Reynolds sits with us to talk about this new adventure that is filmed in a six-part documentary series about to debut on FX in the U.S. The film follows the Hollywood pair transforming the club’s stadium plus the universal tale of every football fan’s emotional rollercoaster. After visiting Madrid, and the Real Madrid Stadium, Reynolds fell in love with the country and with football.
Q: Is it true that you went to Spain and fell in love with football?
A: I found Madrid a fascinating city. Yes, I love the town and Real Madrid club as they gave me a t-shirt. Walking and eating in Madrid was like living in a dream. Loved it .
Q: Has your Spanish improved since we talked last time?
A: I would say it’s not worse (laughter) I can still order food in Madrid.
Q: After being in Madrid, you decided to buy a team with not so much idea of the game and documenting it could it be bad for the town but good for television?
A: There were a few of those moments in the show, when we had a very serious conversation about how terrible it was to be the chairman in this particular situation, but we recognized that it was compelling. We never root for those moments, of course, because it’s just too heartbreaking, but recognizing that is part of the show and part of the story.
Q: Soccer is a religion for many people, do you understand you are two foreigners in that religion?
A: Yes. When you position it like that it sounds like an invasion. I think it is just about respecting what the sport means to the folks in the town of Wrexham, but more importantly what it means for people all over the world. I mean, I looked at the race core ground that is the oldest international stadium on earth where the Wrexham AC plays and I look at the building as a church, that is kind of what it really represents and what it is and really it is going in there with a really intense sense of healthy respect, not just for the game, but also for the folks that are around the game and support the game.
Q: I assume that the ultimate goal when you bought Wrexham was to get in the Premier League, but after realizing how hard that is, is it still a goal?
A: I found it fascinating from the very beginning how everybody would start with the assumption. Yes, we want to get promoted but we will never make it to the Premier League, of course. That would be taken as a given. I would not understand. If the system is set up in a way that you can be promoted all the way up to the system then why wouldn't that be our goal? I don’t understand. There is a certain amount of pessimism or cynicism some people call that reality. With effort and energy everything is possible.
Q: How far are you willing to go to complete your objectives?
A: I like new challenges, and this is an extension of that.
Q: How did you decide to buy a soccer club without having any knowledge about it?
A: Rob, my partner in the adventure, and I have a relationship because I text him as I am a fan of his work. When you see somebody or something that you admire it is important to tell it. I contacted him and we began a great relationship and then one day he called me because he knows that I love businesses, I do have many businesses, not just a movie career. I have a gym company, a phone company, a marketing company. It is a big passion of mine. So when Rob called me with this idea and the strategy for acquiring a club and growing it into something amazing, not that Wrexham wasn’t already something amazing, we just have to create some awareness around it and that is how it started. This is a brain child and something that I was lucky enough to hitch my wagon into.
Q: Half and half?
A: Yes. 50/50. This is a joint venture and aside from the financial aspect of it I wire in. Professional sports are a very difficult business not for the faint of heart, is something that is becoming a learning process for both of us.
Q: This is at the end a story about people.
A: Exactly. This game and this sport run intrinsically with this community. You can’t really build this club without simultaneously helping in growing the community and you can’t grow the community without helping grow the club as it is the heartbeat of Wrexham. It is essential to almost every aspect of the city. It is something we have very respect toward. Football and all sports are storytelling, and storytelling is nothing without context. If I look at my favorite movies, they are all full of dreams. Wrexham is about the people of this town and what this club means to them.
Q: Was there any moment that you regretted this decision?
A: Every other breath, but that is also football, so I think if you are supporting a club and falling in love with a club, in particular falling in love with the game, is a moment by moment thing. It feels like life and death. Football is an obsession I wish I didn’t have, I feel my life being before football and after football. It possesses my every waking thought. The club certainly does and I wish it didn’t but it does. It is something I really can’t escape.
Q: How did you feel when you saw the first game in the stadium?
A: Great. Up until then, because of the Covid it was tough, because it was more than a year of watching the team from afar and following it on social media. I am not an expert in football, but I really like to see the passion of the fans. I would be lying to you if I told you that my dream is not to reach the Premier League. We want to return to the Fourth Division and from there, upwards.
María Estévez
Correspondent writer, Los Angeles
