It's not every day George Clooney directs a movie. It's even rarer for him to tell a story about a sport.
In fact, the last sports movie Clooney directed released in 2008, which was the American football film titled "Leatherheads."
OK, so that's the most popular sport in the United States checked off. There's still basketball, baseball, hockey and soccer to narrate.
Oh, Clooney has other ideas? Maybe he's thinking golf, boxing, tennis, racing or wrestling?
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Nope, none of the above. Clooney's latest venture dives into the fresh waters of rowing.
"The Boys in the Boat" will mark Clooney's ninth film as a director, which tells the story of Team USA's rigorous journey in the 1936 Olympic Games that transpired during the Great Depression.
Olympic rowing coach Terry O'Neill, who taught the actors in the movie how to row, said the film can't do the sport of rowing any harm. USRowing CEO Amanda Kraus, who saw the movie in advance of its Christmas release date, is amped for how it will help the sport of rowing.
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"We were just talking about that the other day in the office that, you know, rowing doesn't usually make the big screen," Kraus said in an interview with NBC. "And this book... Daniel James Brown's book was just so fantastic. And it seemed like one of the first times that someone had actually captured the beauty and the grit of the sport of ours."
"So, to see it on the big screen and know that it's going to be shared with so many people come Christmas Day on its release, that people who've never really thought about rowing much beyond when they see it every four years in the Olympics will get a taste of what it's really about."
Kraus said USRowing isn't completely sure what to expect once viewers get exposed to the sport, but they are readying for a wave of new fans who want to dip their toes.
"We're preparing ourselves for an onslaught of new enthusiasts who want to get involved with rowing or try rowing and hopefully seeing this movie, they'll realize, 'Wow, these guys in Washington didn't get into a boat until they were in college,'" Kraus said. "And the same can be true for people of any age. It's not like gymnastics or a sport where you need to really start when you're little.
"You can start at any age. So, we're preparing the sport more broadly for people just looking to find out where they can learn to row or what colleges have rowing, what high school clubs have rowing, et cetera."
Kraus said they are preparing the USRowing website to better help people find rowing opportunities near them. They have 1,400 rowing organizations registered with the website, where one of USRowing's priority is to help them coach and develop coaches to keep stewarding the sport.
So, for someone who gets inspired to row after watching "The Boys in the Boat," how can they get involved? Is it a difficult sport to get accustomed to? It's actually much easier than one may think, Kraus said.
"What's neat about rowing is that you don't need to have ever done it before," Kraus said. "You know, people think, 'Oh, I need to go to Harvard or Yale or Princeton,' or 'I need to be 6-foot-3,' or 'I need to be all of these things.' And you don't. Rowing is a sport for anyone who wants to try something really different, especially who likes working with other people. So unless you're rowing a single, it really is the ultimate team sport. It's so easy."
"The Boys in the Boat" also releases at an opportune time. With 2024 on the horizon, it'll officially mark the year of the Paris Games. It's something USRowing has circled on its calendar for a while after not medaling in the Tokyo Games last time out.
Will things be different in Paris? Kraus says change is in the air.
"We've already seen a big turnaround with new leadership in high performance since the last Olympics in Tokyo, where unfortunately we did not bring home any medals," Kraus started. "In the world championships just this past fall, we had an amazing performance by our athletes. We're really starting to see the results of the hard work of our high performance leadership and, of course, our athletes.
"They qualified 10 boats for the Olympics and Paralympics. They brought home seven medals from world championships. We topped the leaderboards at Pan Am Games. And then a new discipline, which is not a part of the movie at all, but our beach sprints. We had tremendous performance by our athletes at beach sprints, too. So change is in the air. I think people are starting to pay attention and realize that the United States is really going to be a threat this summer in Paris at the Olympics and the Paralympics. And we have some really fast boats and fast athletes."
But, most importantly, what is Kraus' scouting report of George Clooney the rower? Could he bring home an Olympic medal?
"I mean, he'd look good in the boat, but it might just be aesthetically speaking," Kraus said. "He's probably 5-foot-10, so he's on the smaller side for rowing. Most of our men are well above six feet. He seems pretty fit, though, so I think he'd do well. With the right coaching, anyone can really be successful...but I wouldn't put money on him for the Paris Olympics."
