Caleb Castille And Tony Nathan On ‘Woodlawn,’ Racial Tensions & Jon Voight [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO]

Caleb Castille stars in Woodlawn as Tony Nathan, the NFL player who got his start playing running back for the football team at Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, Ala.

Caleb Castille & Tony Nathan Video

Nathan attended Woodlawn in the early 70s when racial tension was at its height due to government-mandated desegregation of schools. “In the beginning, it was frightening,” Nathan told uInterview in an exclusive interview. “You know, you’re just afraid of the unknown, trying to fit in as a youngster. It was nerve-racking.”

Though playing on Woodlawn’s football team amid the race issues as one of the few African-American players proved hazardous in the beginning, Nathan had the support of coach Tandy Gerelds, who made it his mission to make the team a cohesive unit.

“The first couple of practices when you line up to go, you get an opportunity to carry the football and nobody would block for you,” Nathan explained. “Coach Gerelds stepped in and said, ‘Well if this is the way it’s going to be we might as well dissolve the football team because he’s going to be here and play.’ And from then on, a couple other players stepped up to the plate and started saying, ‘Hey, he’s human, give him a chance, let him do what he has to do, let’s see where he is,’ and things started to change.”

Castille had a somewhat unlikely journey to landing the part of Nathan in Woodlawn. Having played football in high school and then in college at the University of Alabama, he had been tapped to be the football-playing body double for the lead. When the lead dropped out, instead of combing back through the more seasoned actors who had auditioned for the role, the producers promoted Castille.

“Three days before production, they went back and said, ‘Hey, we think you have what it takes to be the lead.’ And I kind of stepped up to the plate,” said Castille. “It’s been an incredible experience so far.”

Part of Castille’s incredible experience was working alongside the likes of veteran actors Jon Voight, Sean Astin and Nic Bishop. “For me to be around those people, it just taught me a lot as a young actor of how to trust, how to listen,” said Castille. “Because acting is simply reacting.”

How did Nathan think Caleb did channeling his younger self? “You sit there and smile about it and you say, ‘Well, he did it. He nailed it.'”

Woodlawn, which opened in theaters back in October, is now on DVD, Blue-ray and Digital download.