AR: It was amazing! I could never articulate it enough. It was a life-changing event for me and for all of us,for all the girls ... we all felt the same way about it. I mean I got to play baseball. We got to play it in Wrigley Field! It just prepared me for everything that happened afterward. And I love Chicago! We were staying ( downtown ) and I'm a runner so I went for a jog. I do that ... so I can learn the city. And I was jogging by the lake, and I turned around and the lake was gorgeous and there were people playing beach volleyball, which I also love to do, and behind me are these gorgeous buildings and I started crying. I wanted to be cast in the film so badly ... it was my first big job ... so I was just insanely happy. A League of Their Own is the one that launched ( my career ) ... yeah ... it was a huge, huge deal in my life.
WCT: And you were already a ballplayer?
AR: Yeah, I've always been an athlete. Strangely enough I never really played softball in my high school / college career but I was athletic enough to learn baseball, which is what they taught us.
WCT: And your character Helen played first base and that's a lot of action.
AR: It was phenomenal because Penny Marshall found out that I was left handed really early on when we were just practicing, before we were filming, and she was like "Oh, you'll be first base." I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
WCT: Did you all go through rigorous training?
AR: Even the auditions for the piece were playing baseball. Can you catch and throw, you know, that was just part of the audition. This is funny: we have one batting cage that's popular in the L.A. area and all these women around the same age were signing up. You couldn't get a space because we were all practicing because we were all auditioning for Penny Marshall and EVERYONE was at the batting cages. Just tons of women there.
WCT: So instead of everyone getting hair and facials for an audition, everyone's in a batting cage. Which I think is quite liberating for the women of L.A.! They should try that again.
AR: [ laughing ] It was so funny.
WCT: Penny needs to do another League but maybe this time it's bowling! OK, I have to ask ... I mean the woman was a huge star when you were filming this. The Madonna question. Truth Or Dare came out the year you were filming this. Do you have any unique stories about Madonna, because you know the gay community wants to know.
AR: Oh there are tons of wonderful stories about Madonna!
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