I was a geek at school... I was picked on by the sports guys
John Stamos is surprising people with his role as a girls’ basketball coach. Georgia Humphreys learns all about it from the former E.R. heartthrob
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 that character, don’t move around too much... I think I pulled it off.”
Coach Korn is a hothead with a temper. So, does John see the character as a departure in his career? “I feel like a lot of people’s reaction so far is that it’s a stretch,” muses the star, who also starred in hit medical drama E.R.
“To me, a lot of people haven’t seen a lot of the theatre I’ve done, or maybe some of the more serious work I’ve done here and there in smaller things. I say to my wife, ‘He [Coach Korn] is kind of closer to me, right?’ And she goes, ‘Yeah! You yell like that, you’re passionate about things’.
“I think I tapped into my father, who was pretty loud, and a big, proud, Greek man. As I played the character, I got closer and closer to him, and who he is.”
Comedian Brad Garrett – of Everybody Loves Raymond fame – thought up the idea for the show several years ago, so when Disney+ started, and the executives asked if there were any pilots people had liked over the years, David E Kelley (creator of Ally McBeal and Big Little Lies) and Dean Lorey (who’s worked on Arrested Development and My Wife And Kids) decided to develop Big Shot.
There was a lot of figuring out what kind of show they wanted it to be following the first table read, explains John.
“We took a few months before we came back to do Episode Two, because I think
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’.”
■ Big Shot is available to watch now on Disney+