How Jordin Sparks calmed Dylan Sprouse's nerves before his 'drivers' line at the Indy 500
As grand marshal at this year's Indianapolis 500, actor Dylan Sprouse was assigned to deliver one of the pre-race festivities' most impactful lines in front of about 345,000 people: "Drivers, to your cars!"
It was a sentence that would circle his brain again and again in the days leading up to the May 26 race.
"I was terribly nervous, actually, to say the one line that I had to say. I was joking with my friends — I was like, 'You can't give an actor one line to say two days in advance' because that's all I thought about. I thought about all the ways I could mess it up as well," Sprouse told IndyStar about a week before the July 28 red carpet premiere of his dark comedy "The Duel" at Hilbert Circle Theatre.
The actor's nerves persisted through the four-hour rain delay — until he saw Jordin Sparks return from the podium after singing the national anthem.
"I've known Jordin for a long time, so it was great to see her again. And she came off stage and she was like, 'Hey, Dylan, so good to see you,' and I was like, 'Hey, Jordin, how've you been?' And she's like, 'I'm great, I'm great. Are you excited, you ready to go up there and do the thing?'
"And I was like, 'Honestly, yes, I'm very excited but I'm also terribly, terribly nervous. I don't know why, but I have so much anxiety about it.' And she looks at me and she goes, 'Dylan, I just sang the national anthem,'" Sprouse recounted, laughing.
"I was like, 'OK, you're right. You are very right.'"
With that perspective, his nerves dissipated. Sparks, for her part, was happy to offer the encouragement.
“Dylan didn’t need any help as great as he is! After the weather delay, we were all a bit nervous," the multiplatinum singer-songwriter wrote to IndyStar via her publicist. "I'm glad that I could help alleviate his nerves and it was so fun to be reunited again!”
The race weekend festivities offered plenty of good distractions for Sprouse, too. While promoting "The Duel," which was filmed in Indiana, he participated in the 500 Festival Parade and watched race fans play games during the rain delay.
"The race was phenomenal," Sprouse said. "It rained for a good amount of time in the beginning, but if this was any other sporting event, I think that would've bummed people out. I remember I walked outside at some point in time and looked over the balcony, and I saw people down below in the pouring rain doing foot races and betting on foot races, and they did, like, 60 to 70 of them. I was just standing there watching, and I was like, 'That is so cool ... this is just such an awesome vibe here.'"
About 'The Duel'
The dark comedy follows four friends whose bonds begin to break when Colin (played by Sprouse, who came to fame on the Disney Channel's "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody") sleeps with Woody's (Callan McAuliffe of "The Walking Dead") girlfriend Abbie (Rachel Matthews of "Upgraded"). When Woody challenges Colin to a duel, the group joins up with Christof (Patrick Warburton of "Seinfeld" and "Family Guy"). As an expert on the dangerous contest, he accompanies them to the estate of a drug baron in Mexico, where they find the field of honor they need to fight.
Stars include Denny Love ("Looking for Alaska"), Hart Denton ("Riverdale"), María Gabriela de Faría ("The Moodys"), Christian McGaffney ("Simón") and Ronald Guttman ("Godfather of Harlem").
How Indiana influenced 'The Duel': Hoosier spots play perfect 'surrealistic' role in the movie, starring Dylan Sprouse
Where 'The Duel' was filmed in Indiana
"The Duel" is set in Los Angeles, San Diego and Mexico, but the vast majority of the movie was filmed in Indiana. Hoosiers will recognize Fountain Square's Inferno Room and former Peppy Grill (now World Famous HotBoys), Mel and Bren Simon's former estate Asherwood in Carmel, Midland Arts and Antiques, southern Indiana's Marengo Cave and Bedford's Bluespring Caverns.
The filmmaking crew — including co-writers Justin Matthews and Luke Spencer Roberts — joined up with Indiana-based film company Pigasus Pictures, which located settings that fit the movie's script and tone.
When you can see 'The Duel'
Lionsgate is distributing the film broadly on Wednesday, July 31, with tickets at iconicreleasing.com/events/the-duel.
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Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or [email protected]. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @domenicareports.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How Jordin Sparks calmed a nervous Dylan Sprouse at the Indy 500
