Sanka Actor Doug E Doug Remembers Making “Cool Runnings”

“I’ve been recognised as Sanka every waking moment of my existence,” says Cool Runnings star Doug E Doug in an interview with The Guardian but reiterates, “I’m very happy that millennials and Generation Y – my children – love our little bobsled movie so much.”

Remembering making the film, he says he was co-producing and starring in the TV show Where I Live when he learned about the script. “The first attempt at making the movie never happened. When it was rewritten as a comedy, I was happy to recommit to the project, but also cautious. Comedy is a delicate thing to pull off, and I didn’t want to visit any dishonour upon these heroic characters.”

He mentions that insurance issues prevented them from actual bobsledding, although they did have to push and board the sled, which led to some tense moments. “I don’t know if the other guys were scared, but I certainly wondered if we might accidentally go down the ice.

“I had a couple of fearful moments climbing in: it was almost as uncomfortable as the scene where I’m on the island, prepping for the Calgary weather by crouching inside an ice-cream wagon. That’s not real frost in my dreads, by the way: we used dry ice. And it was hot as Jamaica in that truck!”

A proud moment in the career of Doug E Doug

Doug takes pride in how the movie has inspired new generations. “Recently, I learned that the Jamaican racers who qualified for the 2014 Russian Olympics described themselves as ‘Cool Runnings: the second generation.’ Maybe they were inspired by the sight of the four of us carrying that broken sled towards the finish line for the film’s climax. It was pretty heavy. All hands were needed to lift it.

“On a lighter note, people often ask me if I still have Sanka’s egg. I do. It’s coming soon to eBay.”

Director Jon Turteltaub remembers making Cool Runnings

“I was at film school prepping my final project when I saw the Jamaican bobsled team competing at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. I remember thinking: ‘These athletes don’t seem to think they’re as funny as everyone else does.’ That’s what stuck in my head: how often do any of us step outside what’s easy, and do something incredible,” remembers Jon Turteltaub.

The original screenplay by Lynn Siefert, titled Blue Maaga, was more dramatic. It was later rewritten by Tommy Swerdlow and Michael Goldberg into a comedy. Turteltaub humorously noted that Swerdlow was using heroin during the rewrite, a fact he was unaware of at the time, highlighting his own naivety about such matters.

A significant challenge during production was the actors’ authentic Jamaican accents, which concerned Jeffrey Katzenberg, the then-chairman of Walt Disney Studios. “The lead actors – Leon Robinson, Doug E Doug, Malik Yoba and Rawle Lewis – had such perfect Jamaican accents that there was a fear non-Jamaicans wouldn’t understand them.

“Jeffrey Katzenberg was getting very frustrated and I began to worry he’d fire me if I couldn’t get them to speak the way Sebastian the crab did in The Little Mermaid. But instead of coming up with some fancy, directorial reason why they should lessen the Jamaican accent while representing the dignity of their Caribbean heritage, I just mumbled: ‘I’m going to get fired if you don’t sound like Sebastian.’ They laughed and saved my job, doing so without compromising their authenticity.”

One of Turteltaub’s cherished experiences during the production was attending a hockey game with John Candy. “During production I got to cross something off my bucket list: going to a hockey match with John Candy. We were in Calgary and it was a dream come true. John and I left the game early so he wouldn’t get mobbed by fans, but it happened anyway. He signed every autograph he was asked for. It took us 20 minutes to walk the 30 metres out of the arena.”

The film was released with various unique titles internationally. In Norway, it was called Cold Buttocks, in France Rasta Rockett, and Turteltaub’s favorite, in Italy, Four Below Zero or Quattro Sottozero.

Turteltaub was particularly proud that the film was loved in Jamaica. “I felt I had given the people there something to be really proud of, and something they could laugh about at the same time. I loved the line spoken by Malik’s Yul Brenner character: ‘We’re different. People always afraid of what’s different.’ It puts a different spin on hatred – for Yul to have that wisdom shows that his character experienced this before, and his own anger comes from a vulnerable place.”

After the success of Cool Runnings, Turteltaub found himself inundated with similar sports screenplays and family movie scripts. “It got so bad that at one point I received a script called Amanda. Without reading a word, I picked up the phone and said to my agent: ‘What kind of animal is it, and what’s wrong with the kid?’ There was a long pause before the reply came: ‘It’s a horse and a brain tumour.'”

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