How the Real Life Subject of ‘Unstoppable’ Became His Character’s Wrestling Double

The new Amazon film “Unstoppable” tells the remarkable true story of Anthony Robles (Jharrel Jerome), a wrestler born with one leg who refuses to give up his dream of becoming an NCAA champion. William Goldenberg — who won an editing Oscar for “Argo” and was nominated for his work on “The Insider,” “Seabiscuit,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” and “The Imitation Game” — was so inspired by Robles’ journey that he decided to take it on as the subject of his directorial debut. And he made Robles an integral part of the process.

“I never met anybody like Anthony in my life,” Goldenberg told IndieWire. “He walks into the room and the room just lights up. After I met him and spent four days with him, it sealed the deal for me, just seeing people react to him and how they left having been genuinely affected. I thought if I could bring that to a movie it would be really exciting.” From the beginning, Goldenberg was determined to involve Robles and his mother, Judy (played by Jennifer Lopez in the film), as much as possible.

“I involved them from day one of the screenwriting process,” Goldenberg said. “As soon as we had a script, I sent it to them. I wanted to check for accuracy, and I also wanted to make sure they were comfortable with all of it. They’re very faith-based people, and there were some things that they weren’t comfortable with that weren’t vital to the story, so I changed them. I’ve done a lot of true stories as an editor, and I feel a tremendous responsibility to get it right for those people, and to do justice to them. This is their life, and they’re young people who have to live for a long time with this film as their story.”

Robles’ influence went far beyond the script or even advising actor Jharrel Jerome on the intricacies of his performance; in the film’s riveting wrestling sequences, Robles served as Jerome’s double, essentially playing himself in the wide shots.

“As soon as it became clear that I was going to direct the film, I watched hours and hours of video of Anthony wrestling and realized that no one could do what he does,” Goldenberg said. “It’s just physically impossible. He’s such a unique and gifted athlete, and obviously, he’s missing a leg. The way he moves, the way he bends his left leg under his body, I just didn’t think anybody could do that and make it feel real.”

Goldenberg asked Robles if he would be willing to double Jerome, and the retired wrestler jumped at the chance. “He was thrilled,” Goldenberg said. “For him to get back on the mat, I think that was really fun for him.” When Goldenberg shot the wrestling scenes, he shot all of the coverage with both Jerome and Robles. “Anthony would do two takes and Jharrel would do two takes, and in the editing room we used whatever worked best, whatever was the most exciting or dramatic.”

While most of the wide shots used Robles, Goldenberg chose which actor to focus on in the medium and tighter shots on a case-by-case basis, sometimes using digital head replacements to put Jerome’s head on Robles’ body. “Then when it’s Jharrel wrestling, there’s a green sock on his leg and we digitally removed his leg,” Goldenberg said. “We also digitally created cloth because Anthony has no right hip, so the cloth of the singlet has to hang down there.”

Goldenberg was nervous about whether or not the effect would be convincing, but he says it came out more seamlessly than he ever expected. “Now, when I watch the film I’ve forgotten who’s who,” he said. “And that’s just a credit to the visual effects people, and my editor, and Anthony and Jharrel. Especially Jharrel, because he put so much work in — he really took on a Herculean challenge and did it beautifully.”

“Unstoppable” is in theaters now.