The Actor Who Plays Gerry Bertier In Remember The Titans Is Unrecognizable Now
For the most part, Disney's "Remember the Titans" tells the incredible story of the Titans, the 1971 football team from the then-newly integrated T.C. Williams High School, which came together and inspired an entire community to conquer racial divides. At the same time, however, the sports drama also puts the spotlight on the late Gerry Bertier, the Titans football legend who led his team to an undefeated season while also inspiring social change throughout the entire city of Alexandria, Virginia. He formed a close friendship with teammate Julius Campbell and conquered racial divides together. According to Patch, Bertier famously said, "There is no black or white — we are a team."
By the time producers (including Jerry Bruckheimer) were putting together "Remember the Titans," Bertier was long gone, having died following injuries he sustained in a (second) car accident in 1981. On-screen, however, the high school football star's legacy continues to live on, thanks to actor Ryan Hurst's portrayal of him in the movie. Since then, Hurst has become quite a Hollywood star. After working on the movie with Denzel Washington, Ryan Gosling (years before he became Ken), Hayden Panettiere, Wood Harris, Ethan Suplee, and Kate Bosworth, the California native has gone on to find success in film and television. Years after "Remember the Titans," Hurst also stumbled upon a role that would essentially change his career forever. Throughout his career, he has also made several famous friends, some of whom even helped him discover another passion outside of acting.
Ryan Hurst grew up in the acting world
One can say that Ryan Hurst grew up in the business, having been born to actor Rick Hurst. Rick started acting professionally way back in the early '70s, taking on small roles in shows such as "Sanford and Son," "The Partridge Family," "The Doris Day Show," "Happy Days," "Gunsmoke," and "The Bob Newhart Show." Soon after, he landed his breakout role, playing Deputy Cletus Hogg on "The Dukes of Hazzard."
When asked about how the show affected his acting career, Rick told 411Mania, "Tremendously. Probably almost as much as going to the moon affected Neil Armstrong's career." Since then, the elder Hurst has gone on to book movie roles, landing a minor role in "The Karate Kid Part III" before getting cast as Bark Boone in the Oscar-nominated romantic dramedy "Steel Magnolias," which starred Shirley MacLaine, Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah, Dylan McDermott, and Julia Roberts. In the years that followed, Rick also reprised his role as Deputy Hogg in the TV movies "The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!" and "The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood."
Ryan's mother, Candace Kaniecki Herman, has also worked in Hollywood, having made a name for herself as an acting coach whose clients have included Rosie O'Donnell and the late Patrick Swayze. She has also directed theatrical performances over the years. Meanwhile, Ryan's stepfather also happens to be a writer.
Ryan Hurst had a vision that he was meant to star in Remember the Titans
While some actors land their dream roles by chance, Ryan Hurst was quite certain that he was meant to play a football player on-screen even months before "Remember the Titans" started holding auditions. By then, the actor had already built up quite an acting resume, having played a serviceman in both Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" and William Friedkin's "Rules of Engagement." Around the same time, Hurst also joined Robin Williams in "Patch Adams," in which he played one of the titular doctor's patients. After working on these films, Hurst also knew he was destined for some high school football action next because he had dreamed of it a few times.
"I had this [recurring] dream that I was on a football field, running with a football, and then I ran up to the stands and I pointed at this Black man standing in the stands, and he pointed back to me," the actor told GQ. The vision had been so compelling that Hurst wrote a letter to "Remember the Titans" director Boaz Yakin explaining that he was meant to be in the semi-biographical Disney sports drama. Later on, when the film premiered at the Rose Bowl, Hurst saw co-star Wood Harris from across the room. And it happened, the two stars pointed at each other. "It was one of the most otherworldly experiences of my entire life," Hurst recalled.
The actor created the montage scenes in the movie
As one of the main stars in "Remember the Titans," Ryan Hurst figures into most of the film's scenes, which probably meant he had more work to do than the other actors playing football players in the cast. Despite this, the actor couldn't pass up on the chance to do some filmmaking of his own while on set.
