SerpApi.Org
Adrianne Palicki saw her career really take off on Friday Night Lights 20 years ago. She played Tyra Collette, a victim of circumstance in the fictional town of Dillon who had a challenging family dynamic. Her mom Angela (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson) didn’t necessarily make the right decisions all the time and found herself in abusive relationships. Tyra’s older sister Mindy (Stacey Oristano) started on the show as a stripper still trying to find herself.
Over 52 episodes across the first three seasons and guest star spots during the end of the series’ run, Palicki’s troubled teen character had her share of love affairs and also went through the trauma of an attempted sexual assault. Despite all the setbacks, Tyra got accepted to the University of Texas and eventually returned home where she reunited with on-again-off-again football star Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch).
Palicki has been reminiscing about her time on the beloved NBC drama while hosting Plex and ATX TV screenings and live Q&As alongside fellow former cast members. The star welcomes Aimee Teegarden for the next Friday Night Lights Roadshow on July 21 at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Downtown Los Angeles. Fans will get a chance to watch Teegarden’s favorite episode “It’s Different for Girls.” The actress played iconic coach Eric (Kyle Chandler) and Tami Taylor’s (Connie Britton) daughter Julie Taylor.
Ahead of the gathering, we sat down with Palicki to reflect on her time on Friday Night Lights. Plus, the star known in the years since for roles on everything from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to The Orville, updates us on what she is working on today.
What have these Friday Night Lights events meant to you, going back in time and celebrating the 20-year milestone?
Adrianne Palicki: It has been just an amazing experience. We were such a family for so long. Although we’ve seen each other throughout the years, to get everyone back together again…It hasn’t been since the 10-year reunion, so that was a special moment in time at the ATX TV Festival. Now I get to travel around to show people the show thanks to Plex and ATX TV. It’s about sharing the love with my castmates, which is really awesome.
What have you taken from revisiting these episodes? There are still very timely themes explored over the show’s run.
I think what you said is true in that the show is timeless. Aside from a cell phone here and there, everything is still happening today. It’s about a community. Every single person lives in the gray. It’s not black and white. It’s messy. It’s exactly what life is, and so it’s really exciting for me when I’m at the store or somewhere like that. I was even at a bar in LA. I visited Barney’s Beanery and one of the bartenders looked at me and said, “I went to college because of Tyra.” Then she poured me a double, but that keeps happening. It’s really exciting for me to know people are just now finding it again. That’s a rewarding feeling because that’s how timeless it is.
How do you reflect back on Tyra’s journey with everything she went through to get to that point? What do you remember about the early days as dug into the role?
I think that was a big thing. At first the writers didn’t know what to do with Tyra. And the writers and I were trying to figure out a backstory. People couldn’t resonate with her. They couldn’t understand, but yet at the same time she was always the smartest person in the room and telling it like it was, even in the early days. She was not sugarcoating anything, which I think people give respect to. But knowing that backstory, knowing she came from the means she came from. That she was literally the mom of the family, taking care of her mother and sister, and what the family had to do to make money. It’s very telling of how brilliant she actually was and what a hard worker she was. Then to have somebody believe in you. Tami Taylor starts really believing in her. Landry [Clarke] (Jesse Plemons) starts really believing in her. Julie starts believing in her. I think that is really inspiring because that part of her story that is so emotional is that she never had that before. That’s where she uses her brain power for good.
Tyra went through a traumatic experience of an attempted rape. What was it like tackling those scenes?
I think it was very important for women. It was emotional. It was hard. I think that unfortunately I know people that have happened to. I think it’s an important storyline based on the fact that women have been assaulted. I think it’s really important to see the aftermath of that. When Tyra finally goes to the police station and says what she says. The comeback is what were you doing? What were you wearing? Why were you there? As opposed to her being abused by somebody, that it wasn’t her fault. I feel being portrayed that way, I was so proud of that, but part of that was the writers as always. Getting the world to see that, which is what a lot of women have had to deal with, was a powerful thing.
What are your thoughts on how things worked out for Tyra? She went off to school after Season 3, which was your exit.. Then she got some closure during Season 5 as the show ended.
