Ocean’s Eleven: A night at the fights
During the Lennox Lewis/Wladimir Klitschko boxing match sequence at the MGM Grand, discerning audiences will catch cameo appearances by original Ocean’s 11 cast members Angie Dickinson and Henry Silva.
“Those were two very intense days of shooting,” Soderbergh recalls. “We had several thousand extras and we were trying to stage something that turns into absolute chaos.”
Soderbergh was surprised by the imposing physical presence of the heavyweights. “I was astounded at the size of our fighters,” he says. “I knew their stats, but when you stand next to them, they are just giants. They are also really nice men, very intelligent and very understanding about what it was that we needed from them. We asked this champion boxer and this heavyweight contender to get into the ring and pretend. To do that and not have it turn into a problem requires two very special individuals. Lennox and Vlad were just great. After each session, when we would yell ‘Cut,’ they would touch gloves and return to their respective corner. It was really cool because the last thing I wanted was to have a real brawl on my hands, some sort of disagreement between two very, very big guys.”