Rising star Ashton James (previously seen in the exceptional indie film Boxcutter) gets the biggest role of his career to date in the title role of director Hubert Davis’ reimagining of the sports movie classic, Youngblood, now playing in select theatres.
Not a strict remake of the 1986 cult favourite that starred the likes of Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, and Keanu Reeves, this story of a hockey prodigy with a short fuse started as a passion project for lauded Canadian filmmaker Charles Officer (Unarmed Verses, Nurse Fighter Boy), before he passed away in 2023. Stepping up to continue the project in Charles’ memory is filmmaker Hubert Davis, who previously made the award winning documentary Black Ice, a look at the experiences of black people in the sport of hockey.
But James has been around the character of Dean Youngblood since the start of the project. In the film, Dean, a known hot-head on the ice, is about to receive his last shot at playing even semi-professional hockey, being brought in to the struggling line-up of the Hamilton Mustangs during a time of crisis. The team’s coach has no intention of playing Dean because opposing players know how to antagonize the young man, and he always takes their bait. Dean’s mentor and father, played by Blair Underwood, doesn’t help matters by always suggesting everything is his son’s fault and that aggression, fighting, and not backing down are all keys to playing the game.
We got a chance to talk with James about Youngblood, working alongside Charles Officer and Hubert Davis, finding the complexities in his character, and working with an all star cast of seasoned character actors.
Youngblood is now playing in select theatres.
