The Insider: New York Cool interviews Lexi Alexander, director of “Hooligans” Written and Photographed by Evan Sung   Lexi Alexander

Lexi Alexander walks into the screening room an outsider. She strides in with her characteristic self-possession, the kind that comes from knowing she can trounce any and all comers. I mean, what would you expect from a World Karate and Kickboxing champion? But when she begins to speak, she speaks diffidently, and you can tell, she’s an outsider. She’s here to present her first feature-length film, the blistering, combative “Hooligans,” at the Tribeca Film Festival, and she’s hoping that the crowd won’t be turned away by the film’s intense scenes of hooligan-on-hooligan action.

Lexi may still be a relative novice at the no-holds barred jockeying for distributor dollars at film festival circuits, but she’s certainly no stranger to getting knocked around, or to getting what she wants. Born in Mannheim, Germany, Alexander’s been scrapping and kickboxing her whole life, even as a young woman defying traditional macho territorialism to join the world of soccer firms that she documents so convincingly in the new film. By the age of 19, her determination had won her the title at the Long Beach International Karate Championship, and her inability to turn away from a challenge made her stay in California to get into filmmaking. After a few short films, including an Oscar nomination for her short film Johnny Flynton (2002) and smaller productions, Lexi unveiled her first feature length film in 2005, “Hooligans” to steadily mounting buzz. After premiering in the US at Austin’s SXSW festival, where it handily snapped up Best Narrative Feature, it continued its festival rounds at Tribeca this year.

An impressive feature debut, “Hooligans” benefits enormously from both Lexi’s personal, first-hand experience with the rough-and-tumble soccer hooligans of Mannheim and her self-assuredness which put her in good standing with the English lads of West Ham who served as ‘technical advisors’ to the film. The prevailing mentality of clannishness and secrecy in soccer firms would likely make it difficult for your average Hollywood hot-shot to get within spitting distance of their world. Alexander’s experience and her own battle-scars got her through the doors. As Alexander explains, “…sure, they test you a bit, make sure you know what you’re talking about, and when they feel safe, that’s it…it becomes very protective.”

Alexander sat down with New York Cool during the Tribeca Film Festival to talk a bit about the genesis and experiences of making a film about such a dangerous and unknown world.

NYCool: So, according to my notes, “Hooligans” started out as a children’s’ movie?

[Alexander looks confused. Like she’s walked in on the wrong interview.]

NYCool: No! No, I’m kidding, no, it’s a very intense film.

Lexi Alexander: [Relieved] I was like ‘where did THAT come from?” I actually bought it…

NYCool: And I understand that that intensity came from your own background?

LA: Yes, I grew up in that environment, and followed a firm for a couple of years, made friends, made family in there….just kind of observed their behavior, observed their schizophrenic life; being such gentle men on one hand and being such brutal men on the other.

NYCool: You grew up among German football hooligans, so getting into the English scene, was there a lot of translation involved?

LA: No it’s really the same, it’s all over Europe. I could have put it in Holland, Italy. But I wanted to make an English speaking film, and England also has the most notorious football firms

NYCool: The cinematography and depiction of that milieu is so real. How did you achieve not only the execution of it, but the research of it?

LA: One of my co-writers is an author on Hooliganism (Dougie Brimson), and one of the reasons I got him on our writing team was so that we could be absolutely authentic. So a lot of the research was done by going through his books, all the statistics and all the facts.

And the filming, obviously I know England really well. In my youth we went there quite a bit. So I have an understanding of what London looks like to me, and what it looks like to the guys who follow football. And I wanted to show that England, those gritty streets. But at moments not make the cinematography too dirty, it still had to be, at some points, beautiful. In its grittiness, it should be beautiful.

NYCool: Speaking of beauty and grittiness. Elijah Wood is both an unconventional, but in a way perfect choice for the role of Matt. How did he get involved? Did you pursue him? Did he pursue you? Did you have apprehensions when his name came up?

