Questions and answers with BRAD LELAND, Actor

Currently appearing in: “Friday Night Lights,” NBC-TV; recently completed shooting:  “John Hancock,” feature film starring Will Smith

 
Where and when were you born?

I was born on Sept. 15, 1954, in the Texas Panhandle town of Lubbock.

Tell us about your early life.

My dad, Bill, was a U.S. Army Ranger and was assigned to Japan when I was 2. My 20-year old mother, Shirley, who was a singer and dancer, had hardly been out of Lubbock. Off she went to Japan with me on a leash – literally – since I was such a handful. I had a Japanese baby-sitter and she had to chase me through the village and catch me when I’d run off. The walls in our house were made of hard mud, but they weren’t too hard for me to dig through them with a toy. That’s exactly what I did one time and the Geisha girls found me in the rice paddies covered in ‘human fertilizer’. I had a pet chimpanzee named Miko and people would sit outside and watch the little American boy play with his monkey in the front yard.

We moved back to Lubbock in 1959. My first memory of the United States was going to Disneyland that same year, when I was 5 years old. My mother dressed me up in a cowboy outfit and I went to Disneyland as a little cowboy. When we went into the Crazy Horse Saloon, the performers asked for volunteers to come up on stage and I didn’t hesitate. I sang “Davy Crockett” and took a bow… and I feel like I’ve been living in Disneyland ever since.

Did you keep on performing from such an early age?

I never stopped. My mother was a dance teacher and I was the only boy in class. I hated it. She also made me take piano lessons and, of course, I hated that, too. All I cared about was sports. When I was in the fourth grade, I talked my mother out of making me take dance and in the sixth grade I convinced them to let me give up piano lessons. They said I’d regret it, and I do.

In what ways are you and your parents alike? In what ways are you different?

My dad and I look almost exactly alike. We have the same kind of outgoing personality. We really like people and we like to make friends and have people like us. We’re different in that I fulfilled my dream and my dad never really did. He was always a businessman and a salesman but never really found what he loved until he started doing metal sculpture much later in life. My mother loved to sing and entertain and perform and, of course, I do, too. She was kind and gentle and an absolute angel – I don’t think anybody would describe me that way! She did everything – cooked the meals, did the housework, ran her own business, sang at the church. She was the most involved and energetic and wonderful person. She was a walking angel. Both my parents died young, my mom at age 57 of cancer and my father 10 years later of complications from a staph infection.

Do you have siblings?

I have two younger sisters. Kathy is four years younger and she’s a school teacher. Kristy is seven years younger and she followed in our mother’s footsteps and owns a dance studio.

Were you athletic?

My dad and granddad taught me how to play just about every sport and I played every chance I could get. I wasn’t always the best, but I could usually be a starter on the team. My maternal grandfather was a Texas Aggie and my grandmother’s brother was one of the most famous running backs ever to come out of Texas Christian University in the 1930s. He even beat Jesse Owens in the 1936 Kansas relays. My dad was on the Lubbock High School state championship basketball team exactly 20 years before I played on a state championship football team.

When did you first get into football?

Dad helped start the youth football league in Lubbock when I was 11. That meant we could play tackle football in pads to get prepared to play on school teams when we got to junior high. One of the kids on that youth team was Curtis Jordan, who later became an All-American at Texas Tech University and went on to play for the Washington Redskins. I still hang out with five guys from that original youth football team and we do stuff regularly with our families. It’s amazing how close we still are.

How long did you live in Lubbock?

I was there through junior high school and I loved it there. I couldn’t believe it when my dad told me that we were moving to Plano, a suburb of Dallas. My dad told me that I had a choice. I could keep complaining and being mad about having to move, or I could go to Plano with a positive attitude and make good friends and make an impact. Fortunately, I took the latter choice and wound up loving Plano every bit as much as I did Lubbock. I worked really hard that whole summer so that I could make the football team my sophomore year in Plano, and I did.

Tell me about the “Friday night lights” in Plano.

It was one of the greatest times of my life. The coaches were such fine individuals and great teachers – not just of football but of life. They’d tell us, here’s your part and here’s what the team’s going to do and if you do what we’re telling you, too, and play your best then we might get lucky and win the state championship one day. The coaches – John Clark and Tommy Kimbrough and Keith Sockwell – were all examples of men who loved God and loved their families and worked hard and kept their word. When we did the things they told us to do, everything they said would happen came through. We saw what good teamwork and good coaching could accomplish. And we learned what it really meant to be a team – to be willing to do anything for your teammates regardless of social or economic or racial or any other issues. I lived a “Leave It to Beaver” world in sports and I consider that one of the greatest blessings of my life.

