“I’m really just about tired of being a supporting actor,” Landry Clarke tells his buddy from the barber’s chair. “I’m about ready to be a leading man, Matt.” As seen near the end of Friday Night Lights’ first season back in 2007, the scene is played for comedy—paralyzingly introverted freshman quarterback Matt Saracen can’t believe his dough-faced dork of a best friend thinks he has a chance with the girl—but in keeping with the show’s ethos, there is tenderness and empathy and possibility in it, too. A lot of that nuance is bound up in the performance of Jesse Plemons, the actor who played Landry for all five seasons of the show. Plemons brought dignity and complexity to a character others might have mined strictly for comic relief, but even by the time he was kicking game-winning field goals and rocking empty rooms with the Christian speed-metal band Crucifictorious (which, okay, was definitely played for comic relief), Landry was the definition of a role player within the context of Friday Night Lights.
You could be forgiven for sometimes forgetting that Jesse Plemons is not actually Landry Clarke. Between Friday Night Lights’ dreamy vérité style and the fact that Plemons grew up in small-town Texas just like Landry, it’s easy for longtime FNL fans to continue associating the actor with his breakthrough role. So for Dillon Panthers Day Ones, it’s been wild to watch Plemons, 32, evolve into one of the most in-demand actors in prestige film and TV. And even after logging work for directors like Paul Thomas Anderson, Charlie Kaufman, and Steven Spielberg; appearing in legendary seasons of Breaking Bad and Fargo; and accumulating the most impressive career of any FNL star besides Michael B. Jordan, the news that the guy who played Landry Clarke is taking over for Leonardo DiCaprio as the lead of the next Martin Scorsese film is enough to make you squint, Plemons-style.
Yet there was the report in mid-February: Plemons will star in Killers Of The Flower Moon, Scorsese’s new thriller for AppleTV+, adapted from David Grann’s bestselling book about the Osage Indian murders in the 1920s. Longtime Scorsese favorite DiCaprio, originally tapped for Plemons’ role as FBI agent Tom White, has shifted to a supporting part as the white husband of an Osage woman played by Lily Gladstone. Even-longer-time Scorsese favorite Robert De Niro is in the cast as well. Heading up Marty’s first movie since The Irishman (which Plemons also appeared in, as the son of Al Pacino’s Jimmy Hoffa) is a major coup. It suggests that to praise this guy as one of Hollywood’s favorite character actors may no longer be sufficient. Plemons does not look glamorous in the slightest; he more closely resembles the kind of burly farm boy DiCaprio might thicken himself up to portray. For the time being, his name recognition remains low beyond the realm of TV addicts and cinephiles. But he now seems destined to become a real-deal movie star.
Like Coach Eric Taylor, who often referred to Landry as “Lance,” those who don’t know Plemons by name may well recognize his face. Perhaps you know him as Todd, the “Opie, dead-eyed piece of shit” from the final season of Breaking Bad who cooked meth for his neo-Nazi uncle and nonchalantly murdered a child in broad daylight, a role that earned Plemons the nickname of “Meth Damon” in some corners of the internet. Plemons played Todd like Landry if he lived by the motto “Dead eyes, cold heart, don’t care,” swapping out bashful stuttering for blank-faced sociopathic indifference. (“Todd is like, a lot went wrong for Landry for him to turn into Todd,” Seth Meyers once quipped to Plemons.) This is the role that caught the attention of Charlie Kaufman, who cast Plemons opposite Jessie Buckley in last year’s surreal and unsettling I’m Thinking Of Ending Things. “I never saw Todd coming, and I think that’s the thing about Jesse,” Kaufman told The New York Times. “It’s very interesting to watch him work because everything is just so small and underplayed, which is very valuable in film.” In the same feature, Plemons concurred: “I love actors where you don’t see them acting.”
The year he joined the Breaking Bad cast, Plemons also played the son of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s cult leader in The Master. In his most memorable scene, he leaned back on a porch, wearing the drowsy, bloated expression of a man who has consumed too much Thanksgiving dinner, and declared that his dad is “making all this up as he goes along.” That performance “riveted” Crazy Heart director Scott Cooper, who has since cast Plemons in three of his movies. “I turned to my wife in the theater and said, ‘Who is that?’” Cooper recently recalled to The Guardian. “What I saw then was what I see now in our collaborations: Jesse’s choices are always unorthodox but very specific. He approaches material from a curious and introspective manner, and his quest for the truth never ends. If time and money were not an issue, we would still be shooting the scene in Hostiles where his character admits for the first time his feelings about killing another man. Jesse will go until all fall down.”
