by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

When a former boxing champion makes a deal with a crooked businessman, unexpected consequences force him to make a choice between his integrity and his ambitions. This is the heart-rending odyssey of boxer Bud Gordon, magnificently portrayed in the movie directed by Noah Buschel, who talks about the making of ‘Glass Chin’ in this Exclusive Interview:

The history of film has always been particularly fond of boxing movies, what do you think is so appealing of this sport to the cinematic world?

It’s a great canvas for metaphor: you’re boxing yourself, you have to train, you have to tackle all things in your life that can bring you down, you have to face yourself.

In ‘Glass Chin’ we don’t see as much of the actual fights, nevertheless the past of Bud looms on his present…

That’s just an old noir trick. I was somehow influenced by Robert Mitchum’s ‘Out Of The Past,’ the way he is sitting with his nice girl and then it turns out that some of his actions get him into trouble.

What inspired you to tell this story?

There’s a Bruce Springsteen song called ‘Trapped’ that I really liked and that was the way I was feeling in the moment I was writing the script. I wanted to free myself from my own traps, so I made this movie trying to figure it out.

What trait did Corey Stoll have that made you decide to cast him for Bud?

I didn’t think of him immediately, but I saw him as Ernest Hemingway and I thought that he was one of the few guys who had a thick neck and could actually act. Lately a lot of the guys are playing masculine action movie characters, but unlike Corey they don’t come across as emotionally true and articulate.

His character is at crossroads between integrity and ambition, did you discuss this aspect with Corey beforehand?

The actors in this movie just needed a clue and were left free to express themselves. Corey knew what he was doing.

In your previous movies you’ve proved to be drawn towards tormented characters (Neal Cassady), who try to find themselves…

I don’t know anybody who is just happy. Do you?

This story is all about finding ourselves and has a very zen approach, is this connected to the fact you were ordained a zen priest by Sensei Pat Enkyo O’Hara?

There’s something about boxers that are like monks, if you go to the gym, they’re up in the morning, there’s no money to be made, they’re all pretty much doing it for the love of it and camaraderie. It can be a horrific sport but there’s a beauty in the training.

You seem to be drawn to using sports as a metaphor of life, you’re upcoming film is about baseball…

I’m very much drawn to that dynamic and I don’t see a lot of good sports movies. In my upcoming movie Paul Giamatti plays a sport psychologist, where there’s a young pitcher who can’t throw strikes anymore because there’s something bothering him, so he goes to this therapist to figure things out.

What did you learn as a filmmaker in the making of ‘Glass Chin’?

Probably more what not to do. How not to be fancy and not feel the need to bombard with camera moves or music when it’s not necessary. Just trust that the script and actors put together would be enough.