I loved that. I loved being part of it again. When I left that show, (Showrunner) Jason [Katims] called me as he was writing the final episodes of the third season, he goes, “I don’t know what to do. I feel like I really don’t want to lose you on the show, but I really think Tyra should go to college. What should I do?” No writer does that. I love that he did that. I was like she has to go to college. We worked this hard for her to go to college because she is such an inspiration for the girls. I love that when she comes back, we really get to see her humanity because she was the only person who wrote Tim Riggins while he was in jail. She was the only person there for him. She has always loved him. I asked Jason if I could say that. “I have loved you since I was five years old.” I feel that tells the whole story of their connection and why Tyra has loved Tim since then.
In a lot of ways, these two characters had the two biggest arcs compared to anyone on the show. They had the biggest transitions. It was really great to see she was thriving in school.. In my opinion she became a Tami Taylor helping other girls like herself and maybe her and him are still involved. I like that hopefulness. I think it was right to play in the Landry versus Tim Riggins as for a lot of people it was Team Landry and Team Riggins. But I think it was the right thing for Tim and Tyra because they were the most alike. I loved being there for the last shot of the show. It was so emotional.
With these events, has it got you thinking about anything eye-opening about the show you really didn’t think about before?
I was talking to Scott Porter. I was saying how Tyra was misunderstood. Scott said, “I think Tyra was the audience. I think she was such an important, powerful character because she saw everything and will just say it. She was very honest.” I think that highlights something really special because it also tells the audience the story. I never thought of her that way. It was such a flattering comment. Not that Tyra is really me, but that was the take away from him. She was all these things. She was very honest, brutally honest.
What do you think of Friday Night Lights being rebooted?
I’m torn. If anyone asked me to come back to play Tyra Collette again, absolutely! Especially if the same people were involved. However, I understand letting something breathe. It was a perfect show. I think it was a perfect, timeless show, and I love it so much. I loved the people involved. Bringing in a new world, I don’t know.
How do fans of Friday Night Lights compare to other fandoms you’ve experienced from your time on other shows like The Orville and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?
They are just as powerful and extreme in the best way possible. Fans kept this show on the air. That is one hundred percent the truth. Footballs were sent in. Light bulbs were sent in. There was a MySpace page to “Save the Lights” because there was so much talk about it getting canceled. Fans literally kept us on. That was back in a time when it wasn’t as popular. Now it has expanded with so many fans. That has reached someone in the Supernatural realm or Smallville realm. I think it ‘s one of the best things I’ve ever done. I take Tyra into every single character I play. She is a part of me in everything. I have a movie coming out that I actually am a producer on called Due West. Evan Miller wrote and was the director. It’s an original story in Texas where my character is going through a medical emergency. It was what Tyra would be like probably or her situation had she not gone to college. It’s the same character. I’ll be honest with you in that I loved going back to that place because I was obsessed with this person because she was such a badass.
It’s almost like coming full-circle with other elements being amalgamation of all the roles you’ve had since then.
Yes, it’s the same thing with Tyra. This woman is such a strength, but also a vulnerability. She is underneath a child still trying to work through things. But it’s pretending and putting on the best show she can, of being strong with a fake it until you make it mentality or the mentality to just keep going. It is an amalgamation of numerous characters, but Tyra is the one that speaks to me in all of them.
Anything else you have coming up you want to share? It looks like your not done with Friday Night Lights yet.
Right now, I’m also producing a docuseries about Friday Night Lights behind the scenes called Texas Forever. That has been part of the joy and this journey for me as well is revisiting everything and everybody and doing these interviews and traveling around talking to my family, friends, and crew. Talking about the influence the show had, how it was made and how it started. It’s a special thing to do that. This is starting to feel like my closure in a way because it will deliver to audiences a little more of what we were going through and what happened. A little more insight.
For fans who can’t make it to the Roadshow in person, all cast-selected episodes are up on Plex – just download the Plex app, go to the Friday Night Lights page and fans everywhere can comment on the episode thanks to the new Discussions feature.
Read the latest entertainment news on TV Insider.
