Walter Panas Student Shows His Moves at Burns Center Screening of Win-Win

The audience who screened the new Paul Giamatti film, Win Win, at the Thursday was treated to a Q&A with David Thompson, the 16-year-old Cortlandt Manor student old who plays a supporting role in this dramatic comedy about a troubled teen, a financially strapped lawyer and the wrestling team he coaches.

Moderator and Burns’ Senior Programmer Christopher Funderburg commended the Walter Panas High School junior on the manner in which he more than held his own among veteran actors such as Giamatti, Jeffrey Tambor and Amy Ryan.

Thompson downplayed the accolades with the deadpan that he so perfectly displayed in the film.

“Everyone knows that I'm a dork in high school so it wasn’t such a stretch for me,” he said in alluding to his lanky frame and lack of prowess as a wrestler at Panas.

He also cited the advantage his suburban, public school background gave him in playing the smart-alec kid among peers.

“A lot of child actors go to private school so going to Panas helped me bring reality to the role,” he said.

Thompson's place as a theater kid also probably helped bring a dose of reality to “Stemler.” He was picked on a bit, he said, but the success of Win Win is giving them pause.

“Oh wait, he’s the cool guy,” is now the norm towards his creative side, he revealed.

Otherwise, Thompson’s been a student at the Burns Media Lab Center, a product of local theatre and landed the role after an audition at Eastchester High School in 2009.

“There was silence for three months and all of sudden I got a call back,” he said. 

Two days later, the part was his.

Thompson brought it out best when Stemler finally resigns himself to wrestling in an actual match. Too afraid of the hand-to-hand, mano-a-mano, he’s convinced to get out there alone by his teammate Kyle (the teen lead played by Alex Shaffer).

When Giamatti and Tambor confer on his futile chances, he drops in a perfectly timed and inflected “I can hear you.”

He tops the scene off in a reflexive moment that definitely wasn’t out of bounds for anyone who wrestled in high school. Abruptly confronted by the full face protective mask of his opponent, Stemler does what many an inexperienced wrestler would have liked to have done in such a moment. He executes a 180 back to the bench and starts stripping his singlet off before a packed auditorium.

Deaf to his coaches, Kyle gets him back on the mat. In the end, Stemler literally runs his opponent in circles and leads his team to victory—by not getting pinned.

“I’m the same caliber wrestler as Stemler,” he joked.

Though all this, Thompson did have some latitude with Giamatti and director to diverge from the script.

“Tom [McCarthy] would let us read and improvise on scenes until we all agreed,” he said.

Thompson was also set at ease by the entire crew’s warmth.

“They were very kind to me, which helped me drop into the role and stop worrying about the script,” he said.

Now he’s got to see himself more on the inside for the next time, as he’s already starting to enjoy the perks of a little fame.

“Yeah, some guy recognized me in the pizza parlor the other day, he said with a touch of sarcasm.

That aside, Thompson hopes to keep acting, but will continue to take classes at Burns so he can be as proficient behind the camera as he is in front of it.

“That way I can always work in the film industry,” he concluded.