Katy football star back in the game in ‘Carter’
The lights were different than those Aundre Dean was used to.
Dean had spent time under the bright Friday night lights of Texas football fields, first as a star running back for Katy High School and then three seasons at Texas Christian University.
Last spring, he found himself toiling under the glare of a movie set.
Dean’s gridiron background paved the way for his role in “Carter High,” which opens Friday in Houston. The movie tells the story of the 1988 Dallas Carter football team, which stormed its way to the state championship, taking out Odessa Permian in the semifinals. (Buzz Bissinger wrote about Odessa Permian’s 1988 season and the loss to Carter in his best-selling book, “Friday Night Lights.”)
The 26-year-old Houston native fondly remembers his own life as a high school football star — the way he felt when the Katy Tigers won state in 2007, the way the community rallied around him and his teammates, the way football was the most important thing in his life.
“I loved every second of that,” Dean said. “Being a player on one of Katy’s state championship teams is special. That program helped shape me. I learned to work hard, to be disciplined, that nothing is ever handed to you.
“I learned to focus and be able to grind it out and keep going when things were tough.”
That’s where the similarities between his life and his role in the movie end. The Carter team, which featured several Division I-signed players as well as a handful of All-Americans, was considered one of the best high school football teams of all time. But it became notorious for what happened off the field: a grading scandal and a string of robberies involving six Carter football players. The University Interscholastic League eventually stripped Carter of its state championship trophy. Players who should have had NFL careers ahead of them never made it to the next level.
“This isn’t just about football,” Dean said. “It’s a story that encompasses a lot. I think people will be surprised to find out what all happened to this team after they won state.” From gridiron to film
Until he was in the fifth grade, Dean and his sister lived in foster homes or with their grandmother in the Alief area. That year, they were adopted by Michael and Jennifer Dean, who live in Katy.
He soon started playing Katy Youth Football. Dean liked having a team, he was fast and athletic, he was good at the game. He was also in a community that loved football and supported youth leagues in a way that a lot of places don’t.
Dean was happy on the field and a hit among his peers. He was a jokester and an entertainer. Because of football, he didn’t have time for theater classes, but he always had an urge to be in front of the camera.
“I always liked that,” he said. “I always felt comfortable being interviewed on the news after football or talking to a crowd.”
In college, he pursued broadcast journalism and enjoyed it. The acting bug hit harder after he did some work for the TCU campus TV station.
Dean moved to Los Angeles after college, when an NFL career didn’t pan out. He started modeling and picked up a role on the E! network reality show “Escape Club.”
“I think it surprised some people,” he said of the 2014 series set at a tropical resort in the Dominican Republic. “But it got my foot in the door.”
Dean now works security at a nightclub for a steady paycheck, takes acting classes and goes to auditions during the day. He just finished a Nike commercial and a series of Gillette commercials.
He’s hopeful that “Carter High” will open the door to more opportunities in TV and film. Tough portrayal
The film was written and directed by Arthur Muhammad, a former Carter player, and stars Charles Dutton as Coach Freddie James and Vivica A. Fox as the coach’s wife.
While Dean was a confident high school football player, Katy’s players weren’t generally known for exhibiting the ego and swagger that typified the 1998 Carter team, particularly in Evans’ case, Muhammad said. Dean did a remarkable job duplicating Evans’ attitude on screen.
“I was casting for another movie and (at the same time) was looking at Aundre for that role,” the director said. “When that film didn’t come about, my wife thought he would be good for the Carter film.”
Dean portrays former All-American Derric Evans, who lost his football scholarship to the University of Tennessee after his arrest. Evans was convicted and sentenced to 20 years on each of four armed robbery counts.
“I don’t know what he was like when he played for Katy,” Muhammad said, “but he must be a good actor because he acted like he had swagger. He took direction well. He really studied the craft. I tried to explain to him how Derric was, and he took it and added something to it.”
To learn everything he could about Evans, Dean watched YouTube videos, read articles and reached out to him several times. Evans didn’t want any part of the movie until a former teammate convinced him to visit the movie set.
“I thought he did an awesome job,” Evans said. “Ain’t too many people who could have pulled off the swagger that I had, but he pulled it off. He did a good job.”
Dean empathized with his character. “He’s a good guy,” Dean said. “He made some mistakes and he pulled his life together against the odds. Playing him was a challenge, but I also understood him in a lot of ways.
“I remember being a star high school football player. I didn’t ever get into any trouble, but I can see how you could make bad decisions when you are on a pedestal like that. I’m fortunate I had the coaches, family, friends around me that I did to help keep me humble and grounded.”
Those qualities are the ones getting Dean through the pressures of Hollywood today. He still talks daily to family and friends in Katy.
“It’s a grind, but I have a lot of support,” Dean said. “And I have a lot of determination to work hard and make things happen.”
After all, that worked for him on the football field.