Did the coaches’ prediction come through – did you win the state championship?

Plano High School won the 1971 AAA State Championship and I was on that team. We’d all worked so hard all season, and it nearly broke my heart to have gotten injured and have to stand on the sidelines on crutches for that big game. But we all knew what we’d been through and what we’d contributed and so I felt every bit a part of that team and that game. It was one of the most exhilarating moments of all time to be there at Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas in Austin and win in the last seconds 21-20. I jumped higher than I ever had in my whole life and I was on crutches! Winning the state championship was euphoria, nirvana. It seemed that time stood still and you realized “This is the best there is. At this moment, no other team is better than us.”

What do you think playing sports teaches kids? How can it help prepare them for life?

It’s the greatest teacher there is. You learn to set a goal and to understand that in order to follow the steps to accomplish that goal, you have to rely on the team. We all live together in this world and so everything in life takes teamwork. In every job and everything we do, we only do our little part, and if we all do that little part to the best of our abilities, we can accomplish our goals. Sports teach discipline, integrity, goal setting, the value of hard work, humility, and the satisfaction that comes from pushing yourself harder than you might think possible. I believe that sports are not only physically challenging, but mentally, they take you to your best level. It’s the discipline of using your body and your mind and learning the moves and the techniques – the same holds true if you’re a football player or a dancer or an actor. The payoff isn’t necessarily winning, but playing the game and doing your best, never letting your team down.

Are there other ways that playing sports are like acting?

I think you get the same feeling of butterflies. And if you’re good at either sports or acting, you learn how to harness the butterflies and use that tension to your advantage, to keep you sharp. That tension disappears after you take your first shot or play the first play or say your first line.

How did you get into acting in high school?

When I moved to Plano, I thought that I’d choose the same sophomore courses that I’d planned to take in Lubbock. But when I got to Plano, there was no option to take last-period study hall. Mrs. Spies, the counselor, asked me, “Well, what do you like?” And when I told her I liked to sing and perform, she suggested drama class. And I also took choir. The drama teacher, Margaret Robison, who we called Mrs. Robbie, made me fall in love with theatre and the choir teacher, Mr. Winters, made me fall in love with choir. Performing then became just as important to me as sports.

What about acting attracted you then? How are those feelings the same or different today?

It’s the same adrenaline, the same feeling about being a part of a team. When I was younger, I grew up being so spoiled and the center of attention and being the clown and making people laugh. I was the original “Jackass” before Johnny Knoxville. Even though I was mostly a straight-A student, I was always getting in trouble for talking too much. I wanted to get reactions from people. I always wanted to make people laugh. Later, I learned that through acting, I could also make them cry. 

How did your high school drama teacher approach the teaching of acting, and what about her teaching inspired you?

Mrs. Robbie was just like those football coaches. She was dedicated, knew her stuff, and was totally confident. She was an extremely hard worker who taught discipline and team work. She seemed tough, but you respected her. She was a woman who never got to be an actress but was a teacher her whole life. She was inspirational because she loved the theatre and she loved us. She knew which students truly loved what we were doing and she fought for us.

What roles were you dying to play in high school?

When they were casting “The Music Man,” I had never wanted anything more in my life than to play the role of Harold Hill. The choir teacher wanted another drama student to get the lead because he could sing better than I could. Mrs. Robbie wanted me to get it because she thought my acting skills were better. I went to her, practically in tears, and said, “I have to do this role.” She fought for me and the other guy and I wound up alternating the lead in different performances. That was my junior year and I had my first knee surgery. I learned the part and all the songs while I was laid up in a hospital bed. To this day, every line and every song are embedded in my head. I’ll never forget them.

As you look back at your high school years, if you had to single out just one thing, what was best about those days?

You know, as important as acting and sports were to me during those years, the single best thing was being chosen to give the commencement address. Everyone who wanted to do it had to write their own speeches and try out in front of a judging panel. I was so proud that I was chosen to do it and that I got to stand in front of all the teachers and coaches and friends I loved so much and talk about the future. My speech was about equating life to a baseball game (so I did get sports in there after all) and how your family was home base, how important family was. It was another one of those great moments of my life.

Where did you go to college?

