July 10, 2007

VILLANOVA, Pa. - During a recent interview, former Villanova women's soccer player Erica Stewart spent a few minutes talking about her own playing career, in addition to the role she played in the movie Gracie, a soccer-themed film currently in theatres. For Stewart, a 2005 graduate and communications major, the story of her life as it relates to soccer is perhaps a fairly typical one.

Stewart was five years old when she played the sport for the first time. She eventually grew into an All-State player at Cranford (N.J.) High School and a force on her MC Dynamo club team, earning a scholarship to Villanova. From 2001-04, Stewart helped lead the Wildcats to the first four NCAA Tournament berths in program history. She also took the decisive penalty kick in the finals of the 2003 BIG EAST Championship, lifting Villanova past Boston College to earn the program's only conference title.

"When Erica came to Villanova with a heralded freshman class in 2001, she was right at the top of the list in terms of her accolades and that she had won at every level of soccer," Villanova head coach Ann Clifton said. "She has tremendous passion for the game and her career accomplishments have helped create a legacy that we can use to recruit our current players with."

The chance to develop and continue her soccer career is not an opportunity that Stewart takes for granted. During the filming of Gracie, she found a great deal of familiar sentiments in the experiences of the movie's main character.

Gracie is set in the 1970's and tells the story of Grace Bowen, a teenager who fights to give girls the opportunity to play soccer. Grace is portrayed in the movie by leading actress Carly Schroeder, who Stewart served as a body double for during certain scenes.

"I had no acting experience whatsoever before taking on this role, but I would do something like this again in a second," Stewart said. "I didn't think anything would come of it when I first tried out but then things started to happen really quickly. It was one of the best experiences of my life to be a part of the movie."

Parts of the movie are based on the real-life experiences of sibling actors Elisabeth and Andrew Shue, who act in and are co-producers of Gracie. Elisabeth Shue played on an all-boys soccer team from the ages of 9-12 until joining the gymnastics team in high school.

Stewart is currently an assistant coach at Rutgers and it was through another coach at the school that she met the Shue family and had the opportunity to play a role in the movie.

"The associate head coach at Rutgers, Mike O'Neill, is friends with Andrew Shue from playing soccer with him in high school," Stewart said. "He asked Andrew if the producers had anyone in mind for Carly's body double in the movie and then told me that I should try out for it."

The original plan for the movie was to find an actress who would be able to do all of the soccer scenes in the movie. More than 7,000 people sent in tapes for the leading part but none was a good enough soccer player and actress. Stewart attended a tryout at renowned St. Benedict's High School in New Jersey.

"I didn't really know anything going into the tryout," Stewart said. "They said I might have to take a free kick or something like that, but I didn't know any other details. When I showed up a bunch of guys were playing and the coach let me jump in while I waited to talk to the producers. Eventually the director and a couple of the producers were there and they taped a shot where I took a free kick with a wall in front of me. It was the nicest shot and hit the upper corner. I was lucky that I played really well that day."

A few days after the tryout, Stewart got a call from one of the assistants from the movie crew and was told she had been chosen for the body double part. Soon she was being fitted for clothes and had been asked to die her hair blonde to match Schroeder.

"I went somewhere in New York to get fitted for clothes and they took me to a place to get my hair dyed," Stewart said. "Carly has platinum blonde hair and is naturally fair skinned. I had to wear sun block every day and had makeup on my arms and legs to make me look paler."

The sequence of events during the filming of the movie happened very fast, but there were numerous ways Stewart was involved during the filming process. Schroeder had never played soccer before, something which fit in well with playing a character that was learning to play soccer. Stewart spent time working on the basics of the game with Schroeder early on during filming.

"They started shooting a few weeks after I found out I was chosen to be the body double," Stewart said. "It happened really fast and everything was done in three months. At first it took some time for me and Carly to get used to how each other moved. She worked so hard trying to get better and she improved a lot and was able to do a lot of her own scenes in the movie."

Stewart was required to be in wardrobe for every scene in case she was needed to step in at a certain spot.

"I stepped in for a lot of the rehearsals so Carly could watch me and see how the play should unfold. I wasn't in the first half of the movie at all because her character was being trained by her dad and that was perfect for Carly's skill level. They used me in a tryout scene where Grace beats a couple of other players and scores a goal. I was also in the last game scene and a couple of other random times."

Nearly 20 years of playing soccer didn't change the fact that Stewart had no previous acting experience. The soccer scenes in the movie were carefully choreographed by Dan Metcalf, a coordinator who has been involved in several other films related to soccer. Along with other real-life soccer players who took part in filming the movie, Stewart had to memorize certain plays and carry them out in a specific way.

