A year ago, thousands of people watched Alex Shaffer wrestle his way to a state championship. This year, millions could see the Raritan Township resident wrestle on the big screen as Kyle in the new movie “Win Win.”
The Fox Searchlight Pictures production, starring Paul Giamatti, Burt Young and Amy Ryan, is released tomorrow. But Alex has already seen audience reactions as he’s toured the country’s winter film festivals. People are even recognizing him, surprising considering that the bleached-blonde hair he sported in the movie has been replaced with a more subtle style, in his natural, darker color.
His reaction to requests for autographs? His first thought is “I’m just Alex Shaffer, are you sure?”
Earlier this week Alex was at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Texas. His travel hasn’t gotten in the way of schooling; when filming started a year ago the then-sophomore at Hunterdon Central High School stopped attending classes in favor of a tutor.
He planned to return this year, mostly because he hoped to defend his wrestling title. “I wanted one more season, at least,” he says. A back-muscle injury over the summer ended that dream, Alex explains, so he instead continued with the tutor and online courses. He studies acting in New York City, saying a few times that he’s dedicated to improving his skills as an actor while “auditioning around.”
Wrestling gave him entree to the movie industry. Previously he’d appeared in the sixth-grade’s performance of “Pirates of Penzance” at Reading-Fleming Middle School. Wrestling practices got in the way of subsequent productions.
Fellow Central wrestler and then-classmate Tyler Carnevale tipped Alex off about the auditions for “Win Win.” He’d read about the call for a teen wrestler and was interested, but didn’t fit the size requirement of “less than 5 feet 7 inches tall and less than 130 pounds.”
Alex did, but needed some convincing, provided by Tyler’s insistence that is could be a “once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
The audition conflicted with wrestling practice, so parents Michael and Gina Shaffer instead sent in Alex’s picture and bio. Two weeks later a call came for the first of several auditions. Alex wore his black-and-white surfer slippers, ripped jeans, a plaid shirt and that bright yellow color hair that each Central wrestler dyed his hair on the eve of victory over archrival Phillipsburg.
Those who watched him wrestle throughout the years will see the style of “Kyle,” not Alex, on screen. Director Tom McCarthy chose great choreography and “the wrestling in the movie is very real,” says Alex, but, unlike Kyle, “I didn’t annihilate; I won my matches.”
As soon as filming started, Alex developed a respect for the work that goes into making acting look natural. “I do think it got easier,” he now says. Or at least he became more comfortable. The toughest part is “really becoming someone else. Really, really becoming someone else.” Like “real solid” Kyle, the opposite of “goofy” Alex. “I’m getting better and better at it… Maybe I just think that I do know how to do it now. To me, it’s like wrestling” — hard work and good teachers yield rewards.
As for the movie, he loved the wrestling and “any scene with Burt Young” — perhaps best known as Paulie, brother-in-law and coach to Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky.” In “Win Win” he’s Kyle’s grandfather. “It was the best working with Burt. He’s such a funny guy and so talented!” says Alex.
At first he didn't catch on that the movie's poster, of Alex sitting on bleachers next to Paul Giamatti, was anything special. "But I am quickly learning. Wow, that's really, really cool!"
He praises McCarthy as "such a fantastic director," and the movie as "very arty… very good, a family movie. It's a story where it all comes together at the end and everybody's happy."
Including Alex. He jokes and laughs easily. At home he says, “My friends will goof on me and say, ‘Oh my God! Is that Alex Shaffer!’”
His answer? “It’s just Alex,” who this year attended the state’s wrestling regions and states, but this time watching from the bleachers.
For the Independent Press' coverage on one of the film's screenwriter, click here.