Native-son returns with movie premiere

By NINA LARAMORE / Santa Rosa Correspondent

Santa Rosa native son Marshall Cook is debuting his first feature film here next week. It was a natural choice, he said, because the film was inspired by Santa Rosans who influenced him.

“Division III, Football’s Finest” follows a college football team in the lowest division in the NCAA coached by an overly aggressive, redneck racist who butts heads with the reluctant quarterback.

“The movie was inspired by true events,” said Cook, who played quarterback at Cardinal Newman High School. “The lead character, played by Andy Dick of “News Radio and “The Andy Dick Show,” is a combination of coaches I played for. My frosh coach, Darryl Vice, who I liked a lot, inspired the name.

“Varsity coach Mike Ervin, who tore my heart out at the time, inspired the character’s incompetence. Occidental College’s Craig Spence inspired the intensity. And the character’s unpredictable insanity and comic genius come from Andy.”

Newman quarterback Tony Keefer and teammates Kyle Ferchland and Jesse McCue also provided muse. Cook says that Ferchland “put my attitude in check. Kyle inspired the dialog of the black teammate in the movie.”

Now 29, Cook’s first acting gig came at 18 months old as the changeling boy in “Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Santa Rosa Junior College, and at 4 he had the role of Theo in “Pippin.” From Pop Warner football until midway through Occidental College, football and acting were competing dual interests.

“In high school, my teammates called me ‘Barbizon,’” he says. “I’d leave football practice to go to play rehearsals.”

He produced and directed short films popular with the student body in Newman’s video arts program.

“I was always just on the edge of being too risqué,” Cook says. “My advisor was conservative, but I also felt he appreciated what I was doing. He would be very vocal about not approving and then turnaround and get it approved,” he says of Newman teacher Frank Guellen who is retiring this year.

Patricia Rile, a local modeling agency owner, got Cook jobs in print ads, non-union commercials and indie films. Cook started auditioning for everything he could, though opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area were scarce.

After moving to Pasadena to attend Occidental, Riles continued to help him, connecting him with his first agency and manager. He majored in film production, benefiting from Occidental’s hands-on approach to making films. That taught him to do many different jobs in the industry.

“It has really helped me survive since college,” says Cook. Most of his income has come from freelance editing.

He was visiting Santa Rosa when he got the callback for a role in “Jeepers Creepers 2,” his first feature film, he says. “I almost didn’t fly back. Twenty-five hundred kids auditioned. It was basically a lottery win.”

Cook met Dick through a mutual friend eight years ago, and when he started working on the script for “Division III,” he wrote the Coach Vice character for Dick. “I thought he was really talented,” Cook said. “As hard as I work on finding the joke, so will he. He won’t quit until the joke is discovered and heightened to maximum comedic potential.”

Dick praises the collaboration, too. “Marshall is an incredible actor, director, screenwriter and editor. Also tour manager, booker, organizer and driver of the SUV. His acting was as smooth as silk in the movie.

“As director, Marshall let me just go for it. Coach Vice is an extreme character, but people have told me they’ve known coaches like him who threw racial slurs like chimps slinging poop. This is a very, very funny movie. I hope it gains the cult following it should.”

The script had numerous revisions over five years. The original “balls-to the-walls guy comedy,” matured as he did. He found he had more to say. Lessons he wanted to pass along. A romance element was added too.

“As you mature, you find a voice,” he explains. “It became about more than just making people laugh.”

Will women like it? Cook says “a surprising number of girls and older women approach me after the screenings to say they love it, although it’s probably more catered to men. It’s not as bad (for women) as the movies that guys get dragged to like “Love, Actually,” which I actually liked, or worse, “Pride and Prejudice.” I tried to watch that on a plane. It knocked me right out. I did enjoy that part.”

“Division III” turned out to be a family affair. Cook’s mother Catherine DePrima, the former Sonoma County Film Commissioner, has a cameo in the film as a librarian. DePrima’s partner, David Baumgartner, is a professional production sound recordist and did the sound.

His father, Leo Cook of Summit Landscaping, also has a cameo. He was a quarterback at Santa Rosa Junior College and went on to play semi-pro football. He also was the driver during nine days of screening the movie at college campuses.

“There’s something fun about eternalizing your parents in your first project,” Cook said. “I think they were both a little more nervous than they thought they would be, because they wanted to do good for me. They certainly weren’t prima donnas.”

His mother agrees. “David, Marshall and I were picking up garbage at the football scene at 3 a.m.,” she says. “But he’s a nice kid. We were the last ones there because he has so much respect for the environment and the location and wants to leave everything right.”

Cook’s work ethic comes from his mom, who “busted her butt” raising him as a single parent, and his father, who “busted mine” in construction, he says. “Not working in construction was a huge motivator to make good at something else.”

He lives in Los Angeles, but Cook says he still considers himself part of Santa Rosa. “It’s why I wanted to bring the movie to Santa Rosa for a special screening. It’s my little escape from Hollyweird.”

What: Santa Rosa Sneak Preview of “Division III: Football’s Finest” and Q&A with Andy Dick & director Marshall Cook
When: Thursday, Nov. 10, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Roxy 14 Stadium, 85 Santa Rosa Avenue
Cost: $10 (Cook is donating is half of the box office receipts Cardinal Newman Youth Empowerment Services.
How: MarshallCook.com or MovieTickets.com
Starring: Andy Dick, Adam Carolla, Marshall Cook, Bryan Callen and Sally Kirkland.

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