In the first season of Friday Night Lights, Jesse Plemons was relegated to second fiddle as lovable Landry Clarke, the comic sidekick to star quarterback Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford). Now into its second season, the Friday Night Lights class clown has been promoted to meatier storylines. Landry finally got to be with the girl of his dreams, Tyra (Adrianne Palicki), though it comes at the price of having helped cover up his killing of her attempted rapist. Landry has also joined the football team and we’re seeing more of his family life, with a local cop father played by 24 favorite Glenn Morshower.
BuddyTV spoke to Plemons about all these new and exciting stories for season 2 of Friday Night Lights. Plemons spoke about upcoming episodes, interacting with the cast, and working with Morshower, who more closely resembles Plemons’ father than his real life dad. Below you will fin a transcript as well as the mp3 audio fie of the interview.
Hi this is John from BuddyTV and I’m talking to Jesse Plemons, one of the stars of Friday Night Lights. Hello Jesse.
Hey how are you doing John?
I’m doing good, how are you?
Doing good.
Okay. Now let’s just jump right into this, with the second season of Friday Night Lights. What is it like playing the town stud all of a sudden?
Town stud? I didn’t realize I was playing a town stud, but if you think so. Yea, it’s definitely a little different from last season. I don’t know, this season is just so completely different. There’s just so much going on with the huge accidental murder in the first episode, and just the repercussions from that. It’s just really really intense and just great as an actor to get to do something like that.
Got it. So do you ever miss just being…because last season you were more the comic relief. Just adding in a little pepper here and there.
Right. I had a blast last season. That’s pretty much the only way I can explain that. It was just fun. I got to come in, work a few days out of the week, and just have some really ridiculous lines and just go. And then this season, is kind of the exact opposite. I have a really really intense storyline and it’s definitely taking a lot out of me. But it’s something I’ve really really invested a lot into and it’s something I’m really passionate about. It’s an honor to be able to do something like this as an actor and really stretch yourself and continue to do things that kind of scare you, that you haven’t done before. So, last season was great but I’m definitely happy with the material I’ve been given this year.
In addition to all of that, the murder and Tyra, Landry also joined the football team this season.
That’s right. Yeah, and that’s a lot of fun. I played football growing up so I was really happy to hear that.
So were you kind of disappointed last season? Were you begging the producers to let you get in on that?
Not really. It kind of started out as a joke. I’d be in the stands and then in-between takes I’d try to run down on the field and play catch. Then I’d be playing catch and someone said I had a good arm and joked about Landry coming on to the field and taking Matts position or something. And I talked to Jason a bit about my dad and him being an ex-Panther. I don’t know, last year I definitely never would have really thought it’d work, but I definitely think it’s not too far fetched in a town like this that kid will attempt too get on the football team. You pretty much have the kids that play football, and the ones that don’t. Even though Landry was so against it, he kind of had his own thing he was doing with Crucifictorious, it’s still something that I think just kind of watching Matt go through. It kind of was interesting to him. It’s been a lot of fun to get to throw on pads and stuff.
So does that mean we’ve seen the end of Crucifictorious?
I hope not man. I hope not.
So do we.
I hope we get to come back, yeah. That was the most fun I’ve had in an episode so far. It was great. And I really got to play the guitar to, so it was a blast.
As if there already isn’t enough for your character in this second season, the second season seems to be very Landry heavy. Your father, as you mention played by Glenn Morshower joining the cast. Were you a fan of him before he joined up?
I had only seen some of his stuff on 24, but he’s a great actor. And it’s kind of weird how much we actually look alike. He probably looks more like me than my real dad does. It’s kinda freaky. But yeah I was very happy to see that they picked him. He’s been working forever and that guy has a million credits. He’s from Texas as well, so I think it was definitely a good choice.
Now, other than Aimee Teegarden you’re the youngest of the actors on the set. Most of them are in their 20s, you’re just 19. Is there a difference there in just the way that they interact with you because you’re younger than them?
Not at all. Most of them, even though they’re 20-something, they act like my age. We all go hang out. I mean, I could be hanging out with Scott or Annie and even Connie will come hang out. We’re all just really good friends. It doesn’t seem like there’s too much of an age gap between us all.
And then, with even like someone like Connie Britton coming out then, is there even an age different then between the adults? Kyle Chandler? Brad Leland?
Not really. And it’s kind of weird that there isn’t. But, I don’t know. I’ve always kind of spent a lot of time with older people anyways. I think with the industry it’s not weird to hang out with people of all different ages. But yeah, that never really crosses our minds, I think.
With the first season most of your scenes were with Zach Gilford, and now most of them seem to be with Adrianne Palicki. Are there any of the actors who you’ve worked with a little bit, but you want to work with more? Who you really enjoy, but your character doesn’t seem to really get in with them?
I think if you ask anyone on the show they’re going to say either Kyle or Connie they want to work with. Those two are so much fun to watch, and just every week they just amaze me at how good they are. This season I’ve been lucky enough to have a few scenes with Kyle and I would love to do some more with him, and obviously Connie. I tell you what, this season hasn’t been as much me and Zach. And Zach is a really really good actor and we just always have a lot of fun. So, it’d be cool to get to do some more with him this season.
Is there anything else you can tell us about what’s coming up for Landry? How he’s going to deal with the new relationship with Tyra?
Well, I think what’s so weird about all this is that the worst thing in his life and the best thing in his life are happening at the same time; and he can’t tell anyone about either one. It’s so bittersweet what’s going on. It’s coming out of how much he cares about her but at the same time, they can’t really allow themselves to be happy because they’ve got all this other stuff. This murder is just eating away at him. So, you’re going to see a lot more of us just dealing with this. Figuring out how to handle it. And then episode 9, everything with that kind of get resolved. So episode 9 will be a pretty good episode.
That’s definitely one we’ll be looking forward to here at BuddyTV. We are huge Friday Night Light fans here.
Cool.
Thank you very much for talking to us Jesse.
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
-Interview conducted by John Kubicek
(Image courtesy of NBC)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
