originally posted — November 2009

FX's new comedy explores a "League" of obsessed gentlemen

By Stacey Harrison

Your wife in real life, Katie Aselton, is on the show, but does not play your wife. Is that a little strange?

Not strange, just painful for me because on set all day I just get ripped on by everyone in the cast. It's like I walk past, I hear Steve [Stephen Rannazzisi] who's playing Kevin, like "Man, they yelled cut and she just kept making out with me." The fantasy football ribbing on day three has already bled into real life.

I hear you're a football fan, but how do you compare to your character?

It's interesting, because Katie and I come from the indie film world and we've done a lot of improvisation stuff like this, so that was obviously a huge component. But in a lot of the movies we've done, we've been playing more artists and struggling musicians and struggling this and that, so it was exciting to me to be able to play a character that's a little bit different from me. Even though I am a football fan, it's not something that dominates my life like it does for these guys. It takes one little area of interest for me that I've never really explored that onscreen before.

Does the league dominate the show, or is it just a way to get a look into their lives?

It's about half and half, I'd say. Because part of it is exploring the world of fantasy football and how obsessed people get and how ridiculous it is when you look at it from an outside perspective. It's definitely a bit of a siphon to get you into the lives of a group of people in the suburbs in their early 30s. There's definitely that feeling for my character, at least, that I am a virtual gridiron god. No one can touch me in the realm of fantasy football. I've been winning constantly, but everything else in my life is a @#$%ing train wreck. So it is a nice way to get into a lot of personal things that are going on.

How tough is it to improvise when you're talking about fantasy football? That has to require a lot of specific knowledge.

It actually does take a little more planning. If you're doing a breakup scene or whatever, and you're improvising, you can say, "All right, I've been broken up with" or "I've broken up with someone" -- you pretty much have the knowledge you need. But when you're improvising whether you're going to start LaDainian Tomlinson or Frank Gore and who's on the injured reserve list, it requires some specific research. But the good news is that Jeff, our showrunner, is quite possibly the most highly obsessed fantasy football player of all time. The names and the statistics that he can rattle off effortlessly are kind of astounding. A lot of times we'll be going to do a scene and I'll say, "Jeff, give me two running backs who have been brutal over the past six months, and he'll [tell me] and I'll be like, "OK, good." It's a lot of quick-fire things. He's essentially the Fort Knox of fantasy football facts.

Had you ever played fantasy football?

I'd never played fantasy football before, but I was very aware of it. I went to an all-boys Catholic school in New Orleans and everyone that I grew up with are very similar to the guys on this show. They're married with kids, working with day jobs and they are all in their own fantasy football league. I've tangentially seen it, but I haven't been able to be entrenched until now.

From what you've been able to discern, is there a difference between a fantasy football obsession and any other kind someone might have?

It's hard to say. The specific thing about the fantasy football scene to me is there's an inherent sweetness in it. It is either an ex-athlete or I never was an athlete. So there's a dream of becoming a part of something and getting to say and do the things that athletes do virtually. As buffoonish as the guys get sometimes and as obsessed as they are, there's an underlying sweetness. It's like, "I really wish I was getting the gridiron glory, but I can't do that because I'm either an ex-athlete who was never that great or I was born with a pear-shaped figure and I never got out there in the first place." I just really like that feel to it. It's like that wish-fulfillment thing that's just really sweet.

So is any of this fantasy football obsession rubbing off on you?

The first week, everyone was really obsessed with the fantasy football league. We all created a league together that we all play in, along with the showrunners and the actors. The first week was a little overly obsessed, because no one wanted to lose in the first week. I've backed off a little bit, Katie has gotten more obsessed and turned into the @#$%-ing dominant monster of the league. It's ridiculous. She scored like 150 points, which is an unprecedented record, last week.

Next: I imagine trash talking is a main component of the show's humor?

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