A riveting locker room speech can be the difference maker in truly selling the emotion of a sports TV show or movie. And Adrien Brody delivers an exquisite amount of them to the Los Angeles Lakers in his turn as real-life coach Pat Riley on HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.
The series depicts the legendary Showtime era of the LA Lakers, which saw players like Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Solomon Hughes), Norm Nixon (played by his son, DeVaughn Nixon), and more. Plus, Celtics icon Larry Bird (Sean Patrick Small) makes multiple appearances. And Brody’s Riley is at the center of it all.
To celebrate his triumphant ability to gas up, grill, or simply get his guys into grind mode, TV Insider caught up with Brody to look back at one of those scenes and learn a bit more about what went into his performance for TV Insider’s Scene Study series.
“You have to live by a certain code, if you really want it, whatever that is in life,” Brody says in the above discussion, noting that that is especially true in the highly competitive world of professional athletes.
His words are on point with a key moment from the clip, in which Riley says, “There won’t be a single second where you did not give it your all. No. Unfinished. Business.” About this critical moment, Brody noted that the players’ journey to success mirrored Riley’s own arc in the series and can be compared to those highs and lows Brody experienced as an actor.
The actor also gushed about the collective effort that made the series such a rush, saying, “This is team work. Winning Time was really the culmination of fantastic casting, first and foremost, really smart and thoughtful producing, and a sharp eye in the directing, storytelling, [and] writing.”
One team connection that was critical to Brody’s performance was the relationship between Riley and Quincy Isaiah’s Johnson. Brody discussed how he and Isaiah went about establishing their characters’ crucial connection, sharing a story about going out to lunch during the first season. There, he remembered, the two discussed everything from their acting journey to their process. For Brody, at least, the parallels between their relationship and that conversation echoed what existed between Pat Riley and Magic Johnson so many years ago.
Watch the full video above to hear what else Brody had to say about this big scene.
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, Seasons 1 & 2, Streaming Now, Max
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