Andy McDermott was an elite college soccer player and played pro for seven years. But all he really wanted to do was be an actor.
And he made it happen.
Since retiring from the game, he’s gone on to appear in the Will Ferrell film Everything Must Goand TV shows The Mosquito Coast and Chicago Med, among others.
K+S caught up with McDermott recently.
K+S: You played college soccer at Northwestern. What position did you play and what kind of player were you?
McDermott: I'd say I was a "box-to-box #10." Ha. At NU those days, we struggled to compete in the Big 10, since we had to recruit incredible students who also happened to be good at soccer. It was an uphill battle. I loved the challenge, and I benefited hugely by playing every minute of every game during my four years, but I left the field after every match completely shattered by trying to do too much.
Funny, my first coach as a professional, Bret Hall, re-taught me the game at age 21 - he told me that all great teams have Piano Players and Piano Carriers; in college I was the Piano Player, but if I wanted to play professionally, I needed to become the Carrier. And I did. I was that mediocre talent who could run all day and would rather die than lose, so they kept me putting me in the starting 11.
K+S: After college, you played pro in the American lower leagues for seven years, then retired. How did the transition to acting come about?
McDermott: After 9/11, I knew I was going to serve somehow. Then we started our family. We wanted to live somewhere warm, so I ended up working for the tactical response unit of the Phoenix Police Department. I loved it.
But then they started filming Everything Must Go in Scottsdale. I was asked to audition for the cop role because, well, I was a cop. After a day of filming on a big set like that, and working with Will Ferrell and hearing him encourage me to keep going — the worst thing you can tell to a wannabe actor, like gasoline on a fire — I started getting calls from LA for different projects. I was 37 and had four little kids. But we made the insane decision to move to LA. We sold our house. I gave up the job. And we went for it.
K+S: Have your acting and soccer passions ever crossed?
McDermott: Not really. Actually, one show for which I did a couple of episodes was called Matador. Ironically, even though it was a soccer show and I had been a professional player, my character had no interaction with the soccer story. I had auditioned for one of the lead roles earlier — the British arrogant prick — but they gave that role to a younger Australian actor. Shocker.
K+S: Ever get any roles because of a soccer connection?
McDermott: Funny story. I met a close friend in Hollywood through a men's league connection, and he's now president of a huge studio. He invited me to play in the secret industry soccer game in Santa Monica — invite only, directors, writers, producers. I went once, scored 4 goals, and probably played a bit too dominantly for their liking. But, you know, I was trying to get in a room with these guys and begging to break into their stupid Hollywood nonsense so I could feed my family. And now all of a sudden here we are on a soccer field. So…dig it out, right?
K+S: What renowned soccer player, current or past, would you love to play in a biopic?
McDermott: Oh man, this is a great question. I have so many heroes and anti-heroes and legends, from George Best — the name of my bulldog, actually — to Lothar Matthaus to Roy Keane.
But I'm on a weird connection with David Beckham. We are the same age, we both have 4 kids, we both have a son named Cruz — he copied me — and we were both living in LA at the same time. Oh, and we are both bazillionaires. Ha!
K+S: What’s your favorite soccer film of all time, and why?
McDermott: Easiest question: Victory. Because Sly and Pele and Michael, and because I'm 46, and because beating Nazis, and because has there even been any other soccer movie like it?
Last story. This is what inspired me to write Mack, a soccer film. On set with Will Ferrell, waiting for them to move cameras and lighting and everything else, he handed me a baseball glove and we were having a catch.
I asked him, "Man, think about The Natural, Hoosiers, Remember The Titans. How come no one has ever made that great drama movie with soccer at the heart of it?"
And he said, straight-faced, "What, you never saw Kicking and Screaming?"