Local Actor Casey Metcalfe Appears in 'Champions' With Woody Harrelson 

When Casey Metcalfe, a 27-year-old actor who lives in Burlington, auditioned for a role in Champions, he needed a basketball. The movie, which stars Woody Harrelson, is about a basketball team whose players have developmental disabilities.

Metcalfe, who has autism, auditioned for the movie from his family’s home in West Brattleboro; his mother, Prudence Baird, filmed him on her iPhone. The Metcalfes don’t have a basketball, but they do have hens. So Metcalfe picked up a basketball-size hen named Cackle, rotund and orange, and cradled the bird under his arm for the audition.

“It was my mom and myself,” Metcalfe said of the audition. “It was a really fun thing that we did. Cool and fun.”

From that first audition in September 2021, he advanced to several more rounds — all remote from West Brattleboro — and got a part in the movie. A month later, accompanied by his mother, Metcalfe was shooting Champions in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

“It happened that fast,” Baird said.

Champions opens nationwide on Friday, March 10. It’s the solo directorial debut of Bobby Farrelly — known, with his brother Peter Farrelly, for films such as There's Something About Mary; Me, Myself & Irene; and Shallow Hal, featuring Burlington’s Rene Kirby.

The movie is an endearing and heartfelt comedy in which camaraderie and kindness triumph over dunks and layups. Metcalfe, part of an ensemble cast, is a helmet-wearing player on the team. He riffs with the coach, played by Harrelson, about the coach’s unorthodox description of the pick-and-roll and handles his own injury by popping his dislocated finger back into place. (Shooting this latter scene kept cracking Harrelson up, according to Baird.)

Without giving too much away, we can say that even the hardened coach softens up and comes to a new understanding of the word “champion.”
Metcalfe and his family attended the premiere of Champions earlier this week in New York City. The trip included a $200 haircut and beard trim by a stylist named Frederico, of whom Metcalfe does an outstanding Italian accent-flecked impression. Metcalfe rocked a fresh look for the premiere, from his new ’do to the soles of his yellow Air Jordans.

In addition to watching two screenings of the movie in NYC, Metcalfe posed for photos with Harrelson and joined his castmates to tape a segment for the “Today” show.

Viewing the movie, Metcalfe said, “I was laughing a lot; my mom had to tell me it was too loud. My brother was all sobbing and crying.”

The trip was great, he said, but he was pleased to head home.

“I said to my mom as we were leaving, ‘New York is not Vermont,’” Metcalfe recounted. “‘I’m so glad I live in Vermont and not here.’”

Back in the “friendly environment” of Burlington, as Metcalfe described it, folks don’t need to go to the movies to see him in action: He’s a cashier at the downtown City Market, Onion River Co-op.

Born in Los Angeles, Metcalfe began acting with a troupe called Actors for Autism. He’s featured in a 2009 documentary, Kids With Cameras, directed by Alex Rotaru. In that film’s opening credits, the letter U in “autistic” is replaced with an R to form “artistic.”

“It’s a good film,” Metcalfe said, acknowledging that “it’s a bit dated” now. Still, he added, “It was the best experience ever.”
Metcalfe moved with his family to Putney at age 12 and continued acting in Brattleboro-based New England Youth Theatre. A graduate of Brattleboro Union High School, he’ll earn a degree in June from Community College of Vermont.

As a native of southern California, Metcalfe has not fully embraced Vermont winters. But he does have a 75-piece sweater collection.

“I understand the leaves are pretty,” he said of the common fondness for fall. “I understand you like coffee with pumpkin spice. But don’t you understand winter is after that?”

Days before the opening of Champions, Metcalfe and his mother talked with Seven Days about the movie, the importance of diversity on the big screen and aspects of autism.

“Not every single person with autism is a math whiz,” Metcalfe said. “Not every person with autism wants to be a genius engineer. You’re talking to someone who doesn’t like math and who doesn’t like engineering.”

In a wide-ranging conversation, Seven Days learned that Metcalfe was displeased with the variety of bugs and insects in Putney (relative to LA) and that his interests include acting and languages. He's fluent in Mandarin and French. His first word, at age 3.5, was agua.

SEVEN DAYS: How was the premiere in New York City? What did you wear?
CASEY METCALFE: I wore a suit with a lovely bow tie and a black fedora hat; the bow tie was yellow with polka dots. I thought it was one of the best experiences of my life. It felt surreal. I thought it was all never going to happen. I thought there would be a wardrobe malfunction.

We were so happy to be there. I was so happy to be there. You can’t leave the theater without feeling better about yourself and the world.

SD: How did you discover that you were interested in acting?
CM: I’ve been acting since 2004, since I was 9. Joey Travolta, the brother of John Travolta, had a program that was called Actors for Autism. I enjoyed myself when I was doing that. I made a lot of good friends at Actors for Autism in Los Angeles.

SD: Did you improv any of your scenes in Champions?
CM: There was a lot of improvisational things that we did in the movie. Half of the dialogue about the barf bag, that was all improvised. That was not scripted. [Bobby Farrelly] was feeding me my lines, improvised lines that were new. It worked really well.

Right before the camera was going, we would rehearse it for a minute or two. And then he would say, "Background, lights, action," and suddenly the scene would start and nobody was allowed to speak who was not in the scene.

SD: I loved how you guys felt like a team in the movie. How did you become one?
CM: We were bonding. If we were not on set filming, we were out in the community doing things. We went to curling. We went swimming. We played pool in the lobby. We went bowling.
SD: You’re probably the only person in Burlington who’s worked with Woody Harrelson. Tell us what that was like.
CM: He was a really cool person. He’s also going to make it so, I hope to God, that I get more work. He’s also follicly challenged, like myself. He’s bald now, even though he had hair [once]. So he gives me hope that I can get work.

He’s very kind, very humble. He was always accepting the hugs. I thought he was going to throw me away when I hugged him on the first day.

SD: You work at City Market, one of the most action-packed spots in Burlington. What’s a cashier shift like there? Do you ever feel like you’re acting?
CM: I love it. It’s really fun. I sometimes feel like I have to act to get some folks who think I got their prices wrong to understand that I didn’t.

SD: In Kids With Cameras, you say, "I tell you, this picture’s gonna be a box office smash." Do you think Champions will be?
CM: Maybe. We’ll see. I hope it will be a box office smash. What do you think, Mommy?
PRUDENCE BAIRD: I think it will be. It’s really a feel-good movie. I think word of mouth will make it a success.

SD: How do you think this movie might help the audience better understand people with developmental disabilities?
CM: Champions is a giant step forward for the developmentally disabled community. In my opinion, we’re not really the ones who are broken. It’s society who doesn’t include us that needs enlightenment. And maybe this film will be a turning point.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity and length.