I went back to Lubbock to Texas Tech after graduating from Plano High School in 1973. My grandparents were there and I was offered a job managing an apartment complex and working in a savings and loan so I could go to school and pay the bills. I had a support group there and lots of friends. And, I found out that Tech had a great theatre department. I worked five hours a day as loan appraiser as a freshman, was the manager of a 40-unit apartment complex, and took a full course load at Tech. I look back on those days and can’t believe how much energy I had!

Did you have a mentor in college?

My very first semester as a freshman, I auditioned for the play “Indians” by Arthur Kopit and got cast. That’s when I met Ron Schulz, who had essentially founded the theatre department at Tech. He’d been an actor before he went into the Army, but then he was captured by the Nazis in World War II and was a POW. When he got out, he went back to Tech and started the theatre department. It grew through him. We loved him so much and he was tireless and he really knew how to instill the magic. He was the consummate old style director. We had other great teachers at Tech who were costumers and designers. We were required to work on props and costumes and make-up and sets in addition to acting and directing in every form of theatre. When I got my BA in acting and directing in 1980, it was a very well rounded theatre arts degree.

What are some of the plays you did in college?

There were a lot – Arsenic and Old Lace, The Little Foxes, American Buffalo, Comedy of Errors, Oedipus, The Rose Tattoo. We did about 10 Sam Shepard plays and I acted and directed in all of them. One of my favorite roles was Pizarro in The Royal Hunt of the Sun, by Peter Shaffer who wrote Equus. It’s about the destruction of the Inca Empire by conquistador Francisco Pizarro – a tremendous role, epic and beautifully written. It was our contest entry in the American College Theatre Festival and we got recognition for it.

Did you date someone special through college?

I met my wife, Freda, in acting class my freshman year and we were married in 1978. We had both grown up in Lubbock and she’d been a cheerleader for an opposing team I’d played in junior high. Although she didn’t pursue acting as a career, to this day she remains one of the finest actresses I’ve ever worked with. She’s the one who gave that up because my career was further along and she knew that one of us had to have a steady job. She’s put up with me and all my craziness through all these years. She’s been supportive and steady and she’s given me two smart, beautiful daughters.

What were some of your non-college acting experiences during those years?

I was 21 years old and I’d taken a trip to LA, where I saw Robin Williams – before he came into public view in the TV series “Mork and Mindy” – performing in front of about 50 people at the Comedy Store. He just blew me away. I immediately went back to Lubbock and started Laughing Stock, which we later renamed Caught in the Act, the first-ever improvisational comedy troupe in Lubbock and only the second in Texas. We performed our improv comedy in nightclubs and on local TV stations and at gigs at the student union. Improv was a pretty new thing then and there weren’t a lot of groups performing in the country.

During those years at Tech, I got my first paid professional acting job at the Hayloft Dinner Theatre, where we did the musical I Do, I Do. I opened the Cabaret Theatre in the Hilton Hotel where we did Godspell. I was executive director of Lubbock Theatre Center and we moved it from its original old building to an old art deco movie theatre downtown called the Lindsay Theatre, which had been owned by former Gov. Preston Smith. We operated it as legitimate theatre until it was torn down. I did commercials and small student films. There was no film department at Tech back then, so we made it up as we went along.

Other than acting, what else stands out about your college years?

My grandmother, Pearl Elva Williams, ran a boarding house in Lubbock for nearly 40 years and fed more than 20 boys every day for nearly 40 years – a dozen boys for lunch and a dozen different boys at dinner. We paid $35 a month for home cooking, and because she was my grandma, I got two meals a day instead of just lunch or dinner. We’d have two meats and glorious piles of fresh vegetables at every meal. She shopped at the Piggly Wiggly and filled her cart with only the freshest stuff. She stood under five feet tall and those boys loved her and respected her. She passed away while I was going to college.

What did you like best about living in Lubbock?

In the mid- and late-70s, I think the population was about 150,000, but it felt like such a small town. You could ride your bike anywhere and you could get all your errands done in 10 minutes because everything was so close. I loved that the town revolved around the university.

That near decade that I spent in Lubbock and the theatre and entertainment business in that small town was a true learning and proving ground for everything I still use in my life today – the techniques of acting, producing, directing. In that small Texas town, there was a tremendously talented group of teachers who loved the theatre and instilled that magic in many, many graduates who’ve gone on to professional careers in entertainment. To this day, there are professional actors and directors and producers and designers and costumers who all came out of Texas Tech even as far back as the 1950s. They’re able to make a living doing what they love. I’m so fortunate to be among them.

When did you first know that you wanted to make a career out of acting?

