Kidsday talks with Jake T. Austin
We went to a private screening of the new movie “The Perfect Game.”
The movie stars some well-known actors, Jake T. Austin (“Wizards of Waverly Place”), Moises Arias (“Hannah Montana”) and Ryan Ochoa (“iCarly”). This story is very touching and inspiring. It’s based on a true story, and proves what’s possible with teamwork.
This story is about a group of boys with a love of baseball in the poor town of Monterrey, Mexico, in 1957.
When Cesar Faz is fired from his job as a towel boy for the St. Louis Cardinals, he returns home. Cesar lies to a group of nine boys who ask him to be their coach. He tells them that he was a coach for St. Louis.
Eventually, Cesar agrees to be their coach. These young, determined players get past many obstacles, and begin to win game after game. They amaze people all over the country with their incredible, record-breaking winning streak. Even though they face prejudice everywhere they go, they defy everyone’s expectations with their amazing baseball talents. They make it into the 1957 Little League World Series, where a miracle happens. They win the series, during which Angel (Austin) pitches a perfect game. Their lives are changed forever.
After seeing the movie, we were lucky enough to meet Jake.
We asked him if it had been difficult to learn to speak Spanish with a Mexican accent for the movie. He said: “Dialogues are always hard. I think I have a pretty good ear for that kind of stuff. If you listen hard enough and watch material that you need to watch to get the accent, it’s not too difficult. You do imitations like your mom. It’s kind of like that.”
Jake told us the movie was filmed in Monterrey and he met many of the players who were actually on the team. He added, “That’s where the real-life players still live.”
We wanted to know if he played any ball before shooting the movie. Jake said: “Yeah, I played Little League my entire life. So it was very relatable for me. I liked getting the chance to play baseball and act at the same time. It was a lot of fun.” He told us he pitched in Little League, so that made it easy, too.
Actor Jake T. Austin who stars in the movie "The Perfect Game" with Kidsday reporters, from left, Kimberly Snyder, Amber Yildizel, Michael Maio and Andy Lewis at the Regency Hotel in Manhattan Credit: Newsday Photo/Pat Mullooly
He also told us he is a die-hard Yankees fan. He said: “Derek Jeter is my man, and he’s the coolest guy in the world. Yeah, I love the Yankees.”
Jake told us it was fun to make a movie that took place in 1957. “You got to see some old, beautiful cars. Just to see how people talked and interacted with each other back then. It was very interesting and ... strange.”