The first Cooper film Plemons appeared in was 2015’s Black Mass, a look at the alliance between the FBI and Boston’s Irish mob in the 1970s. Plemons, playing a henchman of Johnny Depp’s “Whitey” Bulger, brought his usual subtlety to bear on cocksure gangster charisma, slyly dressing down a fellow wiseguy while working as a bouncer: “You probably don’t remember this, but you were here last Saturday night, a few of your friends, ’round two or three in the morning. You took a piss up against the bar. And that’s frowned upon here.” From under a massive helmet of hair, in his best Beantown accent, he continued, “But if you go down to Branigan’s, just right there, they’ll let you take a shit in the middle of the floor if that’s what you wanna do. But you can’t—you can’t do it here.” The Matt Damon comparisons have never rung truer.
Later that year, Plemons showed off an entirely different disposition when he appeared in the second season of FX’s Fargo as a modest small-town butcher who resigns himself to helping his wife cover up a murder—a superior echo of the widely derided FNL subplot in which Landry kills a man he catches assaulting his love interest, Tyra. Despite a switch from Boston bravado to “Minnesota nice,” Plemons’ average-Joe minimalism continued to be a through-line for his performances. In interviews, he can be as taciturn as some of his characters, speaking in soft generalities about his love for cinema while projecting a distant chill that suggests he can’t wait to retreat back into introversion. He comes off not like a Hollywood egotist but an everyman with astonishing dedication to his craft. Kirsten Dunst, who played Plemons’ wife on Fargo and went on to marry him in real life, smartly summed up his particular brand of masculine steadiness: “There’s such a presence to him, like he’s part of the earth.” That quality consistently translates to the screen; Cooper has compared Plemons to “a swan out on the lake, gliding gracefully and effortlessly, while underneath the surface it’s working very hard.”
His abilities seem to be growing sharper with time. Plemons killed in the 2018 action comedy Game Night as the socially inept neighbor the protagonists avoid at all costs. Clutching a lap dog while wearing a police uniform, he brought a creepy monotone intensity to such mundane dialogue as “I do hope you keep me in mind for any future game nights. I’ve always enjoyed the camaraderie of good friends competing in games of chance and skill.” That same year, he swung to the other end of his range in Adam McKay’s snarky Dick Cheney biopic, Vice. As Kurt, a fictionalized veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, Plemons narrated key scenes with deadpan sarcasm and an ever-so-slight drawl, offering up a whole new version of his signature remove.
His best role yet, though, is among his most deadly serious. In Shaka King’s new Judas And The Black Messiah, Plemons plays Roy Mitchell, the FBI agent whose efforts to undermine Black Panthers leader Fred Hampton culminated in Hampton’s killing in 1969. Behind mesmerizing performances from Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton and LaKeith Stanfield as Bill O’Neil, the informant who betrayed Hampton, it would be easy to overlook Plemons’ typically understated work. But whether wincing at racist provocations from Martin Sheen’s J. Edgar Hoover or stonewalling a desperate O’Neil to obtain more intel, the man just simmers. His demeanor can be so muted that he seems lost in thought, yet he always gives you just enough to pick up on the calculations raging within: briefly slipping in and out of a grin without breaking his stare, leveraging silence and texture like an ambient composer. Rarely has such a stoic presentation felt so electrifying.
How that style will manifest in Killers Of The Flower Moon is anyone’s guess. Will Plemons do his best grizzled Clint Eastwood impression? Will he play against type with a more animated persona à la Hoffman at his most dynamic? It’s exciting to consider the possibilities, but since shooting doesn’t begin until May, we’ll have to wait a while to find out. Nor is it fully clear what to expect from him in the movies scheduled to drop between now and then: the Disney adventure story Jungle Cruise alongside Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt; Cooper’s horror film Antlers opposite Keri Russell; and Jane Campion’s Netflix drama The Power Of The Dog with Dunst and Benedict Cumberbatch. What is clear by now is that Plemons can quietly anchor any ensemble, even in the company of legends like DiCaprio and DeNiro. Landry really is ready to be a leading man.
95 Comments
I’d probably also look disgruntled all the time if I peed lemons.
Like, it’s so awesome to see Plemons have such a great career, and I have absolutely no doubt he deserves it (I also have fondness for anyone who was on FNL and end up rooting for them if only for that association).But stuff like this just reminds how much I wish that Zach Gilford – who was absolutely stellar as Matt Saracen – had a comparable post-FNL career.
If you consider the meteoric rise of both Jesse Plemons and Adam Driver, you get the feeling the big directors are not looking for a low-key handsome leading man type right now, but someone with chops who’s more interesting looking. Still waiting for interesting-looking women actors to get the same chances.
