Tyriq Withers shares how Jordan Palmer helped him become ‘Him’
Tyriq Withers reveals how Jordan Palmer helped him transform into a quarterback for the football horror movie “Him.”
Entertain This!
In a horror movie, the sight of a leg being broken and the bone sticking out might be squirm-inducing but not out of bonds. It might even be played for a dark laugh.
Now think about that same scene in the context of a sporting event. Much worse, right? In fact, it’s unsettling on multiple levels.
And that’s what director and cowriter Justin Tipping taps into with “Him” (in theaters Sept. 19), a film that combines football and psychological terror for the first time.
“Body horror is inherent in the game,” Tipping says. “The thing that was most exciting about the project was realizing there were no comps. That’s how you know you’re going the right direction because it is uncharted territory.”
What is ‘Him’ about?
Produced by Jordan Peele, “Him” stars Tyriq Withers as Cameron Cade, a top-flight pro prospect who the San Antonio Saviors are considering to be their next franchise quarterback. He’s invited by the team’s legendary passer – and Cam’s childhood idol – Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans) to come to his remote compound to see if the kid is a worthy heir apparent. The “training camp” that unfolds is a bizarre and bonkers situation that tests Cam physically and psychologically.
“They wanted an unhinged performance, and I was able to unhinge and have the freedom to create a really twisted, fun, sadistic, sarcastic antihero,” Wayans says.
While soccer was a passion for Tipping until college, he leaned on Withers for gridrion authenticity. The 27-year-old former walk-on receiver for Florida State was impressed with the respect Tipping paid to details, he says. “I was blown away with the challenging of what a normal football film room would look like.”
The director also wanted to capture the punishing aspects of sport. There’s the gruesome leg injury in the opening scene of the movie, and while NFL cameras cut away at that sort of gore in real life, Tipping doesn’t. “We get to force an audience to see it,” he says. Every time, Tipping would make “as brutal of a choice that we could, not holding back any punches.”
How ‘Him’ mines the inherent body horror in football
“Him” employs a lot of strange and unsettling visuals as the movie touches on fandom and the morally questionable inner workings of sports teams. The most visceral scenes, however, happen on the practice field, where Isaiah puts Cam through his paces.
There are some lighter moments, like Isaiah screaming into Cam’s face then booping him on the nose with a finger. “There’s nothing creepier than that,” Wayans says with a laugh. “That would scare me so much more than if they pulled out a gun.”
But for the darker aspects, Tipping was intent on putting a horror movie spin on “the most violent things” you’d find with a real football team. In one bloody sequence, Cam has to do a speed drill, getting a pass off to a receiver in a certain amount of time, and if he doesn’t, another player gets a ball rocketed into his face by a passing machine. Cam struggles, and the other guy’s face becomes a unsightly mess.
“Guys do some weird, crazy hazing and, and I’ve heard so many stories about what they do to the rookies,” Tipping says, adding that scene came about pondering “the most ritualistic game” they could show.
“It’s almost gaslighting Cameron Cade this entire time. He’s not sure what’s real and what’s fake, as well as the audience.”
Another bone-breaking moment comes during hitting drills, and as players smack each other, Tipping flips to an X-ray view that shows the brain and other internal parts of bodies being jostled around in shocking fashion. That was inspired by watching Los Angeles Rams games in person but also experiencing concussions himself.
“These guys talk about every weekend is basically getting into a car crash and recovering,” Tipping says. “Everyone’s hit so hard,” but “unless there’s blood, common spectators are like, ‘Yeah, sure. Whatever. Get back up and keep going.’ How do you show that invisible killer?”
It was important for Tipping to serve both football fanatics and horror fiends with “Him,” yet he also wanted to appeal to mainstream movie lovers who understand the concept of an aging GOAT athlete not being willing to retire yet.
A large theme of the movie is exploring “the psychology of what it takes to be somebody like a Tom Brady, a LeBron James,” Tipping says. “What does it actually take to be the greatest at what you do?”