Jesse Plemons News

Talented Friday Night Lights star Jesse Plemons will soon be dealing the chronic ... to Kevin Spacey in the indie comedy Shrink.

Shrink centers on Hollywood A-list psychiatrist Henry Carter (Kevin Spacey), who, following a personal tragedy, is unable to cope and turns into a pothead with little concern for his appearance and inability to help patients.

Among the troubled doctor's clients are a once-famous actress, an insecure young writer and a comically obsessive compulsive uber-agent.

Jesse Plemons will play a pot dealer named Jesus, joining a cast that also includes Robin Williams and Saffron Burrows.

Jonas Pate, who actually filmed several episodes of Friday Night Lights, is directing, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am has released a new music video aimed at boosting the hopes of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Called "We Are The Ones," it features a pair of Friday Night Lights stars.

Backed by music and the vocal refrain of "O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA!," celebrities such as our own Adrianne Palicki and Jesse Plemons - along with Jessica Alba, Ryan Phillippe, Kerry Washington, George Lopez and many others - offer reasons why they support Barack Obama. The candidate's voice can also be heard.

It's very cool. Check it out here ...

Lots of notable Texans will be gathering at the 2007 Greater Austin Walk Now for Autism this Saturday to raise money for autism awareness and research.

One of the participants will be Jesse Plemons, who plays lovable sidekick and football player Landry on Friday Night Lights.

The Mart, Tex., native will be on hand at the event for pictures and autographs.

Plemons' mother is a teacher in Waco who works with children with autism.

The walk is at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Tex., the Austin American-Statesman reports.

Area residents should consider joining Jesse Plemons in this effort to raise money for a good cause - and maybe meet him, too!

As we all know, Friday Night Lights launched its second season with a true shocker: Smart, funny, geeky teen Landry Clarke killed a man threatening to attack Tyra Collette, Landry's crush. Then the pair dumped the body.

There was just one problem, according to the Los Angeles Times. The show's relatively small, extremely intense fan base didn't buy it.

"I hated, hated, hated the murder scene," wrote a poster named Tom on the website of Alan Sepinwall, critic for the Newark Star-Ledger.

"Friday Night Lights has always struck me as a production that shows the drama in a real town... The murder scene felt, well, desperate."

Critics who have championed Friday Night Lights were equally upset.

"Absurdly melodramatic and unbelievable," wrote The New Yorker's Nancy Franklin. "The plot thread could easily overwhelm the show and kill it."

Set in a small Texas town and shot in a documentary style, Friday Night Lights has earned a cult following and need-to-improve ratings.

Most fans were drawn less by football than by the nature of the characters: Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), his high school counselor wife, their daughter, the paralyzed QB, his two-timing girlfriend, the new quarterback, and so on.

Although viewers might relate to characters who cheated, drank way too much or fought, they didn't know any 16-year-olds who had killed someone.

Some suspected the plot was a ratings ploy, a notion buoyed by releasing of the first episode to Yahoo and the appearance of actors (really) in Allstate ads.

Producer Jason Katims said the Web release and the commercials - some of which contained upcoming air dates of the premiere - were attempts to attract viewers.

"It would be good to have new viewers; I won't deny that," he said.

But he contended the controversial murder plot twist was organic and based on Landry's and Tyra's characters - particularly how the actors portrayed them in a Season 1 episode when the same attacker tried to rape Tyra.

"The way Jesse Plemons played those scenes, he was bringing so much to the table," Katims said. "We realized we had this actor capable of doing much more."

"It wasn't like we thought this would be the thing to draw more audience. On the other hand, we did want to come out in the first episode with a story line that would be surprising and have urgency to it," he said.

This story line will play out over the course of nine episodes and will allow a new focus on the relationship between Landry and his father, a policeman.

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In Season One of Friday Night Lights, Jesse Plemons played second fiddle as Landry Clarke, sidekick to star quarterback Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford).

Now into its second season, the Friday Night Lights clown has been promoted to the football team - and bigger storylines. Landry Clarke got the girl of his dreams in Tyra Collette (Adrianne Palicki), albeit at a heavy price. Jesse Plemons spoke to BuddyTV about the new developments with his character. Excerpts below ...

Q: Let's just jump right into this, with the second season of Friday Night Lights. What is it like playing the town stud all of a sudden?