The really big stars have always been a little odd-looking. Characterful, not catalogue models. I maintain this is why Ben Affleck never quite made the top-tier. It’s your Humphrey Bogarts, your Warren Beattys. Handsome but distinctive.
Plemons is more on the distinctive side. He’ll remain a character actor and have a great career.
I’d suggest there’s kind of a third category, “Character actor plus.” Take someone, for example, like Edward G. Robinson – a person who would seldom be thought of as being a traditional lead, yet who did manage to get the leading role in certain types of films.
He did get engaged to Kirsten Dunst though, so good for him!
I don’t really disagree but Warren Beatty in the 1960s couldn’t have been a “catalog model”??
Matt McConaughey’s obviously a beautiful man…but there’s something wiry and almost dangerous about him in a way that Affleck just isn’t.
I don’t really think those lone two guys you just picked out are proof of some overall trend.
There’s some move toward that as well, albeit slower. Jessie Buckley, mentioned in the article, comes to mind.
What, you mean like Zooey Deschanel? *flee*
Adam Driver can be VERY handsome from the right angle.
Like from behind.
It’s a cyclical thing. In the 40’s you had your Bogarts, your Mitchums, your Robert Ryan’s, etc. – handsome in a kind of worn down, world weary, almost homely (particularly Bogart) sort of way. Then in the 50’s and early 60’s Hollywood started going for the clean, square jaw, stereotypically all-American type. Guys with names like Rock, or Tab, or Charlton, or Bob (ironically, the first two of those turned out to be gay).
Then in the 70’s, it switched back to guys like Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, Al Pacino, Richard Dreyfus… not unattractive actors, but not stereotypical leading man types either.
The term I’ve heard is “off-kilter handsome.” Like, they’re not unattractive people, but there’s something strange or distinctive about their look.I think there’s something to the cyclical nature you’re describing but it’s not holistically true. The 70’s was the decade of Nicholson or Pacino or de Niro, but also Robert Redford. The 80’s & 90’s was a conventionally handsome era, with big stars Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner, Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford, Will Smith…but also Michael Keaton, Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis.I think of the 2000’s as a tipping point, where the guys they TRIED to make into big younger stars were gorgeous men like Taylor Kitsch, Ben Barnes, Hayden Christensen…but it didn’t necessarily work. Meanwhile, Matt Damon and Joaquin Phoenix were becoming behemoth leading men. Roles that would’ve gone to a Kevin Costner type were going to Russell Crowe. And yeah, the rising star they got for a “young Darth Vader” was Adam Driver.
Redford’s kind of an interesting “exception that proves the rule.” He actually started in the mid-to-late 60’s as part of the Ken Doll class of late studio system actors. But he just had better acting chops. I would also argue that, despite being typified as the ultimate WASP golden boy, he too has a sort of “off-kilter” quality that set him up as a movie star. As in, you can’t imagine him leading a TV series – he’s not generic enough. He comes across as a little too smart.Harrison Ford is also an interesting case study. I would he’s a lot like those 40’s leading men I was talking about earlier, hence him being such a natural fit for Indy Jones (despite the fact Tom Selleck was their first choice). He was actually one of the last actors to be under contract at a major studio. It very nearly killed his career – this being the late ‘60s/early ‘70s “New Hollywood” when all the hot film school generation directors wouldn’t be caught dead working with any actor from that system. They all wanted anti-Hollywood “New York” people.
There’s a great description of Steve Carrell (one of the most bankable leading men out there) as “almost handsome.”
I can think of plenty of actresses with distinctive faces. I think one of the differences is that women wear makeup to downplay their distinctive features while men do not.
Still waiting for interesting-looking women actors to get the same chances.
It’s definitely much harder for women, but the success of actors like Awkwafina and Dominique Fishback, a co-star with Plemons in Judas and the Black Messiah, suggest the evolution in casting isn’t exclusively male.
Does Elisabeth Moss count?
Yeah, I think so (although you could argue thin body, reasonably symmetrical features, etc.). And she’s got a great career going.
As under-40s go, I’d categorize people like Brie Larson (whom I’ve had a crush on since HS – USoT was gone too soon!), Anya Taylor-Joy and Jennifer Lawrence in that “Beautiful, but distinctive” Michael Keaton/Woody Harrelson group as opposed to the “Matinee Idol” types like Emma Watson, Karen Gillan, Kiera Knightley, etc.
Zach Guilford was so good. That Thanksgiving episode haunts me. FNL has become like The Wire where I have such a fondness for the whole cast, I just get very happy whenever any of them pop-up onscreen. Of course that’s a two-fer for Micheal B Jordan.
