahoo. “I’ll be taking part in a hockey coach this time, not a participant. We’re simply ready for the ultimate approvals.”
It appears becoming to have this dialog whereas Sweeney is experiencing a historic ice storm in Nashville, the place he’s been working. The actor misplaced energy for 3 days in the course of the arctic blast, which served as a backdrop for a dialogue about his character Doug Dorsey, his present hockey harm and the Winter Olympics.
“Mothers go it to daughters, and daughters go it to their daughters — it has been that lengthy now,” he mentioned of the 1992 cult traditional movie, which noticed his blue-collar captain of the U.S. ice hockey workforce character cross over to Olympic determine skating after sustaining an harm. “There are usually not that many films which can be unironic and heartfelt — and that is one of many issues it is obtained going for it.”
Sweeney on the Megalopolis premiere in 2024.
(Dominik Bindl/WireImage by way of Getty Photographs)
Like his costar Moira Kelly, who performed determine skating queen Kate Moseley with icy perfection, Sweeney didn’t skate when he was forged. To organize, the 2 educated collectively for 3 hours a day for 3 months in New York Metropolis, not simply studying “toe decide!” but additionally constructing chemistry for the love story.
“One of many issues that made our relationship within the film so nice is that we realized to skate collectively,” he says. “We turned very aggressive with one another.”
That vitality fed into their onscreen dynamic — a romance cast in rivalry. Sweeney aggravated Kelly by carrying hockey skates throughout coaching when he was presupposed to be carrying determine skates, which he discovered too uncomfortable firstly.
“Each time I went on the market throughout determine skating hours with hockey skates on, it irked her,” he laughs. “And that, to me, was the entire dynamic. I loved irking her. Then she’d discover methods to irk me. We have been in these characters earlier than we ever obtained to the set.”
On the set, Sweeney mentioned his determine skating accidents have been no joke. The scene the place he has ziplock baggage of ice on his hips? Not scripted.
Sweeney along with his The Chopping Edge costar Moira Kelly in 1992.
(Ron Galella, Ltd. by way of Getty Photographs)
“My hips have been actually tousled,” he says. “In hockey pants, you will have padding once you fall down. In determine skating, you don’t have anything. You hit that hip bone, and it takes a month or two to heal. However you land on it three days later and three days after that. Determine skaters are robust. I do know it is a enjoyable sport to make enjoyable of, however, man, once they wipe out, that ice is tough.”
Regardless of robust early viewers reactions, MGM, the studio that produced the movie, was on the verge of chapter on the time of its launch and lacked the price range to put it up for sale. As a substitute, the film turned a word-of-mouth hit, finally dominating VHS leases and DVD gross sales.
The Chopping Edge went on to spawn, in his phrases, “all these unhealthy sequels.” Notably, neither Sweeney nor Kelly appeared in them.
“We have been like, ‘I received’t do a sequel with out you,’” he says.
The unique movie had a roughly $17 million price range. When a sequel was mentioned, it had a decrease price range of about $7 million, and Sweeney and Kelly have been supplied $25,000 every.
“It was three years later, and ours was the No. 1 film on VHS in Blockbuster in all places,” he says. “They made it actual simple for us to show it down.”
Nonetheless, he has concepts for a contemporary revival.
Sweeney and Kelly throughout The Chopping Edge‘s Olympic competitors.
(Archive Images by way of Getty Photographs)
“A Cobra Kai-type factor,” he says. “We’re married to different individuals and have children. Perhaps her child is the rough-and-tumble one, and mine is the fragile one. Clearly, there’s nonetheless attraction. You possibly can do 10 episodes off that fairly simple.”
The Chopping Edge made Sweeney a lifelong hockey fan. Till lately, Sweeney performed as soon as every week, however a torn rotator cuff — whereas taking part in the game — has stored him off the ice for 4 months following surgical procedure. He has two extra months to go.
He’ll nonetheless be watching the Winter Olympics, although.
