USA TODAY International Edition
‘Borg vs McEnroe’ is all the rage
Shia LaBeouf playing the famously volatile tennis star John McEnroe is naturally going to lead to verbal explosions in Borg vs McEnroe (in theaters Friday in New York and Los Angeles and on demand).
Much more surprising in the film, which culminates in the epic 1980 Wimbledon men’s final, is the depiction of McEnroe’s opponent, four-time Wimbledon champ Björn Borg (Sverrir Gudnason). “Ice Borg,” as the cool Swede superstar was known, suppresses his rage but has outbursts off-court in the pressure-cooker Wimbledon environment and in the film’s flashbacks.
“We’re dealing with two extremely driven characters longing for a sense of purpose or belonging. And they treat that emotion like two sides of the same coin,” says director Janus Metz. “McEnroe’s way of dealing with emotions is very extroverted. Borg’s way of dealing is to put a lid on it.”
Here’s how the tennis tantrums break down:
Borg as a teen could be a hothead
Borg is shown as an umpire-cursing, racket-throwing teen sensation before his coach, Lennart Bergelin (Stellan Skarsgård), teaches him self-control.
“It’s a surprise to many that the man known as ‘Ice Borg’ had, in his childhood, many of the same ways as John McEnroe,” Metz says.
Leo Borg, Björn’s 14-year-old son, plays the outburst-prone version of his father authentically. The younger Borg, a Swedish junior tennis star, got the part after responding to a non-specific casting call for a tennis film.
“He is his father,” Metz says. “And we ended up with the best young tennis player in Sweden. Shooting the tennis was much easier.”
Metz says Björn didn’t try to influence the story, which shows his adult self lashing out at his coach and his
fiancée, Mariana Simionescu, while stressing about Wimbledon.
“It’s quite a dark film, not celebratory to Björn and his career,” Metz says. “I see it as an existential drama rather than a sports movie.”
The film gave birth to ‘Shia McEnroe’
LaBeouf, 31, who took on McEnroe, is known for his outbursts — most recently, his arrest last summer in Savannah, Ga., after shouting vulgarities at a nightclub bystander who refused to give him a cigarette.
“He saw it as a potentially cathartic experience to play John,” Metz says. “He could really use his experiences of being an enfant terrible and all his fights with the press.”
That resulted in “Shia McEnroe, a meeting between the actor and the character,” Metz says. “We were trying to get to more universal truths about John that would resonate through Shia.”
Shooting McEnroe’s best-known court outbursts (including that time he incredulously berated an umpire with “You cannot be serious!”) wasn’t emotionally trying for LaBeouf.
“When he needed to work himself up, we create the parameters. It’s very intense in that sense,” Metz says. “But we know we’re making a movie. Once we wrapped up, everyone chilled out with a drink — no alcohol in Shia’s case — and it was all good.”
Guess which one of them didn’t love it?
Both tennis stars saw the final film. Borg appreciated it, while McEnroe “is not very excited about it,” Metz says.
“It’s what you’d expect. He’s very protective and specific about what he sees as his own story. What can I say? That’s the outcome. I think we made it quite real.”