In my freshman year of college I decided I wanted to be an actor, no matter what. My parents and grandparents were so supportive in telling me that what they wanted most for me was to do what I loved. They embedded that in me and it helped give me confidence. Of course, they did want me to “have something to fall back on,” so they insisted that I get my degree so I could teach one day.

Were you resolute in your choice of acting as a career, or did you ever waver?

The only reason I was resolute is because I was so supported by my parents and my wife. Even though we struggled and we were broke a lot, I always knew that I’d never quit. I’d supplement the acting jobs by producing arts festivals or concerts or working on crews, always staying the arts.

After you got your degree, where did you live and how did you start your career?

Some of the guys from the Lubbock nightclubs I’d been working in – the Mainstreet Saloon and Fat Dawgs – moved to Dallas and bought a club called Nick’s Uptown and hired me to be General Manager. I had a good salary and a new Thunderbird, and I knew I could work at a job like that and still act. My parents were still living in Plano, and Dallas has great regional theatre. I remembered hearing the great director-producer John Houseman advise young actors to do regional theatre first, not to go to LA or New York. So, we decided we’d move to Dallas for a couple years so I could establish myself as an actor.

What was your first big break?

I had the lead role of McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at a theatre in Dallas and an agent saw me and asked, “Do you want to do film and TV? If so, you need an agent.” I told him that if he could get me in to see certain casting directors, then he could be my agent. I wound up getting a role on the hit TV series “Dallas” and doing a few episodes. I joined the union and was on my way. The first few years, I was lucky to get just about every part I was up for, but it took five or six years to where it seemed like I was acting regularly. My whole career, I’ve never gone more than seven or eight months without a part. Most actors will tell you that’s pretty good.

What was the first movie you were ever in?

It was “Silverado,” which was directed by Lawrence Kasdan and was Kevin Costner’s first major movie. It was a big time Hollywood picture filmed on location in Santa Fe. It was a huge deal for me because I got a two-week contract. In those days, it was a big deal if you got just a one-week contract.

What’s been your most visible role to date?

I was cast in the movie, “Friday Night Lights,” with Billy Bob Thornton, about life and relationships in the backdrop of Texas high school football. It’s something I know a lot about! I had the role of the town’s biggest football fan, the guy who put a lot of pressure on the coach to win. When they turned the movie into a TV series that premiered in the fall of 2006, I was cast to play the same character, whose name was changed to Buddy Garrity.

Why do you think the critics have such praise for “Friday Night Lights”?

I think the characters who live in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, are so well defined and so three-dimensional. There are so many little moments that are just like the moments in all our relationships, things people can really relate to – parents and children, husbands and wives, coaches and teachers. Real things that happen to real people are the things that we do on our show. And we don’t shoot on a set. We shoot in real places – people’s houses and town restaurants and school hallways and football stadiums. That reality is hard to find in most TV shows.

I think people who haven’t watched “Friday Night Lights” assume it’s a show for sports fans or that it’s all about football, but I think it is a very empowering show for women. It shows their nurturing, maternal side but also the strong and determined side. And it’s a great family show because it shows that people who have old-fashioned values in their married lives, their family lives, can also have progressive jobs in the community and be flawed and be loved and make mistakes and still be good honest people. The characters are good examples of how you can raise a family, be a good husband or mother or teacher or coach.

In what ways is Buddy Garrity like you? How are you different?

Well , we sound alike and we look exactly alike! I do love my family and Buddy really loves his family. He’s really passionate about high school sports. We’re talkers and salesmen. I think Buddy probably likes to play golf like I do. The biggest thing we don’t have in common is that he wants to win so bad that he thinks a little cheating is OK.

In what ways are Dillon and Plano alike? How are they different?

Plano had less than 20,000 people when I was growing up there, even though it’s more than 250,000 people today. It was a small community where all the people and events were intertwined and everybody knew everybody else. That’s how it is in Dillon, too. If there were Buddy Garrity’s in Plano in our day, we didn’t know about it and the coaches didn’t let us know about it. And I don’t think some of the players on the Dillon Panthers could have gotten away with how they behave and still been on the Plano Wildcats team.

How can you relate to some of the relationship issues that Dillon kids have with their parents and with their friends and girlfriends?

I think it’s similar, but now it’s harder because kids today are exposed to so much more. It’s still first love and having different boyfriends and girlfriends and talking to your parents and not understanding what you are supposed to do in life. Feelings are on the surface and on edge. I do think people today are more spoiled and more self centered than what they used to be. They are exposed to so much so early now that they wind up constantly looking for excitement.

What’s it like on the set of “Friday Night Lights”?