“I am an enormous hockey man, so I’ll watch simply to root for Canada to lose,” Sweeney says with amusing. “I imply, you need America to win, however extra importantly, you need Canada to lose.”
Whereas he’s glad the NHL gamers are within the Olympics, he needs Russian gamers may compete as nicely.
Sweeney has remained a hockey fan and nonetheless performs weekly, although he is presently in restoration for 2 extra months following surgical procedure.
(Invoice Smith by way of Getty Photographs)
“Alexander Ovechkin, Andrei Vasilevskiy — you may argue that the Russians would have the perfect workforce of all of the nations proper now from their star gamers within the NHL. I might like to see it, however we’re not going to,” he says.
He’ll additionally watch pairs determine skating. So far as his viewing habits exterior the Olympics, we ask if he’s seen Heated Rivalry. Whereas he’s heard about it — who hasn’t at this level? — he hasn’t but seen it however “is trying ahead to sooner or later.”
It’s not precisely like he’s been sitting round. He’s been capturing The Legend of Van Dorn in Tennessee. Funnily sufficient, there was a Chopping Edge reference on set.
“This man pushes me within the scene, and I staggered again a bit bit and misplaced my stability,” he says. “One of many crew members yelled, ‘Toe decide!’ It was nice timing.”
Sweeney, with The Chopping Edge director Paul Michael Glaser, had by no means skated previous to the film.
(©MGM/Courtesy Everett Assortment)
Sweeney lately completed Purple Ink, a 1949 newspaper drama shot in lengthy, steady takes. The film is made up of six 11-minute takes.
“It’s like doing a play, however more durable,” he says. “No edits. You may need seven individuals who need to hit actual marks.”
He additionally seems in a brand new motion movie reverse Milla Jovovich and is creating a western, his first since Lonesome Dove, that he’s written and plans to direct.
Reuniting with Francis Ford Coppola for 2024’s Megalopolis was particularly significant.
Sweeney’s first main position was within the famed director’s 1987 Gardens of Stone, which was overshadowed by the loss of life of Coppola’s son Gian-Carlo, which occurred throughout manufacturing.
“There was a disappointment about the entire thing,” he says. “I would run into Francis through the years, and I may inform that when he checked out me, I reminded him of [that time]. I used to be the brand new man on the film when his son died. That was at all times there.”
So when he heard Coppola was making Megalopolis, “I reached out.” At his display check, Sweeney introduced a photograph of himself with Coppola on the set of Gardens of Stone that he’s carried with him all through his profession. Coppola signed it and put the date: 2023.
Sweeney on the Toronto Movie Pageant premiere of Megalopolis with Adam Driver, Francis Ford Coppola, Nathalie Emmanuel and Giancarlo Esposito.
(Robert Okine by way of Getty Photographs)
“He mentioned that was an important half,” Sweeney says. “It was his method of claiming, ‘Let’s make new reminiscences. Let’s transfer on.’ … It was actually nice to be with him and attempt to help him in his dream.”
Requested how he defines success at this stage of his life, versus within the early days, he says isn’t about awards or paydays.
“I used to be by no means motivated by ‘I gotta go win an Oscar.’ They have been paying me 10 instances the cash … [the $60,000] my dad [ever made working],” says the Lengthy Island, N.Y., native. “It was all the cash I wanted. I used to be like: ‘That is unbelievable.’ I nonetheless like that when it occurs.”
His grownup youngsters are the true measurement, although. He has a daughter who’s learning premed in faculty and a son who lives in Chicago.
“It is a profitable month to me if I get to spend a few days with each of them,” he says.
Greater than three many years after The Chopping Edge, he’s glad it nonetheless holds a particular place for viewers — and he has a principle why.
“I’ve stored my nostril clear,” Sweeney says. “I’ve carried out this for 40 years, and I don’t have any skeletons. It’s simpler for individuals to not have conflicted emotions.”
