The NFL was filmed in Australia: The locations in Victoria where Mr. Irrelevant was shot
Mr. Irrelevant
David Corenswet put on the Superman cape in 2025. For Christmas 2026, he puts on an NFL helmet. And between those two moments, he spent several months in Victoria, Australia, playing John Tuggle – the final pick of the 1983 NFL draft, the original Mr. Irrelevant, a New York Giant who became one of the most beloved players his team ever had.
Directed by Jonathan Levine (Long Shot, Snatched) and written by Nick Santora, the film tells the inspiring true story of Tuggle's journey from last pick to locker room hero under first-year head coach Bill Parcells.
Principal photography began in April 2025 in Victoria, Australia, with Melbourne and Geelong serving as key filming locations. The production created 825 jobs for Victorian screen workers – including 215 crew, 570 cast and extras, among them members of Melbourne's local gridiron community who suited up as footballers, referees and umpires – and injected around $29 million into the local economy.
Corenswet stars as Tuggle. Michael Shannon plays Bill Parcells. Isabel May plays Katie, a fictional love interest. David Krumholtz plays Julius "Whitey" Horai.
Kardinia Park Stadium in Geelong – the home of the Geelong Cats AFL club on the Barwon River – doubled as the NFL stadium for the film's gridiron sequences. Dressed with 1983-appropriate signage, crowd infrastructure and period detail, the ground was transformed into the Giants' home stadium. Members of Melbourne's local gridiron community – the state's own American football players and officials – provided the crowd and field population that a film about the NFL requires at scale.
It is a fitting location detail: Victoria is about to host the Los Angeles Rams in Australia's first-ever NFL regular season games at the MCG. As Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events Steve Dimopoulos noted at the time of the production announcement: "This production will shine a global spotlight on Victoria's thriving gridiron community ahead of the Los Angeles Rams' historic appearance in Australia's first-ever NFL regular season games at the MCG next year."
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La Trobe University Sports Park in Bundoora provided the NFL training ground environments – practice fields, drill sequences and the physical work of turning an unlikely draftee into a Giants player under Parcells' demanding first year as head coach.
On Tuesday May 13, 2025, filming took place at the Kerferd Road Pier in Albert Park and South Melbourne, from 10am to 8pm, according to official marine notices. The pier – a historic wooden jetty extending into Port Phillip Bay from the Albert Park foreshore – gave the production a waterfront environment for the 'date scene'.
Additional on-location shooting took place around the St Kilda area of Melbourne – the bayside suburb whose Esplanade, Luna Park and Victorian-era streetscapes give it a distinct character within the city. Melbourne served as the production's primary urban hub throughout the April to July 2025 shoot, its screen industry infrastructure and Screen Victoria's competitive incentive programmes providing the operational foundation for a Victorian production of this scale.
Mr. Irrelevant opens exclusively in theatres on December 25, 2026.
SOURCE
IMDb // VicScreen // Victorian Government // Reddit
CREDITS
© Paramount Pictures, Megamix, Screen Australia, Skydance Media
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