In his GQ interview, Hurst revealed that he showed some of his short films to "Remember the Titans" director Boaz Yakin while they were filming. Then, one day, Yakin came up to him and offered him another job. "He goes, 'One piece of stage direction says montage of team winning.' He says, 'I don't have the time to do this. Do you want to do it?'" Yakin then proceeded to give Hurst a producer and a budget. Other than that, the actor had creative freedom over the entire sequence. Meanwhile, since working on the montage sequence for the movie, it doesn't seem like Hurst has written or directed any other project. That said, he has returned to shorts as an actor, starring in the short film "Midnight Rider," in which he delivers a lengthy monologue.
Ryan Hurst and co-star Wood Harris have remained in touch since Remember the Titans
Just as Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell formed a friendship while playing for the Titans together, Ryan Hurst and co-star Wood Harris (who portrays Campbell in the movie) also bonded on the set of the Disney movie. The men became fast friends the moment they met, which helped them portray their characters' on-screen relationship more convincingly. "There was a soul contract that was made between the two of us while we were shooting that movie," Hurst said in his GQ interview.
Meanwhile, since filming "Remember the Titans," Hurst and Harris have yet to work on another film or any other project together. That said, the two actors have remained in touch over the years despite their busy schedules, catching up on social media just like everyone else. "There's nobody on this planet that I hold closer to my heart than Wood Harris," Hurst added. The men also got together to do the interview with GQ in honor of the movie's 20th anniversary.
His breakout moment came when he got cast as Opie in Sons of Anarchy
Soon after "Remember the Titans," Ryan Hurst landed more major Hollywood projects. For instance, he joined Mel Gibson in the action drama "We Were Soldiers." The actor also starred alongside Julie Bowen in the romantic comedy "Venus and Mars." Aside from these, Hurst took on more small screen gigs, especially after landing a part on the short-lived series "Wanted" and becoming a recurring guest star on "Medium."
Not long after that, the actor got cast in the FX series "Sons of Anarchy," which tells the story of a biker and his outlaw motorcycle club known as SAMCRO. On the show, Hurst portrayed Harry "Opie" Winston, the son of SAMCRO member Piermont "Piney" Winston (William Lucking), who becomes good friends with SAMCRO leader Jax Teller. Early on in the show, "Sons of Anarchy" creator Kurt Sutter planned to kill off Opie in the first season, but then FX became concerned that the show would suffer the same fate "The Shield" did after it killed off well-loved character Curtis Lemansky (Kenneth Johnson).
While speaking with What's Alan Watching? in 2008, Sutter also explained, "Ryan has that great vulnerability, and he was becoming a very sympathetic character that people were plugging into. The fear was if we offed that guy from the jump, it would be hard to recover from." Much to fans' delight, he also confirmed that they had already signed Hurst as a regular at the time.
The actor broke down after learning that the show was killing Opie off
Brutal deaths were common in the world of "Sons of Anarchy" throughout its seven-season run, but perhaps none of them was more heart-wrenching than seeing Ryan Hurst's Opie get beaten to death early on in Season 5. In the episode "Laying Pipe," Jax (Charlie Hunnam) reveals to the Sons that one of them has to die in prison as part of their deal with villain Damon Pope (Harold Perrineau). Before Jax can volunteer himself, Opie headbutts one of the prison guards, ensuring he'll make the ultimate sacrifice instead.
Show creator Kurt Sutter first revealed Opie's death to Hurst in a phone call, and the actor was so devastated, he initially tried to change Sutter's mind. "I couldn't stop crying," he told Entertainment Weekly. The tears also kept coming as Hurst and the rest of the cast did the table read for the episode later on. In the same interview, Hunnam recalled that the show's stars cried for 45 minutes and were unable to go back to work after learning of Opie's fate. Meanwhile, Hurst's last day on set was made extra special with the presence of all his SAMCRO brothers off-screen. As the actor shot his execution scene, he got to look at each one of them one more time. Later on, Hunnam and co-star Mark Boone Junior. also helped Hurst move on from his character by ceremoniously removing his Opie beard with a samurai sword.
Ryan Hurst kept pursuing other major TV roles
The moment Ryan Hurst departed "Sons of Anarchy," he was determined to keep going. He also wanted to play someone very different from Opie and thought TNT's "King & Maxwell" would allow him to do just that. On the show, Hurst was cast as Edgar Roy, a man with high-functioning autism who helps King (Jon Tenney) and Maxwell (Rebecca Romijn) with their cases. Hurst originally planned to take a break after "Sons of Anarchy," but as he told Collider, "As things worked out, this was just one of those roles." The actor was also excited to be working with TNT again.
