Kyle Chandler, who plays coach Eric Taylor on Friday Night Lights, talks to Brandon Voss at The Advocate about his “gay following” as well as some of the on-set locker room antics on the show.
On having a “gay following,” Chandler said, “I hadn’t thought about it, but I don’t see why I shouldn’t. I didn’t do anything to y’all! [Laughs] Actually, I told a friend of mine that I was doing this interview, and he said, ‘What gay people follow you?'”
Chandler also expressed some sadness at being a 40-something in a sea of 20-somethings: “Hell, yeah, it’s depressing! Bastards. Especially that Taylor Kitsch, showing himself off in all those damn muscle magazines and everything. Meanwhile, I’m counting my extra gray hairs every morning. But it’s neat to see those guys do well. I was there at one point, so I know where they are. They’ve got great years ahead of ’em…they’re usually smacking each other with towels, pulling the towels off of each other, bragging about their virtues here and there — you know how it is. And those shower scenes that are not on film sure have sparked some curiosity on the set.”
The coach looked forward to what may be an upcoming gay role: “I’ve got a good friend of mine, Butch Hammett, who’s working on a play, and he’s literally taken it around the world and done very well with it. And he’s got a role for me in it as the gay boss of a catering company — based on a boss that he had years ago. I told him I’m all with it. So that could be my first gay role, which is going to be a hell of a lot of fun.”
Kyle Chandler [the advocate]
