David O. Russell’s “The Fighter” may have had its first public screening Tuesday as an AFI Fest “secret” event (with plenty of press in attendance), but last night’s SAG nominating committee screening on the Paramount lot has been on the calendar for most the past week. Naturally, it was a packed house, which can be owed in part to the presence of the film’s cast for a post-screening Q&A.
I came late just for the Q&A, which was moderated by Deadline’s Pete Hammond. Melissa Leo couldn’t be there due to a filming conflict in New Orleans but she passed along her apologies in an email Hammond read to applause from the crowd. Much of the discussion naturally circled around performances, given the audience, and Hammond again made the (valid) point that the film is a character piece more than a “boxing movie.”
Mark Wahlberg talked plenty about the film’s long journey to the screen, the fact that he had to spring for it himself as producer in order to get it made and his long-time relationship with Micky Ward (who he’s known since he was a teenager). Rather than take the cheap route with a Toronto shoot, Wahlberg was adamant that the film be shot in Lowell, Massachusetts, the story’s setting, because the environment is such a character in and of itself.