When Casey Metcalfe, a 27-year-old actor who lives in Burlington, auditioned for a role in Champions, he needed a basketball. The movie, which stars Woody Harrelson, is about a basketball team whose players have developmental disabilities. Metcalfe, who has autism, auditioned for the movie from his family’s home in West Brattleboro; his mother, Prudence Baird, filmed him on her iPhone. The Metcalfes don’t have a basketball, but they do have hens. So Metcalfe picked up a basketball-size hen named Cackle, rotund and orange, and cradled the bird under his arm for the audition. “It was my mom and myself,” Metcalfe said of the audition. “It was a really fun thing that we did. Cool and fun.” From that first audition in September 2021, he advanced to several more rounds — all remote from West Brattleboro — and got a part in the movie. A month later, accompanied by his mother, Metcalfe was shooting Champions in Winnipeg, Manitoba. “It happened that fast,” Baird said. Champions opens nationwide on Friday, March 10. It’s the solo directorial debut of Bobby Farrelly — known, with his brother Peter Farrelly, for films such as There’s Something About Mary; Me, Myself & Irene; and Shallow Hal, featuring Burlington’s Rene Kirby. The movie is an endearing and heartfelt comedy in which camaraderie and kindness triumph over dunks and layups. Metcalfe, part of an ensemble cast, is a helmet-wearing player on the team. He riffs with the coach, played by Harrelson, about the coach’s unorthodox description of the pick-and-roll and handles his own injury by popping his dislocated finger back into place. (Shooting this latter scene kept cracking Harrelson up, according to Baird.) Without giving too much away, we can say that even the hardened coach softens up and comes to a new understanding of the word “champion.” Metcalfe and his family attended the premiere of Champions earlier this week in New York City. The trip included a $200 haircut and beard trim by a stylist named Frederico, of whom Metcalfe does an outstanding Italian accent-flecked impression. Metcalfe rocked a fresh look for the premiere, from his new ’do to the soles of his yellow Air Jordans. In addition to watching two screenings of the movie in NYC, Metcalfe posed for photos with Harrelson and joined his castmates to tape a segment for the “Today” show. Viewing the movie, Metcalfe said, “I was laughing a…