There are few films that are more convincing, especially for women, than Penny Marshall’s A League of Their Own, which will raise questions about the revival of the Prime Video series from the producers of Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham with the same name, but this re-examination of life. as women in 1943 is a significant, significant expansion to the story we got in the 1992 movie.
Instead of copying characters from Marshall’s movie, the eight-part A League of Their Own series tells the story of women in, and out of, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). What makes the story so powerful is the way it expands the range of experiences for women in the 1940s who are placed front and center in the story, including white women, black women and Black queer women.
Rosie O’Donnell, who played Doris Murphy in the A League of Their Own movie, and returns to the story in the Prime Video series as the owner of a secret bar, said frankly for her, Doris is always a lesbian, though. was not officially mentioned in the 1992 film. While on the Everything Iconic with Danny Pellegrino podcast last year, O’Donnell also revealed that Marshall told him to repeat the speech “I never felt like a real girl” that Doris gives, with the director’s personal statement, “it’s not a gay thing. ,” but O’Donnell disagreed.
In the new A League of Their Own show, the stories of queerness on the show are not portrayed as in the movie, including the barriers faced by the LGBTQ community in the 1940s in particular.
“When we started talking [with Will Graham], we both loved the movie and it affected both of us as kids, and we still do, and we didn’t need to do it again,” he said. by Abbi Jacobson at Yahoo Canada. . “The aim is always to tell the untold stories.”
“The movie is a classic movie and no one is trying to imitate it… It shows a lot of stories that we were able to really dive into, like we’re just trying to tell the stories underneath the picture… Now we can tell those stories, better than Penny Marshall could in 1992 .
Roberta Colindrez (Lupe), Kate Berlant (Shirley), Abbi Jacobson (Carson; Co-Creator and Executive Producer), D’Arcy Carden (Greta), Melanie Field (Jo), Molly Ephraim (Maybelle) in Prime Video’s “A League Of Their Own” (Courtesy of Prime Video)
The cheerleaders are led by Jacobson’s character Carson Shaw, a housewife from Idaho who travels to Chicago to try out for the AAGPBL. He eventually lands a spot on the Rockford Peaches and his friends include best friends Greta Gill (D’Arcy Carden) and Jo De Luca (Melanie Field), Canadian outfielder from Saskatchewan Jess McCready (Kelly McCormack ), Esti González (Priscilla Delgado) who is the youngest member of the team, from Cuba, and does not speak or understand English, and Lupe García (Roberta Colindrez), a talented pitcher who is called by the media the “Spanish Striker,” even though he’s from Mexico.
At the same time, Max Chapman (Chanté Adams), a baseball player who is incredibly talented but for the AAGPBL, only white, and white pass, women are eligible for a position in a team.
“I haven’t seen anything about a Black woman in sports this season and I’m really excited to be a part of something new and fresh, I’ve never seen it before,” he said. Adams told Yahoo Canada. “Even though we came after a cult to follow a movie, it’s very new and very different.”
“We’re expanding into a different world of people and stories, but it’s just more about our story, and the stories we’re going to tell.”
Chanté Adams (Max), Abbi Jacobson (Carson; Co-Creator and Executive Producer) in Prime Video’s “A League of Their Own” (Courtesy of Prime Video)
For Jacobson, creating Max’s story was a very important thing for the creator of the show.
“I think [Max’s story] was the story I was most excited to tell,” Jacobson said. “She’s based on three real women who went and played in the Negro Leagues.”
“The more we got into research about them and that story, which was interesting, I was like, why doesn’t anyone know about this? When it comes in, what there was the life of Max, as a Black woman who wanted to play baseball, who was different, living in the midwest in 1943.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 04: (L-R) Desta Tedros Reff, CEO, Roberta Colindrez and Priscilla Delgado attend the official red carpet of Los Angeles & screening of “A League Of Their Own” on August 04, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Prime Video)
The women who ‘needed to have their story to be told’
For players Roberta Colindrez and Priscilla Delgado, the one thing that stood out for both of them was the use of the process of making A League of Their Own for casting. See the article : How to Audition for Amazon Prime Video.
“One of the most beautiful things about the series, and about being a part of this, is a very collaborative process with the creators, we chatted with them while they were writing. the film, we have to have a lot of things. what do these people mean to us, and what kind of things in our lives we wanted to explore through these people,” said Colindrez to Yahoo Canada. “Personally, I think that being in this era has made us very competitive in terms of identity,…I don’t want to say it. in any obvious way, especially my type, i want to be an athlete, me. want to be the best pitcher in this league, and that’s it.”
“My first contact here in America and Hollywood, the fact that they gave me the opportunity to introduce myself, also in Spanish, is a blessing for me, and something I am grateful for still,” Delgado added.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 04: Ayoka Chenzira, Aaron Jennings, Albert Cheng, Amazon Studios COO, Dale Dickey, Patrice Covington, Glenn Adilman, Sony EVP of Comedy Development, Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios, Vernon Sanders, Amazon Studios Head of TV, Ryan Andolina, Amazon Studios Head of Comedy, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Will Graham, Co-Creator & Executive Director, Chanté Adams, Abbi Jacobson, Co-Creator & CEO, Melanie Field, Kate Berlant, D’Arcy Carden, Maybelle Blair, Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Roberta Colindrez, Lil Frex, Lea Robinson, Molly Ephraim, Kendall Johnson, Priscilla Delgado, Alex Désert and Kelly McCormack join the red officially Los Angeles. original carpet & screening of “A League Of Their Own” on August 04, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Prime Video)
The two characters have a close relationship in the story, especially because Colindrez’s character Lupe is the only one in the team who can really relate to Delgado’s character Esti, but the opposite As you can imagine, Lupe is not particularly friendly with Esti. , but instead, kind of see him as a burden.
“The most difficult part of this, when I was playing Lupe, was being mean to Esti… because she is very sweet and she means very sweet,” said Colindrez. “I just wanted to play this guy who does a good job of just covering up how much he wants to take care of this guy who’s really jealous.”
“For Lupe, it’s more complicated than just playing baseball, the world has complicated his life to the point where it’s very angry… It’s also fun to play this kind of conflict with two Latinos .”
Although all the actors felt the pressure of making a film with such a connection to such a beloved film, proving that the film was “untouchable,” they were comforted by the way Abbi Jacobson wants to expand the story from the movie.
“I felt an immediate pressure relief when I talked to Abbi about the show, because she’s not trying to recreate the show,” Colindrez said. “We’re not making any more movies.”
“We’re focusing on people’s lives, for women, of all races, in and out of the league at that time… I love the movie, I think it’s perfect. I think what Penny Marshall was able to do in that movie, because she was a female director, was untouchable. So what we are doing is something different and we are trying to respect what he did through his work, and we have his blessing to do our work.
“I think we’re trying to honor her, but also honor all the women who couldn’t have a chance at that time,” added Delgado.
“I think we’re also respecting all people, Latinas, queer women, of course, I think, their stories should be told.”
