Q&A: Beau Bridges channels his former basketball coach, UCLA legend John Wooden
LOS ANGELES - Before Beau Bridges played roles in "The Fabulous Baker Boys," "The Second Civil War," "Homeland" and other movies and TV shows, he played basketball at UCLA. And though he played for only one season, he stayed in contact with his coach: John Wooden, who guided the Bruins to an unprecedented 10 national championships in the 1960s and '70s.
Bridges will portray the late American sports icon in a new one-person play, "Coach: An Evening With John Wooden." The piece brings audiences into Wooden's modest Encino "den" for a session of his signature retirement pastime: storytelling. The time he bailed Bill Walton out of jail for protesting the Vietnam War on Wilshire Boulevard. The lessons he learned from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar about racism in America. The moment he first laid eyes on the love of his life, Nell, his wife of 53 years.
John Wilder - the seasoned writer-producer of the late-1970s NBC miniseries "Centennial," among others - makes his playwriting debut with the piece, which will be performed Wednesday and Saturday at the Hurst Theatre in Colorado.
Ahead of the play's world-premiere reading, Bridges, 77, spoke with The Times at UCLA about trying out for Wooden's
