In real life, I was in my mid-forties, often eight to ten years older than the roles I wanted to play. It was about the great Negro League pitcher who finally made his way into the American League at the age of forty-two, the first of the Negro League stars to be elected into the Hall of Fame.
Scott, should have been a major film, rather than a TV movie. I have always felt that this movie, directed by George C. Having Satchel present on the set in his famous rocking chair a year before he died of emphysema added a special dimension to the filming. I also had to wear a hairpiece, which was a real pain, moving as it did all over my head in the oppressive heat. Satch was rail thin, so even though I was a little skinny, I had to resist some of the wonderful barbecues to stay that way during the filming. Working on the ABC movie "Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy 'Satchel' Paige," which we filmed in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was a special pleasure, particularly because I'd played baseball in high school. Still, despite my media-illuminated missteps, I always had work, and, far more important, I clung to the role of proud and primary parent of a beautiful, loving, albeit spoiled, little boy. My need for a little downtime from the constant work was too often time that I filled with women who dealt in drugs and alcohol. I was slowly becoming a quasi-playboy while being a full-time single father. I was learning that I could easily become a target, especially to women who might take advantage of my situation. As I got more involved in projects, however, and my fame grew, I had to be extra cautious. "She's gone," I told them, and their eyes lit up with a mixture of sadness and admiration. "Where is the mother?" they usually asked when they saw me walking into a restaurant with Satie or buying groceries in the supermarket. I found out that a man caring for a small child without a woman was somehow attractive to other women. Would you want to fly into combat with Zach Mayo or with Tom Cruise's Maverick in "Top Gun"? Zach Mayo, hands down.There were lots of women in and out of my life during those years, as I discovered that little kids could be babe magnets. The most riveting moment of the movie is when Foley is going to kick Zach out of the program and Gere frantically and desperately screams "DON'T YOU DO THAT! I AIN'T GOT NOWHERE ELSE TO GO!" All of Zach's arrogance is drained out of him and he is just a desperate kid begging for the only chance he'll ever have. Still one of the steamiest bed scenes in film history. The movie also had to snip out a couple of seconds of Winger flexing her hips a bit too much during a bed scene. Supposedly the scene in which she is crying while making love to Zach isn't because she's feeling passion, it is because she is feeling humiliated.
I had read that Winger had a real problem doing the nude scenes with Gere and felt very uncomfortable being undressed in front of the camera. Debra Winger is also delectable as Paula, Zach's working class girlfriend. steals the show and gets a deserved Oscar as Gunnery Sergeant Foley. It is impossible to think of anyone else in the role which is one indication of how good Gere was. I read once that his role of Zach Mayo was first offered to John Denver. This has to be Richard Gere's best movie and the one movie I felt he deserved an Oscar nomination for.