"All of the plays were numbered and I had to remember everything," Stewart said. "I am used to improvising during a game but in this situation I had to be in exact spots because that was where the cameras would be. In addition, Carly was watching me and I had to get it exactly right. The experience gives me a lot more respect for actors now because there is so much riding on getting a scene right. The cost of film is a major expense."

Recalling Stewart's playing days at Villanova, Clifton had no concerns about the former Wildcat being able to adjust to the challenge of filming the choreographed scenes in the movie. As the player linking the Villanova midfield to the front line, Stewart had a successful collegiate career that was based on her ability to coordinate the team's offense.

"Erica is such a dynamic and creative player and her instincts are one of her best qualities, so I can understand how adjusting to being in certain spots for the camera would be a challenge for her," Clifton said. "Erica works as hard as anyone else and is fun to watch on the field. I am sure it was a pleasure for the cast and crew to watch her emulate what they wanted on film."

When Stewart started thinking about the experiences she had at Villanova, she realized the similarity between her own life and that of the movie's title character. Understanding the identity of the main character in the movie made the entire experience that much more meaningful for Stewart.

"The last scene in the movie is a night game and it made me think back to some of the night games we played when I was at Villanova," Stewart said. "In general those games were very exciting and all throughout my experience with the movie I had flashbacks to playing for Villanova. The successes that Grace has in the movie were really moving for me because she was experiencing the same things that I have felt, too. I watched the struggle that her character goes through and it was special for me because I had many of the same experiences."

When Stewart was chosen for the body double part based on one perfect free kick into the upper corner of the net, the film crew couldn't have known that they had found someone who would take as much meaning from the role as Stewart did. It turns out that having someone identify so closely with the main character was necessary in order to help tell Grace's story. Elisabeth and Andrew Shue spent years trying to make this film before the project was completed this year.

"This movie is the story of the Shue family and of Elisabeth's life," Stewart said. "There were no girls soccer teams in the 1970's and she fought really hard to make that happen. They have been trying to make this movie for over 10 years and the story is of course very inspirational to her. Elisabeth and Andrew are very passionate about family, life and soccer and they treated me as if I was a part of their family during the entire filming process. It is an incredibly overwhelming feeling that I had the chance to help them tell their story, which is so important to women's soccer."

Stewart laughed when thinking about some of the other challenges that the movie experience offered. Such as that there really is no resemblance between her and Schroeder. Or that she had never acted before. The transition of those two factors to the big screen was seamless.

"I was a little worried about how all this would look on camera," Stewart admitted. "Carly isn't an athlete and I thought the scenes I stepped in for would be really noticeable. They mixed the scenes really well and the camera work was very good. In the last scene you can see my whole body and face on screen but they make it so that it is very hard to tell. If you weren't trying to pick me out it wouldn't look any different than the scenes Carly filmed for herself."

Three years removed from the end of her career at Villanova, Stewart is getting ready to begin her third season as an assistant coach at Rutgers, one of the Wildcats top rivals in the BIG EAST Conference. She is just one of many former players and assistant coaches under Clifton who have gone on to coach elsewhere after leaving the program, and aspires to be a collegiate head coach one day.

"My first year at Rutgers was my first year out of college and we came to play at Villanova that year," Stewart recalls. "It was so soon after I graduated and being in the guest locker room was miserable for me. I felt like a traitor and the whole team teased me about it, but it was what I had to do in order to start my coaching career."

Clifton knows as well as anyone the challenges that come with being a collegiate head coach, as she is now in her 11th year at Villanova. She looks forward to Stewart joining the list of head coaches that have come through the Villanova program along the way.

"As a player and assistant coach Erica has now been at two strong BIG EAST programs," Clifton said. "She has put herself in position to be a first assistant coach for any program. Her passion for the game and outstanding work ethic are going to be terrific assets to any university that hires her."

Aside from having to coach against her former teammates in her job at Rutgers, Stewart missed being out on the field as a player as well. She is currently training with the team at Rutgers in hopes of joining the women's professional league which is scheduled to make a return to the United States in the spring of 2008.

"I am involved with some club soccer teams and my goal is to be a head coach one day, but I do miss playing," Stewart said. "The women's pro league is coming back next spring and if it works out I would love to play for a year even just to have that experience. I miss playing but the experience of being part of a pro league for one year will help my coaching resume too."

Although the path to becoming a head coach isn't an easy one, Stewart's success as a player and commitment to the sport has her primed to eventually fulfill that goal. Along the way, perhaps she will think back to the life of Elisabeth Shue or the character of Grace Bowen as a source of inspiration.