The playwright and actor didn’t want to miss the opportunity to act with an old friend and run around in the Los Angeles sunshine.
Before Tracy Letts consider on the theatrical role of Lakers maneuver coach Jack McKinney onWinning Time , HBO ’s glitzy saga of the “ Showtime ” Lakers of the ‘ eighty , he turned down a few parts that did n’t fit with his schedule or the demands of his COVID - era family life . Letts is marital to Carrie Coon , the whizz of HBO ’s other recent coastal menses piece about money and business leader , The Gilded Age , and they have two vernal child , which has streamline the way he gain determination about his act career . Pretty speedily , he knows what ’s manageable and what ’s not . Like McKinney , who arrived from Portland with a scheme for transforming the Lakers criminal offence , he has a system .
After watching theWinning Timepilot , which was shot prior to the cast of his part , Letts recognized the series could be something special . He knewJohn C. Reillyfrom his 24-hour interval doing theater in Chicago , and he had antecedently worked with producerAdam McKayonThe Big Short . He liked that the part ( mild Lakers mollycoddler ) would only last one time of year , with McKinney getting sidelined by a tragical bike stroke . “ I turned to Carrie and I said , ‘ I ’ve got ta do this , right ? ’ ” he recalls over the phone . “ She was like , ‘ Oh yeah , utterly . This is too skillful . ’ So I did it . ”
Letts , the playwright behind works likeKiller Joe , Bug , and the Pulitzer Prize - winningAugust : Osage County , is best known for his stage work and is currently asterisk in the Broadway product of his playThe Minutes , which premier in 2017 at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago . ( He win a Tony Award in 2013 forWho ’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? , a revitalisation he asterisk in alongside Coon . ) But he ’s chip at out a distinguishable lane onscreen as a case actor in recent years , play Saoirse Ronan ’s father inLady Bird , Henry Ford II inFord V. Ferrari , and , most latterly , a snooping secret writer in the titillating thrillerDeep Water . McKinney , an egghead managing ego on and off the court , is a natural fit for his special set of skill .
Tracy Letts in ‘Winning Time’|HBO
Letts consider that when he read the script . " I ’ve been in the business long enough to know I ’m not the first offering , so I ’m so grateful to whoever turn it down so it come my mode because it was such a great part , " he say . " [ The part is ] so important to this one season . " As McKinney makes his recovery and the show builds toward the finale , I address with Letts about the physical nature of the role , his memories of navigating LA as an actor , and whether he ’s ever thought about putting his own spin on the sports picture .
Thrillist : McKinney is a very cerebral character : He has this system that he wants to test out , and he wants to prove that his theory are right . At the same time , this is a very physical character . You ’re running , biking , and recuperate from an trauma . Was that mix part of what drew you to the role?Tracy Letts : That was just uncaused . The pandemic started and we went into our quarantine and , like most people , I was sit on the sofa every night and run through a pint of ice cream . Then we found out we were having another babe . I ’m an older pappa . I ’m 56 now . When we chance out we were having the sister , our 2d child , I was like , “ Jesus , I ’m this fertile blob on the sofa . I got ta get up and do something . ” So I started consort .
I had been running for a few month , and I had dropped some weightiness . I was n’t really focalize on dropping weight — I’m just trying to keep in some shape because we ’ve got these young kids . So I start running , and when they sent me the playscript and I saw that the bozo was a runner , I was like , “ I can do this ! I ’ve been doing this ! ” If they had called me six month earlier , I might have been like , “ Oh adult male , I do n’t bang if you want to see me function around out there . ” So I showed up , I put on the short underdrawers , and I was like , “ Let ’s do it . Let ’s run . ” It was fun to get out and run and do something physical .
HBO
I have to say , one of the great joy of doing this job is so often there is n’t any forcible element . Quite often , we ’re talking head in these things . But the Lakers show , given the nature of it , you ’re surrounded by a lot of strong-arm activity . Those days where we shot game scenes , I could sit around there and ascertain those guys have shoot - arounds all day . It was so great to follow and fun to be a part of .
The most recent sequence , " inconspicuous Man , " focuses on the Boston and LA contention . Do you have memories of the Bird - Magic metre period?Sure , I watched Bird vs. Magic in the NCAA finals . I remember that very well and their years of competition . I ’m not a Lakers rooter and I never was , but I always urge on for the Lakers over the Celtics because where I come from in Oklahoma we detest the Boston Celtics . So I would always recreate for Magic over Bird . Always .
I recollect those times very well . But I ’m a Bulls fan . I never fuck off too work up about the Lakers . I moved to Chicago when I was 20 years one-time , and a couple years by and by they drafted Michael Jordan . My Bulls fandom is solid .
