Go Behind the Scenes of The Boys in the Boat with Hadley Robinson
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There were any number of reasons that Hadley Robinson wanted to play Joyce Simdars in the new, George Clooney-directed film The Boys in the Boat.
“The movie is based on an incredible book by Daniel James Brown about the true story of these Depression-era boys who set out to row crew and eventually won the gold at the Berlin Olympics in 1936,” Robinson explains. “I love the character of Joyce because you see this true love story play out between her and one of the rowers, Joe [Rantz, played by Callum Turner]; they meet as kids and begin a friendship that leads to love. Also, I really wanted to work with George.”
Robinson, Clooney, and an entire boat’s worth of actors made their way to England to shoot the movie—which is based on a true story—and filmed scenes with London and the Cotswalds standing in for Washington State, New York, and Germany. Here, Robinson opens her camera roll to T&C to share a behind-the-scenes look at filming The Boys in the Boat.
"It took a minute to find the right hair for Joyce. I came to the movie with hair all the way down my back. The first day in London, I went to meet the hair stylist, and he was like, ‘are you ready for the chop?’ We cut my hair to my jaw. We tried a few different looks, and this is what we came up with. As you can see, we had a really good time. Because we were shooting on the water so much, he’d put that scarf on my hair to keep the wind from messing it up."
"Courtney Henggeler plays Hazel, and this is the first day we showed up to set in London to meet the boys. They had been training for two months when we arrived. We were pounding coffee and were so excited to meet them."
"Bruce [Herbelin-Earle] is sticking his tongue out in the first seat there. Usually, Luke [Slattery] would be sitting where the cameras are, but he wasn’t in the boat so he’s the one who took this photo. This shows how they got some of those shots on the water, by mounting the camera like this."
"This is Bruce [Herbelin-Earle], Thomas [Elms], Joel [Edgerton], Callum [Turner], Will [Coban], and Luke [Slattery]. They were coming in while I was going out, so I snapped this quickly. We had just filmed a 30-second scene, I had been in for about half an hour and was done for the day, but they had so much more work ahead of them. See the Adidas slides? You don’t want to stay in your period shoes, because they can be so uncomfortable."
"We were filming at King’s Cross station in London. This is Bruce and Luke shooting there. They shut down a certain section of the station, and the train was so beautiful and romantic. It was a great day."
"You can see that Luke has had a long day of rowing. We’d all been laying in the grass of a meadow by the water; all the boys jumped in that day because it was so hot."
"We had a bowling night! Near the end of the project, people wanted to celebrate, so we went bowling and sang some karaoke. This was a night to celebrate all of the hard work we had put in. I went in thinking I was going to win, but I lost miserably. If you can win at karaoke, however, I would say I did. Redemption!"
"I took this on a disposable camera on a day we were out on a ferry. It was so hot, and we had to stay out there and endure it. Doesn’t it look like it could be right out of the 1930s? The only giveaway is a man in the background wearing modern sunglasses."
What a look—knee socks and Birkenstocks! This is Jack Mulhern, listening to music and getting into character. I thought he looked very peaceful here, so I snapped this without him knowing. He still might not know I took this photo."
"We went to see Top Gun: Maverick when it came out, and we all brought friends and loved ones. We had such a good time, and it was so uplifting to see Top Gun and know we were making a movie that had a similar quality. It was always great getting to spend time together."
"This was the last day of shooting. Someone was like, Hadley, have you not been in the boat? I hadn’t, I’d just been watching the guys! So I sat in the boat for about 30 seconds, and asked if I could take it out on the water. They said, 'absolutely not.'"
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