At the end of the 1980-81 season, after 66 first class club appearances and a few games for England, Bobby Robson called a meeting in the Portman Road home changing room and asked if anyone fancied spending the summer playing more football to help make a feature film. I had nothing planned for the summer so it immediately appealed to me. As it turned out I spent 5 weeks of the summer in Budapest making the film Escape to Victory, directed by the great John Huston. To the right of John Huston is Freddie Fields, the producer, also of Dallas and Dynasty fame. When myself, Johnny Wark, Kevin O'Callaghan, Robin Turner, Laurie Sivell, Paul Cooper and Kevin Beattie arrived in Budapest we were all in for a bit of a surprise. We hadn't really been told what we were going to be doing apart from playing the football scenes. That evening we met up with some of the other footballers, Mike Summerbee and Bobby Moore, and had a pretty heavy night. We soon realised the following morning the roles that we were expected to play! Kevin Beattie was to 'double' for Michael Caine in the football scenes, Paul Cooper was to help Sylvester Stallone hone his goalkeeping skills, Robin Turner and Laurie Sivell were to play for the German team and myself, Warkie and Kevin had speaking roles and a script to learn. And learn it quickly too as we were filming the next day as soon as we had been to the barbers! My character had dialogue with Michael Caine the following morning, only a couple of lines but Michael was a massive Hollywood film star by now, so I didn't sleep too well that night. Anyway Michael was brilliant, he made all the lads feel at home on set by telling a few funny stories and taking all the tension out of the situation. I managed to deliver my lines and we were off and running, literally. We were based in a constructed PoW camp, built just outside Budapest, and we had to shoot training sessions and fitness drills on the dry dust bowl of a pitch in the middle of the compound. The filming schedule chopped and changed from PoW camp to Stadium, football filming to proper acting, Sly Stallone pretending to be a goalkeeper to Michael Caine pretending to be fit and healthy. The were a couple of other decent players in our squad, Pele and Ossie Ardiles to name just a couple. Pele was great fun, especially in the evenings. We would all go out for dinner somewhere in Budapest, Ossie, Pele, Summerbee, Bobby Moore and the Ipswich lads. We all liked a drink in those days but these evenings were ridiculous. Beer, gin and tonics, wine and a bottle of Johnny Walker Black just for Pele. After a few glasses of scotch the guitar would come out and Pele would be singing and playing to his 'team mates'. It was an honour to be in his company both on and off the football pitch. There is so much to write about regarding the making of Escape to Victory. The people behind it, the footballers, sound and lighting guys and just the stories of the day to day, night to night events that made those five weeks so special. Pele's overhead kick, what Stallone was really like, actors Tim Piggott-Smith and Max von Sydow and all the assistant staff. I have just scratched the surface and will delve deeper over the next few days, bear with me it will be interesting!
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AuthorRussell Osman is a former England & Ipswich Footballer, 4 Handicap Golfer and Father of 3. Archives
April 2018
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