Shia LaBeouf can be serious about John McEnroe role

THINK of John McEnroe playing tennis.

Chances are you imagined the American player having a temper tantrum, rather than taking a serve — well, that is what he was famous for, after all.

A new film out this week — Borg McEnroe — tells of the rivalry between John and his Swedish peer Bjorn Borg.

The men really were polar opposites.

While John was likely to lose his temper at any moment, Bjorn was calm and collected.

But they did have one thing in common — being the best in their sport.

The new movie focuses on the legendary 1980 Wimbledon final between the pair — who were the Nadal/Federer of their era — and the behind-the-scenes stories of their private angst.

Both men bring their inner demons with them onto the court as they face each other in one of the biggest events in tennis history.

Shia LaBeouf — best known for his role in Transformers — was thrilled to be cast in the role of McEnroe and revealed that there are a lot of parallels between him and the New York player.

“McEnroe and I have everything in common,” said Shia.

“Passionate. Perfectionist. Narcissistic. I’m a bit of a caricature also.

“You look for parallels in your life, and I’m lucky because there is a lot here.

“I have nothing but love and respect for him.

“The script is brilliant. We are all here because of that.

“I actually cried the first time I read it.”

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So keen was Shia to provide a sense of realism to the film that he and co-star Sverrir Gudnason learned to play tennis — although given the fact that he broke his foot, it wouldn’t have been an entirely-pleasant experience for Shia.

It seems that he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to emulate John all that well, in terms of tennis skills, at least.

The idea was to try to recreate the 1980 match as closely as possible, so their tennis was choreographed more than spontaneously played.

“We rehearsed things like a ballet, including McEnroe’s outbursts,” Shia revealed.

“I would literally play them on a screen right before we would film and look at where everything was, and it was very paint-by-numbers.

“You could’ve given me 20 years of tennis lessons, and I would have never played like McEnroe.

“I started learning it like a dance, I never actually played tennis, it was something different.”

While Shia may not have felt that his playing was realistic, the experience of walking out onto the Wimbledon court was very nerve-wracking for Sverrir as Borg.

“We were both nervous, of course, to walk out on Wimbledon in front of the crowd,” he said.

“That’s the most real feeling that I got on this movie.”

His portrayal of Bjorn got praise from the real thing, which Sverrir was obviously pleased about.

“I’m really happy that he liked it,” he said. “If he hadn’t liked it, that would have made me sad.”

Borg McEnroe is in cinemas from Friday, September 22.