Unfortunately, "King & Maxwell" would only last for a single season. Just a couple of years after that, Hurst went on to join the cast of A&E's horror drama "Bates Motel," playing ex-con Chick Hogan. At first, the actor was reluctant to take on the role because it seemed quite similar to others he had played in the past. After a conversation with co-showrunner Kerry Ehrin, however, Hurst became inspired to make Chick his own. Ultimately, the actor decided to model his portrayal of the character on former "Sons of Anarchy" co-star Mark Boone Junior. Around the same time, Hurst also starred in the crime drama "Outsiders," playing the big mountain man Li'l Foster Farrell. The actor also landed a recurring role on the crime drama "Bosch" as private investigator Hector Bonner.
He eventually landed a role on The Walking Dead
With Ryan Hurst's television career in full swing, the actor wanted to keep challenging himself. Just like he did before he got cast in "Remember the Titans," Hurst had a premonition that he was supposed to be part of the "The Walking Dead" universe. And so, he asked his agent and manager to make a call. And while they explained to him that the show typically required talents to audition, the actor couldn't be dissuaded, insisting they contact "The Walking Dead" producers anyway.
Months went by before Hurst eventually got the news he'd been waiting for: "[M]y agent calls me back and says, 'You're never gonna believe this, but they want to offer you a role on 'The Walking Dead.' And I said, 'You see?'" the actor told Business Insider. That's how Hurst ended up joining the Whisperers, a group of humans who disguised themselves as zombies. On the show, Hurst got cast as Beta, the Whisperer who eventually becomes the group's leader following Alpha's (Samantha Morton) death. The actor remained on the show until Season 10 when Beta met his end after getting fatally stabbed by Daryl (Norman Reedus). And while Hurst didn't mind getting killed off eventually, he certainly would have liked to spend more time on set with Reedus and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who played Negan. "Anytime that Norman and Jeffrey are on-screen together, I love watching that dynamic," Hurst remarked in another Business Insider interview.
Ryan Hurst also became a yoga teacher
Aside from continuing to pursue acting years after "Remember the Titans," Ryan Hurst has also been pursuing another passion: yoga. As it turns out, the actor had been into yoga for years, practicing several forms of it — Ashtanga yoga, Iyengar yoga, Hatha, and hot yoga — before eventually making his way to Kundalini yoga, which is essentially where it all started. "Kundalini is the mother of all yogas. It's the oldest form of yoga. It gave birth to every other modality of yoga. ... It's the fastest way to enlightenment, as they say," he explained during one of his interviews with Business Insider.
Hurst discovered Kundalini yoga after celebrity pal Russell Brand introduced him to Tej of Nine Treasures Yoga. Since then, the actor has been practicing Kundalini religiously (he told Los Angeles Magazine that he attends yoga sessions four times a week), even becoming a yoga teacher himself. Even when he's attending comic conventions, Hurst hosts Sunday morning yoga sessions.
Since then, he's also had a Sons of Anarchy reunion on S.W.A.T.
As Ryan Hurst was wrapping up his time on "The Walking Dead," the actor also started a recurring guest stint on the CBS series "S.W.A.T." For Hurst, the gig couldn't have been more perfect, giving him the opportunity to reunite with former "Sons of Anarchy" co-star Kenny Johnson. The two stars also previously reunited on "Bates Motel" (coincidentally, Johnson also played Lem on "The Shield," the very same character whose TV death convinced "Sons of Anarchy" showrunners that Hurst's Opie shouldn't get killed off right away). "Blessed to be working on our 3 rd series together. What ?? SOA. Bates Motel. Now SWAT. So excited," Johnson also wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter), which came with a photo of the two co-stars on set.
Interestingly, Hurst joined "S.W.A.T." as Terry Luca, the brother of Johnson's Dominique Luca. So far, the actor has only appeared four more times on the show since making his debut in Season 3. Considering that Terry and Dominique had some serious family issues to deal with the last time Terry was around, though, it seems like Hurst will be making his way back to the show soon enough. "S.W.A.T." has already been renewed for a seventh and final season.