Kyle Chandler may be best known for his starring turn on Friday Night Lights as Texas high-school football Coach Eric Taylor—a role for which he won an Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Emmy award in 2011. Nonetheless, in the years since that beloved show finished its run, the 51-year-old actor has continued to carve out an impressive resume both on TV (with his current Netflix series Bloodline) and in film, courtesy of a string of memorable supporting turns in the Oscar-nominated dramas Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, The Wolf of Wall Street and Carol.
He's again taking part in an acclaimed award-season favourite this year as Joe Chandler, a Massachusetts father whose death is the catalyst for the drama of Kenneth Lonergan's heartbreaking Manchester by the Sea. While filming the final few episodes of Bloodline, Chandler spoke with Esquire.com about working with Lonergan and Casey Affleck, nailing a Boston accent, and his fervent desire to do more comedy.
ESQ: Congratulations on Manchester by the Sea—and also on doing such a fine job with a New England accent. Was tackling it a daunting process?
Kyle Chandler: I'll give you a three-letter answer: Yes. [Laughs] When I read the script, I loved everything about it. But in the back of my mind, through the entire process, I thought, [Whispers] "There's an accent. There's an accent. There's an accent." So yeah, it bothered me quite a bit. I won't say it didn't keep me up a few nights.
But the truth of the matter is, in the long run, we had a great, great dialogue coach. She was spectacular. I've never worked with anyone that specifically, and that in-depth. And Kenny [Lonergan] made sure that everyone had what they needed. That was one of my first requests, if I'm not mistaken—that I needed a dialect coach up there. I think she'd worked with Casey [Affleck] before, and probably Kenny; she's worked with the best in the business. She made it a lot of fun—she knew exactly what she was doing, she was very professional, and she really helped out a lot and made it very easy and comforting. But it did take a lot of work, I have to admit that.
Well, as a New England resident, I can tell you it worked.
Let's see how honest you are. Tell me the one word that I said that I never got right.
On the spot, I honestly can't remember any.
"Furniture." She never said I got that right, because I never did. It was the one word I could never figure out how to say. "Furniture."
Nonetheless, it was a great show. Kenny Lonergan is fantastic at what he does. He's a true gentleman, and he's obviously just so good at what he does. I don't know how he does it, and I don't know how writers in general do it, and what all their different processes are. But knowing him—he's such a quiet person, and he's so knowledgeable. He really has a take on the human psyche and heart, and he finds really great words for these people to say. It's just a wonderful script. For it to have turned out the way it did, I'm really, really, really happy for him, and for Casey and everyone else involved.
How did you initially get involved with the film? Did you seek it out, or did it come to you?
I was up in New York, and my manager, Cynthia Pett, called me. And also probably my agent at Gersh, Leslie Siebert—because they always call together. It's always like Christmas when they call. They said they were going to send me a script, and because Kenny is in New York, they just delivered a script. I haven't received a paper script in so long—because I live in Texas, everything's email. So I actually had paper!
I sat in my hotel room and read it, and it was very moving. And I read it again, and it was just as moving, if not more so. I called them back and said I'd love to meet with this guy, and I met Kenny the next day. I don't know if we initially reached out to him or he reached out to me, but it wasn't my doing. Still, however it worked out, I'm really, really fortunate that it turned out the way it did.
I love the movie, and I love the way it's done. I love the pace of it, and I love what's said when no one's talking. I love the music. I love everything about it. I just think he did such a great, specific job, and I think it's one of the better movies that I've ever been in. It's a great film, that's how I feel about it.
I've read, in prior interviews, about how important family is to you in real life. And following Friday Night Lights and Bloodline, Manchester is another drama that's very much about familial bonds, and how families stay together and split apart. Was that subject matter a prime reason for wanting to do the film?
Yeah. Actually, my real family life is even more important than my film family life. [Laughs] I know that sounds odd, but it's true.
It's about dynamics between people. People are so unpredictable. You can never understand what their motives are, even when they're explaining what their motives are. There's just so much out of every single person that you meet, every single day, that you don't know about, and which makes them who they really are. People are the best things to act with in the world. And when you get a writer like Kenny, who knows about people, you can create these paths for each one, and then they devolve in front of you, and you get to see what they're made of. You can't ask for anything more. You read [Manchester] and you're compelled—I mean, at least I am.
I love car explosions and races and all that stuff, too. But instead of driving a race car on screen, I'd rather have a complex conversation with someone. And here, he's asking me to play a character who knows he's going to die. Who knows he doesn't have much time left, and he's got to sort out his life with his brother and his son. A lot of what my character goes through happens off-screen, but I still get to fill that in as an actor. I still have this really rich character, that when I step in front of the camera, I've got all that to bring with me. Then, when the camera rolls, you're just having so much fun. It's just so enjoyable playing those things, it just makes you warm all over.
Your character hovers over the action, since his death is the catalyst for the film's action. How do you prepare for a part like that—and, as you implied, did you create a larger backstory for Joe?
Most definitely. The deeper the backstory that you create for a character, the more options you can look for when you're on stage. Usually when you're on stage or location, you have a preconceived idea of what's going to happen. And then when you get to the stage or the set, you can pretty damn well be sure that 99 percent of what you preconceived would happen, won't be true. And you can also be pretty sure that 90 percent of the things you never expected to occur will be happening. Whether it's a train in the background, whether it's that a house is literally burning down on the street, and there are sirens. Or whether the actor or actress that you're working with is sick, or their hair is falling out—or who the hell knows?
