Georgia governor makes movie acting debut as ECU football coach

The Associated Press - ATLANTA

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue made his acting debut Wednesday playing a college football coach in the upcoming film "We Are Marshall."

The film chronicles the worst disaster in U.S. sports history _ the 1970 plane crash that killed nearly the entire Marshall University football team _ and a small town's recovery from that tragedy.

"I fit the role perfectly as an old jock," said Perdue, who was a freshman walk-on on the University Georgia's football team. "It was exciting. I always wanted to be a football coach, and I'm playing a head coach of East Carolina University."

Marshall University's football team was returning to Huntington, W.Va. after playing East Carolina in Greenville, N.C., when the plane crashed, killing all 75 people aboard, including 36 football players.

The film stars Matthew McConaughey as Jack Lengyel, the coach who fights to rebuild the Marshall football team after the crash, and Lost's Matthew Fox as assistant coach Red Dawson.

Scheduled by Warner Brothers for release in December, the movie is being filmed in Huntington and Atlanta. The governor credited the Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act, which he signed into law last year, for bringing this film and others to the state.

"This drama took place in Huntington, W.Va., and the fact that they're here has to do with the incentives we passed," Perdue said, still decked out in East Carolina's purple and gold after his scene was shot in three takes.

The 2005 law provides for a 9 percent investment tax credit to production companies that spend at least $500,000 in the state on qualified production and post production expenditures in a single year.

Six months into this year, Perdue said, there have already been more productions filmed in Georgia than in all of 2005, providing increased revenue for the state. The law also helps keep a talented crew base in the state, he said.

The film's director, McG, said he was grateful for the hospitality and "general Southern charm" shown to the cast and crew in Georgia.

He also applauded Perdue's performance as a nervous then excited coach on the sidelines during the filming of the game's winning play by East Carolina. Perdue cheered but had no speaking lines.

"I think the governor channeled his inner coach," McG said after the shoot. "It was very impressive."