A good sports team movie always needs an extensive cast to fill out all the roles, but that’s especially true for good football movies, which have several different positions to fill with strong actors, both on and off the field. Remember the Titans however, was sold on the star power of the head coach, so the team itself was made up of mostly unknowns at the time of its release in 2000.
But a lot can change in the span of 23 years, and many of those previously unknown actors are as far from unknown as you can get today. So what happened to the cast of Remember The Titans? Let’s take a look back at one of the most inspirational football teams in movie history and see where the individual members of the fantastic ensemble wound up.
Denzel Washington (Herman Boone)
Denzel Washington was the only real movie star when Remember the Titans hit screens in 2000. He’d already won his first Academy Award for 1992’s Glory, and he’d been nominated for another the year before for his lead role in another sports film: The Hurricane. The actor is certainly one of the best out there.
Following his role as Titans coach Herman Boone, Washington would go on to win the Best Actor Academy Award in 2001 for his performance in Training Day. He reunited with director Antoine Fuqua for the remake of The Magnificent Seven, which was released in 2016.
Since then, he’s appeared in big films such as Fences, the Equalizer films, The Tragedy of Macbeth as an Apple TV+ original movie, The Little Things and more. He also worked as a producer on Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and A Journal for Jordan.
Coming up, Washington is set to have a role in the upcoming Gladiator sequel, as well as the next Equalizer film.
Ryan Hurst (Gerry Bertier)
Fans will remember Ryan Hurst for portraying linebacker and team captain Gerry Bertier in Remember The Titans - a character tragically paralyzed in the film. In the years since the film’s release, Hurst took on a number of big screen roles (including films like We Were Soldiers and The Ladykillers, but today the actor is probably best known as Opie Winston from the FX drama series Sons of Anarchy.
Hurst went on to do some amazing things after his major role in the FX series. He starred as Beta for two seasons in the hit show, The Walking Dead, becoming a huge villain in the series. Besides that, he also had big roles in television series’ such as The Outsiders, Bates Motel, Paradise City, and The Mysterious Benedict Society. He also voiced Thor in God of War: Ragnarok, a gaming franchise that is going to be adapted into a television series. Soon, he’ll be returning to the big screen with a movie called Desperation Road.
Hayden Panettiere (Sheryl Yoast)
Hayden Panettiere started acting in soap operas at the age of five years old, playing Sarah Victoria 'Flash' Roberts on One Life To Live and Lizzie Spaulding on Guiding Light. However, she moved to the big screen to play Will Patton’s daughter, Sheryl, in Remember the Titans, and it wound up being huge exposure for the young actress. Years later, Panettiere got noticed playing "The Cheerleader" Claire Bennet in the original run of the series Heroes.
Panettiere has mainly stuck to the small screen in her years, appearing in a major role in the television show, Nashville. However, she had a role in the film, Custody, and was also in Scream IV, Scream as a voice cameo and its sequel, Scream VI. She also appeared in the horror video game, Until Dawn.
Will Patton (Bill Yoast)
While Will Patton is usually not called a movie star, he’s one of the more familiar faces in movies today thanks to dozens of memorable character roles. Whether you remember him as General Bethlehem in the Kevin Costner bomb, The Postman, as Bruce Willis’ sidekick Chick in Michael Bay’s asteroid movie Armageddon, or as Atley Jackson in Nicolas Cage’s remake of Gone in 60 Seconds you probably saw him someplace of note prior to seeing him as Titans assistant coach Bill Yoast.
Since the release of Remember The Titans, Patton has, like many actors, been spending a lot of time on television, including on TNT’s alien invasion series Falling Skies for five seasons until its end in 2015. Since then, he’s had roles in shows such as Yellowstone, Swamp Thing, Outer Range, Silo, Shots Fired and more.
Patton also appeared in the newest trilogy of Halloween movies, and had roles in films such as Boarding School, Minari alongside Steven Yeun, and more. Soon, he’ll be appearing in the next western epic, Horizon.
Wood Harris (Julius Campbell)
In Remember The Titans, Wood Harris played DE Julius Campbell, one of the African American students who had the hardest time dealing with the desegregated high school.
In the time since the film was released, Harris has continued to act. He could be found in the Marvel Cinematic Universe playing Officer Gale, one of the detectives chasing down Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang in Ant-Man in 2015. He also took up a role in the Rocky franchise, featured in Creed as Tony "Little Duke" Burton, the boxing trainer of Apollo’s Delphi Gym.
Harris would continue to reprise this role in both Creed II and Creed III. Besides these roles, he also appeared in Blade Runner 2049, Space Jam: A New Legacy, and 9/11, among others. He was also a part of the Empire cast during Seasons 5 and 6, and has appeared in several other shows including, but not limited to, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, The Last O.G., Bronzeville, and The New Edition Story.
