#VictoryWeek: On Saturday, July 31, the iconic soccer film Victory celebrates its 40th anniversary. In celebration, K+S is posting a series of content about the film and its legacy.
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Werner Roth is a living legend of soccer in America. He enjoyed a celebrated playing career, making more than 125 appearances for the New York Cosmos in the NASL, playing alongside the likes of Pele, Carlos Alberto, and Franz Beckenbauer. He also earned 15 caps for the US men’s national team.
For us at K+S, he’s more well-known the man who played Baumann, the captain of the Nazi team in Victory. His face-to-face scene with Sylvester Stallone as they prepare to square off for a penalty kick is as close to Hollywood gold as any soccer film has ever come.
We recently caught up with Roth to discuss the film and his role playing the villain in one of the hallmarks of the soccer-film canon.
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K+S: How did you get involved in the project?
ROTH: Through Pele and [Cosmos owner] Ahmet Ertegun. I flew to LA to meet the producer, Freddie Fields (Ed. Note: Fields is most known for producing American Gigolo and Glory), who gave me a script and said pick a roll. Trust me I didn’t pick Baumann, John did.
K+S: How exactly did that happen?
ROTH: The casting of me as Baumann, the Nazi captain — a hard role to fill in Hollywood, as you can imagine — occurred at a dinner with John [Huston], Freddie, and Pele the night I arrived. My suitcases had been lost in London, and I arrived at the five-star restaurant in what I travelled in — jeans, flip-flops, t-shirt and sweater. Pele was in his Bollywood wedding suit coat. As we joined the table, I saw that John was dressed in a Mexican peasant suit. In any case, he said he wanted to cast me as Baumann because of my “Aryan look,” and I think he read my bio. John promised to direct the pivotal face-to-face scene. He put the thumb and index fingers of both hands together, as directors often do, and looked through it at me as if looking through a camera, and said, “And it will be you…” — then he moved his hands to frame Pele — “…and Stallone. You and Stallone”. I was sold.
K+S: What did Huston know about soccer?
ROTH: Not enough to direct the soccer scenes. He brought in Robert Riger, the genius sports director. (Ed. note: Riger was a groundbreaking TV sports director, including Olympics and ABC’s Wide World of Sports.) On his first day, Robert recruited Pele, Bobby Moore, and me to help with the set-ups.
K+S: What was the atmosphere on set like? With so many footballers and actors mixing it up, it must have been a lively time.
ROTH: It was a bit like the Cosmos in preseason with Pele, Bobby and half the Ipswich side. We were in the beautiful city of Budapest. By day, I was on set watching and absorbing everything I could of John Huston’s filmmaking genius, and at night the cast and crew would explore the city and its clubs and restaurants. Usually, Thursday nights, John would host a poker game. There was also a boxing ring and pub on set with nightly drinking and boxing bouts. Like I said, much like preseason.
K+S: That famous face-to-face scene for the penalty must have been fun.
ROTH: True to his character, Hatch, Sly knew next to nothing about the game and even less about goalkeeping. He made up for his lack of technique and form with an overabundance of enthusiasm and confidence. Genius casting. His body was so beat up from the prison soccer scenes that by the time we shot that penalty, he was in serious pain. And since that was the only soccer scene John directed, there were many, many retakes.
K+S: What was the reaction like when the film came out? We’ve seen pictures from the release party. Were you there? Was it as fun and star-studded as it looked?
ROTH: I don’t recall being at the actual premier, but I did attend the Toronto festival with Stallone, and that was lots of fun. At least that’s what he told me.
K+S: How did your acting in Victory lead to other things in your career and life?
Roth (center) with former Cosmos teammate Pele (right)
ROTH: At the time of Victory, I was interested in and fascinated by the process of filmmaking. My meetings with Freddie Fields in LA and his telling of the project’s conception with Yabo Yablonsky’s script and luring the brilliant John Huston out of retirement with it and their rewriting discussions and casting of it. And then reading the script on the plane back to New York, choosing a role from those not yet cast, and experiencing some the filming and editing. It was all a great learning experience which I never had the opportunity to apply.
Until now, perhaps.
I’m developing what we hope to be a series for television with a writing and producing partner, Roy Houlette, of the story of the New York Cosmos and Clive Toye and my experiences with the club and the American game. So, fingers crossed.