Georgia Humphreys

I was a geek at school... I was picked on by the sports guys

When John Stamos first read the script for Big Shot, he didn’t understand why he’d been asked to play Coach Marvyn Korn.

The 10-part Disney+ Original follows a stoic, “unlikeable”, “unfriendly” men’s basketball coach who, after getting fired, is given a chance for redemption with a new job – at an elite all-girls private high school.

And, as a talkative, affable guy, playing someone who’s not good with people was tricky for California-born

John, 57.

But, the actor, famous for US sitcom Full House, says, he had to trust in the writing – and also trust that he was “interesting enough to not do a lot of shtick and bits and funny voices”.

“I told the director, ‘Please if you see me dipping into any old tricks of mine, stop, yell cut’,” he recalls.

“The challenge was to just stay in

John Stamos is surprising people with his role as a girls’ basketball coach. learns all about it from the former E.R. heartthrob that character, don’t move passionate about things’. around too much... I think I “I think I tapped into my pulled it off.” father, who was pretty loud,

Coach Korn is a hothead and a big, proud, Greek man. with a temper. So, does John As I played the character, I got see the character as a closer and closer to him, and departure in his career? who he is.”

“I feel like a lot of people’s Comedian Brad Garrett – of reaction so far is that it’s a Everybody Loves Raymond stretch,” muses the star, who fame – thought up the idea for also starred in hit medical the show several years ago, so drama E.R. when Disney+ started, and the

“To me, a lot of people executives asked if there were haven’t seen a lot of the any pilots people had liked theatre I’ve done, or maybe over the years, David E Kelley some of the more serious (creator of Ally McBeal and Big work I’ve done here and Little Lies) and Dean Lorey there in smaller (who’s worked on Arrested things. I say to my Development and My Wife And wife, ‘He [Coach Kids) decided to develop Big Korn] is kind of Shot. closer to me, There was a lot of figuring right?’ And she out what kind of show they goes, ‘Yeah! wanted it to be following the You yell like first table read, explains John. that, you’re “We took a few months before we came back to do Episode Two, because I think

John in his E.R days

John Stamos plays Coach Korn

there was a debate about how dark, how edgy, how deep [the show should be].

“And I’m glad they figured it out because I think what we replaced with edge, we filled up with heart and emotion.”

Discussing his preparation for the role, John spent time with Jerry West, a former basketball player for the

Los Angeles Lakers.

It was especially helpful as he was not a sporty kid at school himself; in fact, he reflects on how he was a

“band geek”.

“I know everybody says they were nerdy when they were kids, but I was,” he elaborates.

“I was picked on by the sports guys. I was a punk, and I was a geek. I played in a marching band and the sports guys, I was afraid of them. There was always somebody who wanted to beat me up too, I hated it. But, I was true to myself at that time.”

“I don’t understand sports – I never did,” he admits. “I can’t wrap my head around it. And it was so sad, because my dad loved sports – and I tried! I loved my dad and I wanted to be around him.

“He was a golfer, and I said, ‘OK, I’m going to take lessons’. And then I went out with him one day and said, ‘Dad, watch this’, and I hit the ball and I sliced it, and it flew by this older woman’s temple by like a quarter of an inch, and I almost killed her.

My dad said, ‘That’s it, we’re done with golf’.”