Donald Faison (Petey Jones)
Donald Faison was not exactly an unknown quantity going into his role as Petey Jones in Remember the Titans, as audiences were already familiar with him from his role in Clueless - which he also reprised for three seasons on TV. Since the football film was released, however, it’s much more likely that you got used to seeing him in what would be his next big role, spending nearly a decade playing Dr. Christopher Turk on the medical comedy series Scrubs.
Besides his part in Scrubs, Faison has been in many other television roles, including Emergence, The Exes, The L Word: Generation Q, Clone High and more. He also has appeared in the films The Perfect Match, The Wave, and Embattled. Faison is going to be in two new movies – Home Delivery and Extended Family.
Ethan Suplee (Louie Lastik)
In Remember the Titans, Ethan Suplee played the team’s Left Tackle, Louie Lastik, and thanks to his loveable charm, provided the movie with some of its most memorable moments. Prior to the movie, the actor had already crafted a solid career for himself, appearing in movies like Mallrats and TV shows like Boy Meets World, and his career has stayed strong since. He’s also well known for playing Randy Hickey, the younger brother of Jason Kee’s Lotto winner character Earl Hickey on the underrated series My Name is Earl.
He’s appeared in movies such as Deepwater Horizon, Motherless Brooklyn, The Hunt, Dog, and 2022’s Babylon. He’s also appeared in television series’ such as The Ranch, Good Girls, Chance and Santa Clarita Diet. Coming up, he’ll be in a few new movies called Manodrome and God is a Bullet.
Kate Bosworth (Emma Hoyt)
Emma Hoyt was the young girlfriend of team captain Gerry Bertier in Remember The Titans, and while you may not remember it, she was played by a young Kate Bosworth in the movie. It was one of her first film roles, and obviously wouldn’t be her last.
She went on to take the lead role in surf feature Blue Crush, and she notably played Lois Lane in director Bryan Singer’s attempted reboot Superman Returns. Besides that, she’s appeared in movies such as Barbarian, The Immaculate Room, Along for the Ride, The Domestics, The Enforcer, The Last Sentinel and more. Coming up, she is going to be in three new films called Confidential Informant, Bunker, and Carrier.
Kip Pardue (Ronnie “Sunshine” Bass)
"Sunshine" Ronnie Bass was the quarterback who gets thrown into the game before he’s ready but makes it work anyway in Remember The Titans, and it was one of the earliest roles played by actor Kip Pardue. Since then, he’s stacked up many more titles on his resume including recurring spots on shows like ER, Ray Donovan and Mad Men.
Pardue has since appeared in movies such as American Fable and several other smaller independent movies. Pardue has stuck to the small screen mainly, appearing in shows such as Runaways in a major role, as well as some guest appearances in series’ such as Hawaii Five-0 and Once Upon a Time.
Ryan Gosling (Alan Bosley)
Who knew that one of the biggest stars coming out of Remember The Titans was going to the wiry little cornerback Alan Bosley? Buried among all these giant football players was a guy named Ryan Gosling, who started his career as a Mouseketeer and would go on to become one of the biggest movie stars/heartthrobs in Hollywood. Six years after the football film he received his first Oscar nomination playing a drug-addicted high school teacher in Half Nelson.
Some of his biggest films since then have been The Big Short, La La Land (which garnered him an Oscar nomination), The Nice Guys, The Gray Man, First Man, Song to Song and Blade Runner 2049. In 2023, he is set to appear in Barbie as Ken, and later on will have a starring role in The Fall Guy.
Burgess Jenkins (Ray Budds)
The role of Tight End Ray Budds in Remember The Titans was only the second acting job for young actor Burgess Jenkins, the part following a one off role as "Brad" on a 2000 episode of Dawson’s Creek. He had a recurring role on the series Army Wives, but has found a home in the soap opera world. He was a regular on The Young and the Restless for a couple of years.
Besides that popular soap opera, Jenkins has appeared in movies such as Noelle, The Reason, The Girl Who Believes in Miracles, and Our Time, as well as some other smaller films. Talk about a packed resume.
Nicole Ari Parker (Carol Boone)
Nicole Ari Parker had several credits in her career prior to playing the wife of Denzel Washington’s coach Boone in Remember The Titans, and while she has had roles in multiple features since, most of her work has been found on the small screen.
She’s had a number of recurring roles on television in recent years including shows like the sci-fi show Revolution, the crime drama Murder in the First andFox’s series Rosewood, where she plays Kat Crawford.
Since then, Parker has appeared in multiple other television shows including Empire, Chicago P.D., I’m Dying Up Here, And Just Like That… on Max, which is in its second season, and more. She also has appeared in the films Almost Christmas, How It Ends, and the TV film Downsized. Coming up, she is set to appear in the film HeadShop.
Talk about a stacked cast. There’s truly no stopping the Remember The Titans cast and I can’t wait to see what they do next.
