Connie Britton recalls how “Friday Night Lights” team was compared to ‘a cult’
Connie Britton recalls how “Friday Night Lights” team was compared to ‘a cult’
Jami GanzWed, October 21, 2026 at 11:06 PM UTC
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Connie Britton at a People Talks conversation in New YorkCredit: Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock for PeopleKey Points -
Connie Britton is recalling how the team on Friday Night Lights might have, to outsiders, resembled “a cult.”
The Emmy nominee shared the behind-the-scenes insight during a recent People Talks conversation with PEOPLE Editor-in-Chief Charlotte Triggs.
Britton also revealed which of her past characters she’d most want to befriend.
The cast and crew of Friday Night Lights made for a great team — though to outsiders, it might have seemed like a bit of “a cult.” At least that’s what Connie Britton recalls hearing.
During a People Talks conversation Wednesday with PEOPLE Editor-in-Chief Charlotte Triggs, the five-time Emmy nominee pulled back the curtain on the hit football drama, which aired for five seasons, from 2006 to 2011.
FNL’s “unique way” of shooting, from “three cameras going all the time” to a lack of rehearsals and marks, afforded actors the opportunity to simply “walk into a space and just start living in the space. And we would have scripts that we used to guide us and tell a story, but we could also improvise,” Britton explained. She recalled realizing, after the inaugural season, “Oh, I don’t actually have to do that much here,” as the camera operators were “finding” the story and “the editors would put it together.”
While the run-and-gun style of shooting the show afforded its Friday Night Lights staples “so much freedom,” the same could not be said for guest actors and directors.
Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler on ‘Friday Night Lights’Credit: Virginia Sherwood/NBC
“We did have a couple of people come in and they were like, ‘You guys are a cult,’” Britton said, to laughter from the audience. “I mean, people were mad. Because some people get really stressed out in that environment… The key to making that environment work is you have to feel safe.” And there was indeed “a real sense of trust and safety there” among those who regularly worked on the show, Britton added.
She pointed to the way Kyle Chandler — who starred as high school football coach Eric Taylor, husband to Britton’s Tami — often put it: “‘I knew if I fell down, she was going to pick me up.’ And that was fundamentally what made it work.”
That trust seemed to stem, at least in part, from the ethos impressed upon everyone by series creator Peter Berg, who also helmed and co-wrote the 2004 Friday Night Lights film (in which Britton also had a small role).
“‘You guys are responsible for maintaining what this show is.’ He goes, ‘Nobody pushes us around. Who pushes us around? Nobody pushes us around. You know what this show is. You have to protect your character,’” Britton recalled. “Pete Berg is quite the character.”
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Still, she said, “Everybody felt that way” about Friday Night Lights, including but not limited to “the people behind the cameras, the craft service people, the people doing the sound, the editors…”
Connie Britton on ‘Phony’Credit: Disney/David Astorga
Triggs also asked Britton who she would pick, of all her characters, to befriend in real life.
“I mean, Tami, for sure. Tami’s a good hang,” Britton replied, before amending that to say, “I really like [Nashville’s] Rayna a lot too. I mean… I love all of them. I have no judgement for any of them.”
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Earlier in the event — in which Britton was also promoting her new show Phony — the actress said she injects a part of herself into every character she plays, albeit different elements depending on the role.
As for Tami’s particular resonance, Britton attributed that to “the commitment across the board to not only give [Tami] a voice, but to make sure that that voice felt incredibly specific.”
Tami, she also noted, represents “this great combination of so many of the women I grew up around” in “a small Southern town.”
“The privilege of being able to play moms… Moms are multifaceted and incredibly intelligent and doing a million different things, and sexy, and all of those things and— or none of those things, depending on the mom,” Britton mused. “But they’re all on the table. So, for me, it’s a wonderful opportunity to explore interesting women.”
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
