Justin Timberlake has evolved from the lead singer of the mega boy band N’Sync, to a bona fide Hollywood leading man. Since 2006’s Alpha Dog, Timberlake has racked up an impressive number of solid performances on the big screen. He delivers what many are calling his best performance yet in the new drama Trouble with the Curve starring Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams. Eastwood plays an ailing baseball scout in his twilight years who takes his daughter Mickey (Adams) along for one last recruiting trip. I sat down with Timberlake who talked about what it was like to work with one of his role models.
Tell us about your character Johnny and what attracted you to this film?
I play an ex pro baseball player. What I love about this character and all of the relationships in the movie is how they are sort of interwoven in such unique ways, and it’s very grounded, and I think was well written.
Your character is also a bit of a surrogate son to Clint Eastwood’s character. Tell us about the relationship between those two.
Having that relationship with Clint’s character, Gus, there’s kind of a father son thing going on, I imagine for any scout, as well, you’d have to get so attached to the young players that you become almost a coach and a father figure to them. There’s so much that you learn about life through sports.
So while you guys share a great bond, it takes a toll on the relationship between Gus and his daughter Mickey.
Mickey and Gus have such an estranged relationship based on time they’ve missed out on, and I think Johnny comes into the movie and becomes a threat between the two. He can see the things in Mickey that would keep her from connecting with Gus and vice versa the things in Gus that would keep him from connecting with his own daughter; so, I think he serves up an interesting threat between the two and offers up some pretty sage advice to her.
Clint Eastwood is by far one of my favorites…a living film icon. What was it like working with him?
He’s just a great man. The same way Tommy Lasorda personifies everything about baseball, I think Clint personifies everything that’s great about our industry. To say that he’s a role model of mine would be a great understatement. It’s no mystery that I would love to direct one day, and getting to watch him, even though he didn’t direct this film, getting to watch him put his fingerprint on the movie, he’s just a legend. He’s Clint Eastwood. So, getting to trade lines with him, between every take, you’re sort of walking away pinching yourself.
You can catch Eastwood and Timberlake on a big screen near you when Trouble with the Curve opens this weekend in theater’s nationwide. The film is rated PG-13 for language, sexual references, some thematic material and smoking