San Francisco native and comedic actor, Kevin Pollak co-stars as legendary hockey Hall of Famer, Jack Adams in the biopic Goalie. Adams who is retired at this point and working with the Detroit Red Wings guides Terry Sawchuk (Mark O’Brien), who signed with the organization in 1947, winning rookie of the year in both the United States and Canada.
Prior to the 1951-52 season Adams forced Sawchuk to drop weight, which left him withdrawn. Although we knew very little of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) or anything else related to concussions for that matter, men like Adams and Sawchuk, in a post-World War II society, just grit their teeth and bore the trauma for the sport they loved.
We spoke with Pollak about his role in Goalie and the toughness of those old timers, performing stand up comedy, the 49ers (unfortunately) losing the Super Bowl, A Few Good Men, where he did some of Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR) commonly referred to as, “pick ups,” for Jack Nicholson and of course, I totally fanboyed out when we chatted about two of my favorite movies from the mid-90s, Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men. In fact it was Pollak who fed Burgess Meredith those amazing one-liners for the outtakes in both films.
Even if you aren’t a hockey fan, this is an absolutely must watch biopic, especially with not only Pollack and O’Brien’s performances but that of Georgina Reilly the real life wife of O’Brien, who plays Sawchuk’s wife Pat, in Goalie. The film allows us to feel the pain and struggles of every one living in the era where face masks were for wussies and time off was only taken when you severely injured and not only hurt. That’s a nice little reference to the James Caan movie, The Program from 1993 for those keeping track.
Goalie is available now on VOD. You can also see Pollak on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel currently streaming on Amazon.