Jesse Plemons: Town stud? I didn't realize I was the town stud now, but if you think so. Yeah, this season is just so different. There's so much going on with the huge accidental murder in the first episode, and the repercussions. It's just really intense and great as an actor to do something like that.

Q: Got it. So do you ever miss just being... last season you were more the comic relief. Just adding in a little pepper here and there.

Jesse Plemons: Right. I had a blast last season. That's pretty much the only way I can explain that. It was just fun. I got to come in, work a few days out of the week, and just have some really ridiculous lines and just go. And then this season, is kind of the opposite. I have a really intense storyline and it's taking a lot out of me. But it's something I've really invested in and it's something I'm passionate about. It's an honor to be able to do something like this.

Q: In addition to all of that, the murder / cover-up and romance with Tyra, Landry also joined the football team this season.

Jesse Plemons: That's right. Yeah, and that's a lot of fun. I played football growing up so I was really happy to hear that.

Q: So were you kind of disappointed last season? Were you begging the producers to let you get in on that?

Jesse Plemons: Not really. It kind of started out as a joke. I'd be in the stands and then in-between takes I'd try to run down on the field and play catch. Then I'd be playing catch and someone said I had a good arm and joked about Landry coming on to the field and taking Matt's position. Last year I never would have thought it'd work, but I think it's not too far fetched in a town like this that kid will attempt to get on the team. You pretty much have the kids that play football, and the ones that don't. Even though Landry was so against it - he had his own thing with Crucifictorious - it's still something that was interesting to him.

Q: So does that mean we've seen the end of Crucifictorious?

Jesse Plemons: I hope not man. I hope not.

Q: As if there already isn't enough for you in Season Two, your father, played by Glenn Morshower, joined the cast. Were you a fan of his before he joined up?

Jesse Plemons: I had only seen some of his stuff on 24, but he's a great actor. And it's really weird how much we actually look alike. He probably looks more like me than my real dad does. It's kinda freaky. I was very happy to see they picked him. He's been working forever and has a million credits. He's from Texas as well, so I think it was definitely a good choice.

Follow the link to continue reading Plemons' interview with BuddyTV ...

Get ready for the small town of Dillon, Texas, to start looking more like Dallas now that NBC's Friday Night Lights is back for a second season.

That means a lot more skin and scandal, observes William Keck of USA Today, and numerous others who have previewed the Season Two debut.

"There are a large number of shower scenes," star Adrianne Palicki, 24, says with an uncomfortable giggle. Her character, Tyra Collete, is first seen in the season premiere licking a popsicle suggestively. Control yourselves, guys.

"We've also had a couple of (nude) scenes in the locker room," adds Adrianne's co-star, Jesse Plemons, 19, whose social outcast character, Landry Clarke, has just reluctantly joined the high school football team.

"The good thing is that Landry's not really okay with taking his clothes off — unlike Tim Riggins (played by Taylor Kitsch). Taylor has been complaining the most about having to take off his shirt."

Adrianne Palicki as sexy, sassy Tyra Collette.

No one's complaining, to be sure, about a second chance to prove themselves after a first season that was critically acclaimed but ratings-starved.

Over lunch, both actors acknowledge that the set was somber the day Emmy nominations were announced. Nary a nod went to the underdog drama.

"It was very disappointing," Adrianne Palicki says. "There was a backlash from not getting nominated — people were furious. So that's even cooler, in a way. Look at how many fans were so angry."

"The feeling now," Jesse Plemons adds, "is let's give them even a better show, so there's no way they're going to be able to pass us up."

 The new game plan: less football, more personal struggle.

Among the drama: Adrianne Palicki's Tyra and Jesse Plemons' Landry enter into a secret romance that, Plemons says, "catches both of them off guard."

The unlikely duo — Tyra the Beauty, Landry the Geek — came together when Landry became her tutor, then came to her rescue after an attempted rape.

"I would love for them to be together," Palicki says. "Tyra deserves a good guy."

There's also a stunning plot twist that we won't get into here.

Plemons, a native of Mart, Texas (outside Waco), has been dating a Texas girl for six months who he says is "beautiful — inside and out."

The single Palicki says she has had many Landrys in her life, but as a high school student in Toledo, Ohio, she strictly dated jocks.

"I had Landrys as friends," she says. "The guys you thought you'd marry someday, but you just couldn't date because it wasn't cool. How stupid is that?"