HBO
I run to associate you with Chicago and Oklahoma , and New York to an extent . But this is such an LA show . As an actor and writer , what ’s your relationship to LA?I erotic love LA . I be active out there for four years . I ’d been endure in Chicago for about 11 years , and then in 1997 I moved out to Los Angeles for four years and I moved back to Chicago in 2001 . I had a baffling time of it in LA . I did n’t work a wad . That ’s when I did mySeinfeldepisode andDrew Careyand some other sitcom guest touch and things like that . It was n’t enough work to keep me happy . So the business was tough on me . But I always like the city . In fact , in late years , as Carrie and I have worked more and more in motion-picture show and TV , I ’ve attempt to talk to her about LA as a possible action . But she wo n’t hear of it . It ’s not give out to chance .
But I ’ve always care LA . I ’ve got a lot of friends in Los Angeles . I roll in the hay going out there . There ’s no position you would flash this show other than Los Angeles — it feels so Los Angeles . That was a real part of the appeal to me . To go out to LA and spend clock time out there and make the show .
You knew John C. Reilly from when you both lived in Chicago . Do you recollect when you first play him?I do . I cope with him at a party . I cogitate it was a party for people who were graduating from the Theater School at DePaul , where he went to school . A acquaintance of mine was going to the schooling there . That friend of mine was a roomie of mine , so a wad of people think I went to shoal at DePaul . I did n’t in reality go there . My roommate did and the party was always at our space . So I meet John at a party there . He did a yield ofGrapes of Wrathat Steppenwolf , which is one of the first shows I saw in town . He represent the brother Noah in that production , and he was howling . And we had some common friend : Rick Murphy , who is still a dear ally of John ’s , was an pretend instructor , and I have intercourse Rick .
I ’ve known him for 30 - plus years . We go years at a metre without see each other , but when we see each other , it ’s always nice . And he ’s such a superb player and a great presence on the show . So attractively cast . It ’s fishy , too , because Michael Shannon is also a dear friend of mine andhe had been originally cast in the part . I ’m not entirely sure what happened there . Either way , I felt like they were in good paw with that role , so that was also part of the appeal .
When you ’re working with someone you ’ve know for so long , does that make it easier to do the scene?It ’s playfulness because I know the hombre and we can chat between take about mutual friends and this and that . It ’s merriment in that respect . It ’s also a situation where you need to bestow your best biz . Right ? You do n’t want to lease yourself or him down . We ’ve got this opportunity to act together after all these year . I ’m sure it ’s the first prison term I ’ve ever acted with John . So to be able to bet a setting with him was just great fun .
Somebody enjoin , “ You meet everybody three times . ” Everybody that you do it in your life , you will know them three times over the course of your lifetime . I do n’t bed if that ’s reliable . But it felt like that with John . Like , oh , this is one of the times that we know each other . To come together over this task was great fun .
You also share a clump of scenery with Jason Segel , who play assistant coach Paul Westhead , and you have such a specific dynamic with him . You ’re both playing these characters who are very in their head , but in different way of life . We tally it off instantly . now . Within an hour of being with each other on the Seth , we were deeply involve in personal conversations . He ’s become a dear supporter and he ’s just a lovely man . We had a lot in common . When we were first together and film those scenes at training camp , Jason and I were working together for a small bit and that was all great playfulness . Then other people set out to filter in and Jason turned to me at one point and said , “ My god , there ’s all these men . ” And I say , “ I know . It ’s not an environs in which I typically expand . ” We had a divvy up gag over that because it could be at times on this show — as you ’d reckon , recreating an NBA environment — very male person - centric . I cogitate Jason and I probably prefer the company of women . It take a little getting used to . But it was a bunch of great guys , and we had a great time .
You were inWinning Time , and you were of late inFord V. Ferrari . As a writer , have you ever found yourself thinking about a sports story you ’d require to tell , or does the writing style not interest you at all?I hazard not at all . I ’ve never thought about it until you said it . But I hazard not really . I for sure enjoy it . When it ’s done well , which I recall this Lakers show is , the show does a really beautiful line of illustrating what each phallus of this corps de ballet has place in the termination . That ’s what good sports story do , I think . We understand what the personal investing of these citizenry is .
In that paying attention , it ’s not really about sports . It ’s about community and systems and character . That ’s what this Lakers show does really , really well . After you get past all the Alexander Melville Bell and tin whistle of Adam ’s style or 1970s mode or pilus and makeup or the medicine , what you ’re really impart with are some really great , interesting , compelling characters . That ’s what make the show well . That ’s the not - so - hush-hush constituent .
