DALLAS — Dallas-born actor Luke Wilson, who is in North Texas last week for the premiere of “You Gotta Believe,” laughed when asked recently if returning home helps him feel grounded. He’s suspicious of stars who talk about being grounded, he explained.
“I can even remember kidding around about it on “Letterman,” talking about guys that said, ‘Yeah, I like to work on classic cars because it keeps me grounded. The other 22 hours of the day, I’m a total jerk.’”
All kidding aside, he said, he’s drawn to the sights and smells of his home state, as well as the sounds of certain birds. “I still love Dallas,” he added.
“You Gotta Believe” tells the story of a Fort Worth Little League baseball team that rallied around a teammate’s dying father and advanced to the World Series in South Williamsport, Pa., in 2002.
Wilson, who plays the dad, Bobby Ratliff, co-stars along with Greg Kinnear, who plays the team’s head coach. Directed by Ty Roberts, the film premiered in Fort Worth then hit theaters nationwide last weekend.
“It means a lot,” Wilson said of the local premiere. “You have a premiere in L.A. and New York, and it’s been done 1,000 times in those places — and still fun. But to have a movie premiere back home, you can feel how exciting it is for people, and that makes it exciting for me.”
Wilson, 52, is no stranger to Fort Worth, where he went on trips to the Amon Carter, the rodeo and Joe T. Garcia’s as a kid. He grew up in Preston Hollow with older brothers Owen and Andrew (also actors) and parents Laura (a photographer) and Robert (a TV executive).
He last returned to Dallas in the spring, when he spent time with his mother, who will also be at the premiere. When he’s in town, he said, he drives by spots from his youth, including the St. Mark’s School of Texas, his high school alma mater, and the historic Inwood Theatre.
It’s perhaps not surprising, then, that he seems to gravitate toward stories from his home state.
In 2021, he starred in “12 Mighty Orphans “ as the coach of a 1930s high school football team from a Fort Worth orphanage that reached the state finals. That movie was also directed by Roberts, whom Wilson said he met on a set in the ’90s.
Wilson said he grew up in an era where players had to earn water breaks during practice, a time “before they realized people could keel over” from the heat. There were standout coaches, however, including Jerry Reese at St. Mark’s, where Wilson ran track and played football.
“There’s something about how someone older relates to someone younger that’s very interesting to me,” Wilson said. “[Reese] really got as much as he could out of me.”
Other Texas stories he wants to see on the big screen include “White Widow,” a novel by Jim Lehrer about a 1950s bus driver in Corpus Christi who becomes obsessed with a female passenger.
Wilson described “White Widow” as one of the best books he’s read. “I’d like to pitch this to Taylor Sheridan,” he said, referring to the “Yellowstone” co-creator. “I mean this guy’s rolling so hard, maybe he’s the guy to get it made.”
Wilson also said he wants to go through the archives of Texas Monthly with his brother Owen to find stories. Growing up, he read the Metro section of The Dallas Morning News, which he remembers once publishing an article about the harrowing wake of a flood that has lingered with him through the years.
“When the flood waters came down, there was a body up in a tree,” he said. “I’ve just never forgotten that image.”
Working on “You Gotta Believe,” with its focus on how to spend one’s last days, has prompted Wilson to reflect on his own life and career.
“Getting older, I’ve definitely thought that’s why there’s the phrase midlife crisis. Suddenly, you walk through a door and then look back, like how did I get here?” he said. “What have I wanted to do that I’ve not done?”
After he leaves North Texas, Wilson will cross the Atlantic for the “Chapter II” premiere of Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga “ at the Venice Film Festival.
“I still feel very lucky to do what I do,” he said.