We have fun and we set high stakes and we tamper with it and raise the stakes in every scene to where there’s some risk and some danger. We don’t talk a lot about what we’re gonna do before we do it. We do most of our talking in the scene. We bring it to the scene and leave it alone after. We never rehearse on the set with the crew. When we walk on the set, we start shooting and that’s what helps make it so spontaneous and interesting and real. Nobody tells us where to sit or walk or stand or what to pick up or look at in a scene. They say you’re in this room and you’re talking to each other, now let’s shoot it.

Among all the actors you’ve worked with, who did you learn the most from?

Paul Newman said something important to me in 1988 when we were dong a scene in the movie “Blaze,” about former Louisiana Gov. Earl Long. I was pretty young and green and there I was working with Paul Newman – I was scared to death! My role was a nightclub owner and I would introduce Gov. Long to my favorite girls. We were doing this scene one morning and we had really botched it and didn’t even say the lines right. It bothered me so much at lunch and I was just going over and over it in my mind and agonizing about it. After lunch, before we were about to film the same scene over again, I went up to him and said, “Mr. Newman, I was really worrying about this all through lunch, that I didn’t get it right and we both didn’t say the right lines.” I think he was a little insulted that some young whippersnapper actor would even say something like that to him. He said, “Number one, that’s the director’s problem, not yours, and you shouldn’t be worrying about it. Number two, you should be thinking about what were’ doing right now, in the moment, and not what we did before. Don’t worry about what happened before. The director will worry about that. Live in the time and the moment and let everything in the past go.” I’ve remembered that ever since and I’ve used it.

Robert Duvall said something to me and a few other actors one time. He said actors spend too much time trying to act. The best acting is when two characters are talking to each other and it seems perfectly believable. What happens in a real conversation? You talk and then listen to the other person. You don’t think about what you’re going to say next. Actors try to pile all this stuff into every line, but acting is talking and then listening. By really listening to the other actor, the camera sees things going on in your brain. If you’re thinking about your next line then the camera sees that. If you’re really listening the camera sees that, too.

Which actors do you most admire and why?

I have total admiration for all the actors I’ve worked with who are committed to what they do. To make it to a leading level, they have to have tremendous amounts of talent and I admire their ability to bring it time and time again, their endurance. I see them being able to keep the same energy level all day long, despite weather conditions or clothing or make-up or lines or any other conditions that aren’t perfect. Yet they still do their jobs incredibly well, with the same enthusiasm, all the time being nice to the other actors and the crew. Right now, one of my favorite actors is Kyle Chandler, who plays the lead role of Coach Taylor on “Friday Night Lights.” He brings it fresh every take, and it’s so believable. I have a lot of fun with all the actors on “Friday Night Lights”.

What performance are you the most proud of?

I really enjoyed playing McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I also got a huge kick out of playing a woman, Dot the Waitress, in the comedy “Rolling Kansas”. And, of course, being part of a quality production like “Friday Night Lights” is a privilege.

If you were teaching acting today and could impart just one thing to your most serious students, what would that be?

Never give up. Never underestimate yourself and always put yourself in a dangerous and vulnerable position artistically. Don’t be afraid to let all your stuff hang out, let them see you and your heart and what you think and feel, don’t hide it.

What sacrifices have you made for your career?

The income is unstable and unsteady. You’re always looking for and interviewing for your next job. The future is uncertain, so it’s hard to plan anything. You won’t go on vacation because there might be another show. Your life is often at the whim of your current employer.

What’s been the best thing about being an actor all these years?

It’s been being able to pursue that dream that I had as a child. Because of the support of my family and friends and blind luck, I’ve been allowed to do something I really enjoy. I think a lot of it is perseverance, but a lot is luck and the most important thing is having support. I was lucky to have parents who supported me and didn’t force me to abandon a pipe dream and get a real job.

What has acting given you?

It’s kept me excited about life. It’s made me unafraid. It’s fed my love of people and given me the chance to affect people, even in just a small way, with my performances.

What does the future hold for you?

I would like for another character like Buddy Garrity to come along. I want to give them more! But I also eventually want to tell my stories and produce my own shows. I want to make people laugh and cry and think and question and examine the world. But right now, I’m the luckiest actor around because so many talented, determined, hard-working actors don’t get to every play a major character on prime time network TV. I’ve only done it for a year and that’s longer than 90 percent of actors get. The way you learn to think as an actor is that it will never get this good again. You’re so lucky already, it’s probably the best it will ever be, so just ride this horse and make the most of it you can.