So if you've got that past built up, you've got things to draw on. And also, you can just get rid of all that [backstory], because you have it, and you can take just a tiny piece of it. Or, you try to figure out what's just happened to the character moments before you come to this scene, and you can insert something new. Like, he just ran into his ex-wife, who said he's a son of a bitch, and now he's pissed off walking into this scene. No one has to know that's what you just put into your head, but it brings something new to the scene, and it brings something new to what you're doing. And it also brings something new to what the person across from you is doing. It just makes it fun.
Were there any such unexpected moments on Manchester?
You know, it's been a long time since we shot that. But whether they were physical or psychological, I'm positive that every day something came up, or there was something where you just came up with the silliest idea. It can be anything—like I'm going to walk in the door laughing this time. It just changes things. I guess those are tricks to help keep it fresh. And especially with a role like Joe, because he's not on screen really that much, they help.
This thing I'm doing now, Bloodline, it's a little more difficult, because you know so much about this character. You take him from scene to scene. So it's very hard to find things to change up. Like, it's hard to find comedy to do in Bloodline. I love comedy—I'd love to try to make things funny. It's damn near impossible! But I can go in and, if a scene is about one thing, I can pretend we're talking about something else, just to change it up. Try to find some new angles on it.
It's a lot of fun, and I love what I do. And it's all just a play.
One of the things that personally affected me about Manchester is that my father died when I was 19. And I know your father also passed away when you were young. Were you attracted to the film because it afforded you the opportunity to explore that sort of dynamic—albeit with you as the father who dies while his son is still a teen? Or, conversely, did that give you greater hesitation about tackling the part?
Well, if anything, it was absolutely not hesitation. I don't know if I even considered that, specifically, other than it just being part of who I am, and seeing that kid [played by newcomer Lucas Hedges] as myself when I was a kid. You were 19, and I was 14 when my pop passed away. I don't know if you ever got it, but I would have loved to have been able to have my dad put his arm around me and say, "Hey, you're a man now, let's go have a beer together." I never got that. So in the film, that kid—and me with him, as my son—obviously those things were there. The things that I'd be able to do with him, and the things that I'd never be able to do with him. That's some pretty sad stuff. But yeah, those are wonderful things to play.
And, I imagine, useful things to draw on, in those circumstances.
Oh yeah, definitely. Look, Friday Night Lights was the first time I'd ever done anything where I was married and had kids, and I just happened to be married and have kids. I mean, that stuff worked perfectly! [Laughs] Connie [Britton] and I knew exactly how to play it. And she loves comedy, and I love comedy, and we would try to find all the comedy that we could in that show. Then when it came to the kids, you know, I love the W.C. Fields type, so I'd try to follow that. And, of course, all the football players—they were all the age I was when my dad died. So that all just worked out in that way. I took a lot of joy out of all of that.
Now you're on Bloodline, which as you said is not necessarily what you'd consider a funny show…
No. [Laughs] Some people might, but not me.
I'm not sure I want to hang out with the people who find Bloodline really funny.
I think most of them are in jail.
I know the show has been renewed for a third season, and is then going to end. From a creative standpoint, is it helpful to know that the show is coming to a close, so you can figure out how to properly wrap it up? Friday Night Lights, for example, ended really well.
I'm not a writer, producer, director, creator, studio, or any of that stuff. But speaking as an actor, absolutely. I loved the fact that Friday Night Lights ended where it did, because it did end strong, and people might have wanted more of it. I think, and I hope, that this show will do the same thing. I hope, later on, people say, "Wow, why didn't they make more of these? What happens next?" And it just never leaves them. I like that idea a lot. I've spoken to Todd Kessler, who's leading the writing this third season, and I think he feels there's certainly a difference to knowing that you're ending it, so you get to sew things up. Creatively, as a writer, there must be a tremendous amount of benefits; I don't know what the negatives would be.
This has been a show that's been so great, because just like everything I've worked on lately, all of the people are just so talented and so collaborative. People really wanting opinions and wanting to share ideas and experiment in front of the cameras. It's so dynamic. It's been a great ride.
I don't know how my character ends up at the end of the year. I've made suggestions, but we've got six more episodes to go—we're almost done with four—and I'm having a really great time. It's been fantastic.
Since Friday Night Lights, you've had a number of smaller parts in great films. With Bloodline ending, do you see yourself segueing further into movies, or do you feel like TV somehow suits you better?
It's funny, because [Bloodline co-star] Sissy Spacek and I were talking about this in the van the other day: "What is it about projects that make you interested in them, be they TV, film, or theater?" We both boiled it down to: the most important thing is the story. Regardless of whether it's a play, a film, or a television program, it's the story that you're going to be involved in telling. I don't reach out too much, or try to create my own material. That's not what I do. I have a manager and an agent who I've been with for over 20 years now, and they work together so well. They're diametrically opposed in personalities, and together they're the greatest team that I could ever imagine, and the greatest friends, too. They bring things to me, and we try to figure out what we're going to do. And over the years, little by little, the things have gotten a little bit better, a little bit more important.
I've learned a little bit over the years, and I keep learning more. I've never been offered the lead in a feature film, and I don't know if that's ever going to happen. But I've gotten the lead in these television programs, and I love carrying them. I like doing it a lot. It's a great, great challenge.
I would love to take a shot at comedy, if not dark comedy. Pete Berg [who], one of his first projects was Very Bad Things. And I remember seeing that as a kid and thinking it was fantastic. I loved every bit of it. I keep telling him, "Pete, dark comedy, dark comedy!" I'm telling everyone. I haven't done any comedy in a long time, and I'd really love to go after that. But we'll see what happens next.
Well, I hope you get the chance soon.
I do too. Just watch, I'll probably be a serial killer again next. [Laughs]
