NEED TO KNOW
Ray Nicholson injured his knee while filming a running sequence for his upcoming sports drama The Mosquito Bowl, the day before the cast was meant to film one of the most important scenes in the movie
He underwent surgery the next day and returned to film the pivotal scene the day after, telling PEOPLE he was “limping” on set
The Mosquito Bowl, coming to theaters on Oct. 30, follows four college football stars who enlist as Marines during World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor
Ray Nicholson didn’t let an on-set injury keep him from filming one of the most important scenes in The Mosquito Bowl.
The actor, who plays former college fullback Tony Butkovich in the upcoming drama, was filming on a rock quarry when he fell while running with costar Tom Francis.
“I felt something a little weird,” the 34-year-old son of Jack Nicholson told PEOPLE on the red carpet of the World Premiere Screening of The Mosquito Bowl at the AFI Film Festival in Los Angeles on Thursday, Oct. 22. “It was just numb on my knee.”
Nicholson was wearing knee pads at the time, but as the day went on, he rolled up his pant leg and realized the situation may have been more serious than he initially suspected.
Ray Nicholson on Oct. 17, 2026, in Los Angeles
Credit: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
“I saw that there was a hole, like a crater,” he recalled. “It looked like a divot in my knee.”
The injury happened the day before the cast had to shoot what Nicholson described as “maybe the most important scene in the movie,” but surgery had to come first.
“The next day, I had a full operation,” he said. “They had to clean out my knee.”
The day after he went under the knife, Nicholson says he was back on set, albeit filming the scene while he was “limping.”
Nicholas Galitzine, Tom Francis, Bill Skarsgård and Ray Nicholson on the set of ‘The Mosquito Bowl’
Credit: Kane Skennar/Netflix
For the Smile 2 star, part of his quick return to work was the responsibility he felt toward the real-life Marines he and his costars were playing.
“The whole thing was like, ‘Look, we’re actors. It’s not war. The least we can do is show up for our job and not complain,’ ” he said. “It was such an honor to be able to play these guys and to hopefully represent the Marines in a way that they’d be happy.”
‘The Mosquito Bowl’ poster
Credit: Netflix
The Netflix movie, directed by Peter Berg and based on the book The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II by Buzz Bissinger, tells the story of the titular Mosquito Bowl: a football game played on Dec. 24, 1944, between two regiments of Marines on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
“After the attack on Pearl Harbor, four of America’s greatest college football stars — John McLaughry (Nicholas Galitzine), Bob Baumann (Bill Skarsgård), Tony Butkovich (Ray Nicholson) and David Schreiner (Tom Francis) — set fame aside to enlist in the Marines,” a synopsis of the movie reads.
“Eager to serve, they are immediately pulled out of their idealistic youth and into the violent realities of World War II,” it continues.
To prepare before filming began, the cast trained alongside professional football players including Christian McCaffrey, as well as real-life Marines.
“I was like, ‘I’m not even going to try to compare. I’m not even going to try to show that I can do something. I am not worthy, but I will make you laugh,’ ” Nicholson joked of his time training with the San Francisco 49ers running back.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The actor, along with his costars, recently made a visit to Camp Pendleton in North San Diego County, Calif., to share the movie with real Marines.
“The honor of screening this film for the men and women at institutions like Camp Pendleton, the World War II Museum in New Orleans and the Marine Corps Museum in DC is off the charts for me and everyone associated with The Mosquito Bowl,” director Berg told PEOPLE. “We made the movie about this culture, for this culture, and so that a very large audience could understand the sacrifices that we ask of these extraordinary young men and women.”
The Mosquito Bowl comes to theaters on Oct. 30 and debuts on Netflix on Nov. 25.
Read the original article on People
Source link
