LONELY NEIGHBOR,
Plemons plays lonely neighbor who craves 'Game Night' craves ‘Game Night’
Following a string of acclaimed performances, Jesse Plemons arrives as an inspired scene stealer in Friday’s comedic thriller “Game Night.” The Dallas-born Plemons scored memorably as a psycho in “Breaking Bad” and a doomed butcher in the second season of FX’s “Fargo.” He and his “Fargo” co-star Kirsten Dunst are expecting their first child. “It’s funny, the timing of things,” Plemons, 29, said. “Before ‘Game Night,’ I did ‘Black Mass’; I was Kevin Weeks. Although there are different opinions, from an outside perspective, he was considered a rat.
“Then this came when I was in London doing one episode of ‘Black Mirror,’ playing an extremely creepy guy in that.
“With ‘Game Night,’ I thought there was something really nice here, to play Gary, the sweet guy.”
Gary, recently divorced and next-door neighbor to married Max (Jason Bateman) and Annie (Rachel McAdams), is rebuffed with obvious lies whenever he asks to join their game night.
That’s partly because, although a member of law enforcement, Gary seems slightly sinister.
“Gary,” Plemons said, “was probably always a bit of an odd duck and the divorce didn’t help that situation.
“I felt bad for him, like, ‘I’ve met people like that.’ I want to get some homage to the people out there that really are nice, good people that just are lonely and overlooked.
“He’s just very, very lonely and really wanted to be invited to this game night. That was the most important thing to Gary.”
Plemons’ career began with a Coke commercial; he wasn’t even 4. He’s been acting professionally since he was 8. How did he know so early?
“Obviously, it wasn’t something as a young child I would choose as a career. It was something I always was drawn to,” Plemons said.
Growing up in a small town, he said, “We’d pack up and go be background in these Westerns they were shooting all the time. I took to it. My (older) sister didn’t. She would get upset with the costumes or the waiting.
“My first part was ‘Varsity Blues’ (a 1999 high school football drama). Jon Voight was so nice to me as a kid.
“I was there for a month, not having much to do, but it was the first time I realized I really liked this. Then when I did ‘Friday Night Lights’ at 18, it struck me that I might be able to do this for a living.”
As he has.