Garrett Hedlund and Lee Thompson Young Talk About "Friday Night Lights"
From Rebecca Murray
Interviews from the World Premiere of "Friday Night Lights"

Neither Garrett Hedlund or Lee Thompson Young had much experience acting in movies, so co-starring in the much-anticipated football drama "Friday Night Lights" provided both young actors with a chance to show off their skills while learning from two seasoned veterans, Billy Bob Thornton and director Peter Berg.

Both Hedlund and Thompson Young seemed to be having a great time working the red carpet at the World Premiere of "Friday Night Lights." They responded to questions and posed for photos like they'd been doing this whole thing for years. I had the chance to grab a few minutes with Hedlund and Thompson Young and took the opportunity to find out what it was like working on such a big film:

INTERVIEW WITH GARRETT HEDLUND ('Don Billingsley'):

You’re in two big movies this year – “Troy” and “Friday Night Lights.” Are you ready to do something a little smaller, maybe an indie film?
Yeah, I’d love to. I really kind of strive for character roles, and if it happens to be an indie film or it happens to be a bigger film, whichever allows me to perform I would love to do. Was it tougher to prepare mentally or physically for this role? I think more physically. I got to a physical state that I’d never been to before. I played football, I wrestled, I ran cross-country, so I was always a pencil. I was always a string bean. I really gained a lot of weight for this. And post-“Troy” weight, I kept that on. I had to gain 30 pounds for “Troy” and then I gained another 20 for this. I was up to 200 pounds when I’d usually been 145. Having that weight on, emotionally it affects you when you look in the mirror every day and you see rolls that weren’t there before. It definitely really helped. I wanted to get to the physical [build] of the average footballer who’s not necessarily fit like a supermodel and who’s definitely emotionally passionate about the game, and to really portray your average high school [player].

What was it like working with Tim McGraw? You two shared some pretty emotional scenes.
Tim was great and he really knocked this out of the park being his first film. It was a pleasure for me because I grew up with Tim filling the radio stations. I grew up on a farm in Minnesota and he was all over the air. We had one radio station and it was country. Faith [Hill] had even brought Tim out on stage one year when she played at our county fair. The town’s like 2,500 so for me to go from the farm and to come out here and be in a film with him, it was a pleasure. What was it like filming in Texas? Odessa wasn’t as small as my hometown. It was like 98,000 times bigger (laughing). But it helps with your mental state and your mental strength for your character. Being out there was a lot more helpful than being in a studio and trying to pretend it was Texas. Do you know any coaches in real life who are like Billy Bob Thornton’s character? I think every coach out there is kind of like Billy Bob’s character. I think he really did a great job at portraying a character that a coach out there will empathize with and relate to, and a coach that a lot of players will recognize. Do you think people who don’t enjoy the sport of football will still enjoy this movie? Yes. It’s really a film that I think touches a lot of people and there’s emotion in it and there’s brilliant, happy moments in there. I think people will like it – I love it.