Whether you’re a fan of the sport, understand it or not, Draft Day is a must see for all genders and generations.  We sat down with director Ivan Reitman at a recent press conference and he said that’s one of the things he loves about the movie. “Our thesis to the studio who finally made the movie, as it took a while to get one, was that you don’t have to be a football fan and you don’t have to be a male to get it and both have been proven to be correct.”

Draft Day follows Sonny Weaver (Kevin Costner), the general manager of the Cleveland Browns, on one of the most important days in NFL history, Draft Day. For those of you who don’t understand the concept of “draft day”, in simple words it’s decision day for all the teams in the NFL, but that’s just part of it. Academy award winner Kevin Costner, who is also the protagonist of the film mentioned, “It’s really about the human element. It’s about boy and girl.” If you’re a female you can relate to it, if you’re a male, you can relate to it. Reitman added, “I love the idea of a character that’s under pressure from the moment a story begins and that the pressure just keeps mounting and it’s not only the business pressure but all kinds of other personal things on a very complicated day.” Writer Rajiv Joseph, who developed and wrote the script with Scott Rothman said, “The decision making within sports falls in the shoulders of the general managers and Scott and I thought about when we were starting off the script that the GM is kinda like the unsung sports hero that’s never been seen in a film before.” 

While Costner may hold the future of the Cleveland Browns, the players and potential teammates are also waiting on a decision that will change the rest of their careers. Arian Foster, who plays for the Texans RB in real life, plays Ray Jennings, the son of former NFL player Terry Crews (Earl Jennings). “Going through the actual experience and then getting drafted in the movie it was very surreal for me because you get into character… All those emotions from that day that I never had, that I wanted to have came out that day,” said Foster. Actor Tom Welling, who plays player Brian Drew added, “the severity of what it means to be picked, it’s a game changer. It’s a life changing experience.” 

As the pressure mounts and decision time gets closer, research has been done. Now a lot of it is about trusting your gut. Costner gets personal and tells us that just like his character, his life has also been about instinct. “My whole life has been instinctual for me. You know, I wouldn’t do well in the computer world… I wanted what everybody wants, which was a sense of direction because right at the time you’re 18, 19, 20 years old, in college everybody that you run into that knows your parents are: ‘So what’s he gonna do? What’s he gonna do?’ It’s funny because it’s not up to you what I do! You know the convention of knowing what you wanna do. I have instinctually thought I could do things in my life. I’ve followed that up.”

The tension between the players, the managers, and the coach is ongoing, but lets not forget about the woman holding it all together. Played by the iconic Jennifer Garner, Ali is Sonny’s girlfriend and colleague. While being the woman among all men may sound intimidating for some, Garner told us why it’s actually quite the contrary. “She’s a woman in a mans world and she does it seamlessly… I think that what makes women so great in these pilot positions on sports teams and NFL over all, are that they can keep their emotions in check and their brains can do a lot of things at once. Because if you’re gonna be a capologist you’re basically business affairs, plus your thinking of the art of football, plus you know, what’s your teams future, what has been important in the past. You have to have so much going on in your brain at once and lets face it, we’re just good at that.”

Writer Rajiv Joseph explained how the idea of ‘sports being male centric entertainment is long gone’. He added, “Some of the biggest sports fans I know are women and so it didn’t make sense to write a movie that only had these men experts.”

With a script this good, it takes the right actors to bring it to life. Draft Day is nerve wrecking, inspirational and made for everyone. As Kevin Costner said himself, “I don’t know if it’ll be a box office hit, but I think it could be a classic movie, which by definition it means it will be shared from generation to generation. To me that’s the mark of a great movie.”

Draft Day opens in theaters on April 11th.