Yeah, I think we understood that Teemu Selanne had star quality all along, during an NHL career that put him in the Hall of Fame and, along the way, made him arguably the most popular player ever to wear a Ducks uniform.
But did we anticipate that those skills would translate to acting? Probably not, but here we are.
Selanne, and fellow Hockey Hall of Famer Brett Hull, are the co-stars of “Minor Leaguer,” a direct-to-streaming flick that was released Thursday and is currently available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV+ and Google Play.
The plot? Former NHL superstar takes over ownership of a minor-league team … only this superstar is cranky, egotistical and not very nice to be around, to put it mildly.
“I can act (as) myself, but it’s the total opposite of me,” Selanne said this week in a phone conversation from Finland, where he’s spending part of his summer. “It’s almost like ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ … in the movie, I’m just like the biggest narcissist. Total jerk, kind of.”
In real life, of course, Selanne is anything but, which explains his off-the-charts popularity. (Example: If he actually were like that, I suspect he wouldn’t have agreed to our phone call.)
That was part of the allure of the script, I suppose, acting against type. I suggested to him that people would watch this movie and ask themselves, “Who is that, anyway?”
“That’s why it was so funny,” Selanne said with a laugh. “Even I asked them … what a (freakin’) jerk I am. But it was a fun process. … It was a great experience. I think Brett Hull did a great job also.
“And, you know, I have so much more appreciation for the actors, the real actors. What I learned most about this movie is how patient you have to be. And, you film, like, five minutes, and then you have a 40-minute break and different angles and stuff. And then you just learn how to be patient and wait, wait, wait. And so, long days. I have a lot of appreciation for filmmaking.”
Selanne said he and Hull spent maybe 10 days total shooting their parts in the movie. Dan Comrie, who is the director and also appears in the film as Jake McKay, the minor leaguer referenced in the title, said the entire project was a four-year process, with some of the delay at the start attributable to COVID-19.
The origin story here: Comrie said he “was working in the corporate video world, a gig here, a gig there. I just got the itch to produce a movie, and I had produced a short film a few years earlier so I was pretty comfortable I could do it. A long time ago, I remember my dad had this idea for a movie or TV series, and the idea was to cast a real-life, former NHL star playing a fictionalized version of himself.”
His uncle wrote the screenplay and his brother signed on to co-produce. When it came to casting, Comrie said, Selanne and Hull were his top targets.
“Teemu (is) just such a humble and classy person in real life – and everyone, just everyone in the hockey world will tell you that – and he just looked like a movie star as it is with his charisma,” Comrie said. “I said, ‘I got to get in touch with this guy.’
“When Teemu and Brett came in, they took it very seriously. You know, they came in prepared. And, you know, I told ’em not to overthink, have fun and you know, they can go off script as long as they don’t change the story. That’s when they really, really started to shine.”
This may be Selanne’s first acting performance, but he’s at ease in front of a camera. He spent this summer shooting the Finnish version of “Top Gear,” a show about cars and car culture based on the original British show.
“Obviously that’s something that I like,” Selanne said, adding with some understatement, “because I like cars and speed.”
Beyond that, his days are busy enough. He still has the Selanne Steak Tavern in Laguna Beach. He’s coaching his daughter, a budding tennis player. He said he has “some businesses here and there,” and carves out time to travel with his family.
“I don’t try to be busy, but there’s a lot of moving parts all the time,” he said. “So far, 10 years (since) I retired. And there’s not one boring day yet, so it’s kind of cool.”
Yes, it has been an entire decade since that May evening at Honda Center, when the Ducks lost a second-round Game 7 to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Kings, and players from both teams tapped their sticks on the ice in tribute as Selanne came off the ice for the final time.
“It goes so fast,” he said. “And then I look back at ’07, when we won the Cup, and you think about it, that’s 17 years ago. That’s absolutely crazy.”
That was an era when Anaheim was still a regular postseason participant. The Ducks last reached the postseason in 2018, but Selanne still keeps his eye on the team, attending about 15 games a year and providing input if asked. And he sees better things ahead with the core of young talent assembled by general manager Pat Verbeek and coached by Greg Cronin.
“Nothing happens quickly, you know,” he said. “But I really like that there’s a lot of young players together now, growing up in the same time. And when they grow up and they’re gonna (mature) at the same time, I think we’re going to have a really good team for a long, long time. But they have to learn sometimes the hard way.
“It takes time and you have to be patient.”
In hockey, just like in making movies, patience is a virtue.
jalexander@scng.com
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