Any fan of Friday Night Lights should be careful if they choose to see one of this year's biggest Sundance hits, The Spectacular Now. The movie, which was released on August 1, has been getting great reviews for its entire cast, especially newcomers Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley and the more seasoned Kyle Chandler. But this isn't the Chandler you might expect.
Since Friday Night Lights came to an end in 2011, Chandler hasn't had any roles that could be considered surprising. First he was a small-town cop in Super 8, then he played a government agent in two Oscar favorites, Zero Dark Thirty and Argo, and finally, a campaign manager in the quickly forgotten Broken City. But with The Spectacular Now, Chandler has his most shocking role yet: a bad dad. The man who played Coach Eric Taylor, father of two girls and surrogate father of two football teams, can now be seen as the drunk, deadbeat dad of Teller's character Sutter, in a movie theater near you.
His casting was no accident. It's not that The Spectacular Now's director James Ponsoldt had never seen Friday Night Lights, he wanted to mess with our heads. In January Ponsoldt told Vulture about his decision, saying, "I was so excited to cast that guy as a raging narcissist and a horrible father! I wanted to just destroy all of your feelings about Coach Taylor. And I hope I succeeded!"
If you think that The Spectacular Now is worth the risk of sullying your memories of Coach (which it is), we've got you covered. Here are some Friday Night Lights scenes to remind just how great of a dad, Chandler made Coach Taylor.
Whenever He Was Over-Protective
He does it out of love, Julie!
Out of love!
She gets it.
Coach Says Goodbye
The night before his oldest daughter leaves for college, Coach Taylor plays one last game of Ping Pong with her and makes us cry by talking about cookies.
Helping Matt Saracen
Coach might not have been crazy about his quarterback dating his daughter, but when Matt needed someone, he was there.
Defending Tim Riggins
When a rival coach starts a fight with one of his players, Coach steps in to defend him, while being extremely sexy.
Vince Explains It
Look how much he does for his players.
And Of Course...
All it takes are six words from this guy to feel the love and support.