NBC has released promotional photos of the Friday Night Lights cast in advance of Season Two, which premieres October 5. We've got them all here!

Zach Gilford (Matt Saracen)

Follow the jump for the rest of these great Friday Night Lights cast pics ...

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In anticipation of Season Two of Friday Night Lights, we're taking a close look at each of its cast members, most of whom you probably don't know too much about. Well, all that's about to change!

On Friday, we profiled Zach Gilford, who plays the Dillon Panthers' QB-1 and reluctant leader, Matt Saracen. Today, we'll talk a little about the terrific actor who plays Matt's best friend Landry Clarke - Jesse Plemons.

Jesse Plemons was born April 2, 1988 in Dallas, Texas. A native of the Lone Star State, it's perhaps fitting that he play a character named Landry - likely a homage to the legendary Dallas Cowboys head coach, Tom Landry.

He's been a busy actor all his life, with feature-film credits including "Like Mike" with Bow Wow and Jonathan Lipnicki, "Children on their Birthdays," adapted from the short story by Truman Capote; as well as "When Zachary Beaver Came to Town," "The Failures," "All the Pretty Horses," and "Varsity Blues."

Jesse Plemons also appeared in "Children on their Birthdays," which marked the directorial debut of the Tony Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Mark Medoff ("Children of a Lesser God").

Jesse Plemons (left) with co-stars Scott Porter and Taylor Kitsch.

In television, Jesse Plemons earned much critical praise portraying a young teen struggling to accept his facial disfigurement on "Grey's Anatomy" - during the same second season that featured an Emmy nominated guest starring role by Friday Night Lights' leading man, Kyle Chandler.

Additional TV credits for Plemons include guest starring roles on "Huff," "CSI," "The Lyons Den," "Judging Amy" and "The Guardian."

While his obvious talent has taken him to the heights of Hollywood at the young age of 19, Jesse Plemons' feet are firmly planted on the grounds of his Mart, Texas, home that he shares with his family.

When he is not busy filming Friday Night Lights, he enjoys playing sports and returning to his Lone Star State roots to rope and ride. Texas forever!

A great TV drama, like a great football team, is often defined by depth. You need stars to succeed, but you also need players further down the roster who can perform when their number gets called.

Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger has heaped praise on Friday Night Lights from the get-go, with most reserved for the fantastic performances by Kyle Chandler as Eric Taylor and Connie Britton as his wife, Tami.

But one of the best pleasures of Friday Night Lights is its great top-to-bottom cast. In particular, two actors who began the season chained to the end of the bench - Adrianne Palicki as the outcast sexpot, Tyra, and Jesse Plemons as an outcast geek, Landry - were playing like MVPs by the finale.

When the series began, Tyra and Landry existed, at best, as appendages to more important characters - Tyra as the girlfriend of alcoholic fullback Tim Riggins, Landry as the sidekick of shy quarterback Matt Saracen.

"Early on, (producers) Jason Katims and Peter Berg both told me they had no idea what they were going to do with my character," Adrianne Palicki said.

"With Tyra, we didn't really know a lot about her," Katims admits.

So he and the other writers started filling in the blanks.

In the 12th episode, "What to Do While You're Waiting," they introduced Tyra's mom, an arrested development case with an addiction to abusive boyfriends, one of whom Tyra chased out of the house.

It was probably too much back story to dump into a single episode, but it marked a turning point for the character. Soon Tyra Collette befriended Julie Taylor, became a pet project of Mrs. Taylor, and became a key part of the series.

"When you introduce her mother, her sister, her mom's problem with men, suddenly you understand her," says Katims."When you see her have this connection with Tami and this friendship with Julie, you have this fully dimensional character, and Adrianne Palicki just took it and ran with it and blew us all away. She's become one of my favorite characters."

Landry, meanwhile, would hover on the fringes of the series, cracking jokes in Matt Saracen scenes but remaining so inconsequential that even Coach Taylor began referring to him as "that Lance kid."

Outside of an ironic contrast between his first name (probably a homage to legendary Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry) and his lack of interest in athletics, there were few hints about who he was.

"It was interesting having a role who was always there but no one knew that much about him," says Jesse Plemons. "It was a process."

Part of that process was in the realization that Jesse Plemons is funny, an invaluable commodity on a show filled with so much angst elsewhere.

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