No one could have bet that Million Dollar Baby would hook audiences the way it did 20 years ago. Clint Eastwood, hot off the success of 2003’s Oscar-winning Mystic River, directed the boxing drama and co-starred as coach Frankie, who begrudgingly takes fighter Maggie (Hilary Swank) under his wing.
Written by Paul Haggis and based on a short story by late boxing manager F.X. Toole, Million Dollar Baby struggled to land financing. In the end, Eastwood’s regular studio, Warner Bros., agreed to cover half of the roughly $25 million budget, with Lakeshore Entertainment picking up the rest.
Eastwood was uncertain whether Swank, an Oscar winner for 1999’s Boys Don’t Cry, had the right physical build. “She was like a feather,” Eastwood said back then. “But what happened is, she had this great work ethic.”
Indeed, the actress trained nearly five hours a day and gained 19 pounds. Amid the grueling regimen, Swank suffered a life-threatening staphylococcus infection on her foot, but to stay true to the character she didn’t tell Eastwood.
Executive producer Robert Lorenz recalls the challenge of creating packed crowds on the modest budget, with the team using lighting tricks and even inflatable movie extras. Eastwood impressed the crew with his efficient style, needing minimal takes and wrapping in July 2004 after just over a month. But Lorenz remembers that the studio had no intention of releasing it that year.
“They said, ‘We don’t have a campaign.’ Clint’s like, ‘That’s OK. Let’s just put it out,’” Lorenz tells The Hollywood Reporter. “That was a big part of its success because the critics hadn’t yet found a movie to champion that year.”
Warner Bros. released Million Dollar Baby on Dec. 15, 2004, and it collected $216 million worldwide, with THR’s review deeming it “that rarest of birds, an uplifting tragedy.” The use of euthanasia spurred debate, with some advocates pushing back against the notion that disability ends one’s life. Ultimately, the film’s humanity resonated, and it went on to win four Oscars, including best picture, director, actress and supporting actor for Morgan Freeman.
“I was not sure the film would capture its audience because of that,” actor V.J. Foster, who played a ref, says of the emotional ending. “And the fact that it did was just wonderful.” Foster, who would go on to appear in Eastwood’s 2006 feature Flags of Our Fathers, says of the legendary filmmaker, “He’s such a kind guy — really very approachable, friendly and down-to-earth.”
From the podium while accepting his Oscar for Million Dollar Baby, Eastwood, then 74 — and whose latest, Juror #2, is now in theaters — cracked, “I’m just a kid. I’ve got a lot of stuff to do yet.”
This story appeared in the Dec. 4 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
Source: Hollywoodreporter