LA: Actually he pursued us, his agent was one of the first to read the script, and he called literally from an airplane and said ‘I want Elijah to meet this director.’ And so Elijah was the first actor I met. Because of who he is, and the other things he’s done, especially the greatness of Lord of the Rings and his association with that character… yeah, there was some apprehension. But I also noticed that in England people had a lot of respect for his acting ability. In terms of my own choice, I wanted an actor who was a good observer and Elijah, with his huge eyes and his calm demeanor, you can put him on the screen, and he will just look, and it’s interesting – he’s got those beautiful, big, observing eyes. What better than this character who gets introduced to this new world, and it’s all about, symbolically about, these big, wide open eyes. But he’s also been acting for so long, and he’s so professional, like he doesn’t have to be the center of attention all the time. He can confidently step back and let everybody else have a line and just stand there and not be intimidated by that.

NYCool: I did notice that, watching the film, there is a moment of disbelief, of ‘how could he work himself into this world?’ but he does pull it off, in a very short amount of time, you believe that he could feel liberated in that world. Did Elijah have any trouble accessing that role, that world, the reality of it?

LA: No, not really. What’s interesting is that there are so many people online, that don’t believe, that can’t believe he would ever be accepted into a firm. But the majority who have seen the film say ‘Absolutely, we buy it, it was great, he makes that transition.’ But there are few who say ‘that would never happen. It would never happen.” But the truth of it is that during the film, all of the extras were real firm members, and he was completely accepted and they wanted him there, and nobody said ‘that would never happen’ In fact a lot of the firm members were his height, and his build, and these were top dogs in their firms, so…its so interesting to hear people out there on the internet say it would never happen, but really in the process of making the film, it happened, he was part of it, he was part of the real firm.

NYCool: Did you have a lot of support from the real firms?

LA: Definitely, we had the big, big West Ham firm, a very old, traditional firm that completely supported us. They were extras; they were in all the fight scenes. We had a lot of firms, a lot of real hooligans.

NYCool: And was there any initial resistance to a woman filmmaker coming into their world?

LA: Uh-uh, no, not at all. I think that these guys know quite well…you can’t fool these guys, and another director, even if it was a guy, had he not known what he was talking about, they would have killed him, they would have just walked off…sure, they test you a bit, make sure you know what you’re talking about, and when they feel safe, that’s it. As a matter of fact, it becomes very protective.
There was a fear, you know, my first AD would say, ‘How do you know they’re not going to get into a real fight?’ And I would say because they are listening to me and they gave me their word. I said “Trust me there will be no fights.” Because if I ask them, if they give me their word, and I explain to them that I have to get through this day and I have to do this quickly…and there was not one incident. Not one.

NYCool: How does it feel to come to Tribeca, to bring this film to New York?

LA: It’s great, it’s an awesome festival. Personally, I was a bit nervous because apparently New Yorkers are really honest people, so I was like…well…that’ll be the test, y’know? What’s going to happen? But it looks like the response last night was outstanding. So I think it will just be another step for us, to add to our reputation, and recognition, mostly recognition. Its not about studio heads, I didn’t make this film for studio heads or some executive, I made it for an audience.

NYCool: The ending of the film is so skillful; it must have been a huge challenge to balance the demands of representing the reality and anarchy of that world honestly without endorsing it. Was it hard to come up with that ending, to find a way to resolve Matt’s story?

LA: Yeah, it was. We worked on that forever in development. It was our hardest thing. We went back and forth on that with our producers, tweaking that final voice over, trying to get it right. It was a thin line between making sure we understand that there was an arc to his character, a journey and a resolution. At the same time, we didn’t want to have an After School Special ending, where all of a sudden he’s on the streets getting kids out of Hooligan clubs. I wanted to say that he did bring something with him. And that he didn’t look down on those guys, he really loves them, and they changed his life. We show in this movie that a lot of these firm guys come from broken homes, no fathers, there’s no one really paying attention to them. So they need to bind together, make new families.

NYCool: This is your first feature in addition to the shorter projects you’ve worked on in the past. So, what’s a faster way to get your ass kicked, in the kickboxing ring or in making a film?

LA: That’s a good question! I never got my ass kicked in the kickboxing ring. But I did get my ass kicked a lot making this film. So there’s your answer. Movies.