So true. FNL is one of my favorite shows of all time, and along with Parks and Rec, the one whose cast I had the most fondness for. (I just watched it again a few months ago with my girlfriend and it still mostly holds up.)As you said, Gilford was just so good. The High School Quarterback is such a trope, but he played it with a sweetness and authenticity that always made him the character I rooted for the most. That show tortured Saracen and nobody deserved a happy ending like he did – not even Riggins, who we’ll be naming our next dog after.
Zach Gilford needs to be in more things!(And not just because he’s my best-looking celebrity comp – Thomas Middleditch is the worst)
I think the reason Todd worked so well is because he’s NOT a leading man. Todd worked because the viewer never took him seriously until it was too late. That doesn’t work if he’s set up to be the leading man from the beginning.I guess he was fine as the leading man in I’m Thinking Of Ending Things, but that’s really because his contributions took a back seat to three hours of Charlie Kaufman being up his own ass.
Jane Campion’s Netflix drama The Power Of The Dog with Dunst and Benedict CumberbatchWhy did I only just read about this?
I’m gonna guess Benzedrine plays a rampant misogynist and Dunst plays the quiet, but strong, women who stoically puts up with his misogyny while succeeding at whatever it is she does.
In Game Night, he manages to make the simple act of a man walking backwards into his house both hilarious and genuinely rather unsettling.
He did a great job in the Black Mirror Star Trek-themed episode.
Agree. He’s good. My wife calls him the Fat Matt Damon.
I believe this is a standard nickname. He’s also sometimes called Meth Damon. He played a younger version of Damon’s character in All the Pretty Horses.
Fatt Damon had his chance. For a hot minute, he was super popular on Breaking Bad. Then it just slipped away. He is a very good actor, but the leading man roles are many years and pounds behind him.
Fatt Damon!
Whoa, whoa, whoa…the socially acceptable term is Beefcake Matt Damon
I was surprised to not see it listed here.
Me and my partner quote “That’s me watching The Green Mile,
crying, as I did through much of
the film.” at least once a week.
He’s my pick for Best Supporting Actor in 2018 for Game Night, a year with no shortage of career-best performances in supporting turns.
Fatt Damon had his chance. For a hot minute, he was super popular on Breaking Bad. Then it just slipped away. He is a very good actor, but the leading man roles are many years and pounds behind him.
Shout-out also to his performance in the Black-Mirror episode USS Callister, where he expertly portrays a character that is at the same time subdued and quietly terrifying.
I dunno. I’m still waiting for Michael Shannon to get his turn.
He was the lead in Pottersville!
did someone else besides me see this movie?
One of my favorites from the last decade.
Hope so. I spent a year recommending Take Shelter to anyone and everyone
Take Shelter? Absolutely.
Love Michael Shannon, but the world cannot handle his intensity.
He’s such an understated actor – and often finds himself amongst impressive ensembles – that it is easy to overlook the fact he never gives a bad performance. In films like The Master and The Irishman, he’s just doing solid work, never stealing the show and doing exactly what he needs to do.It’s nice that in recent years, he’s finally getting some showier roles like Game Night and this upcoming Scorsese film to really get the spotlight.
Black Mass is a pretty crummy movie and Johnny Depp’s front and center nonsense is a big part of its crumminess, but I still think about Plemons in it a lot. The opening scene, where he gets punched a bunch and slowly smiles, tells you everything you need to know about this goon and how he thinks (or doesn’t think). That Kaufman comment about how Plemons underplays is very accurate, what he’s doing there is much more disturbing than Depp’s vampire impression.
Yeah! It’s about time another mediocre white man got a chance to ascend to the A-list. You tell ’em, AV Club!
Ive never watched Friday Night whatever, to me he’ll always be the creep from “Breaking Bad”
Watch Friday Night Lights. You won’t regret it.
Cro-Magnon Matt Damon
FNL is not just good, it’s great.Just know that for the first few episodes, you might feel like you’re watching a high school soap opera with some pretty broadly drawn characters, but by the end of the first season and the four that follow, the cast and crew create an incredibly rich world that you might find yourself caring about more than you thought possible.
He reminds me a lot of Philip Seymour Hoffman who had a very similar presence, he could fade in and fade out when needed and be a commanding presence that was impossible to take your eyes off. I’ll never forget first seeing Hoffman in The Talented Mr Ripley and then shortly after rewatching The Big Lebowski and seeing how he just stole those scenes by doing what seemed very little. It’s almost impossible to quantify exactly what they bring but it’s an everyman-ness that is compelling, I get why Dunst said about him being ‘part of the earth’. They are both so fully grounded in whatever role it is. I miss Hoffman often, it’s good to see Plemons picking up the mantle.
Your comments about PSH make me smile and also cry a little. God I miss him.Freddie in The Talented Mr Ripley is probably my favorite PSH role, although it’s so hard to choose (Almost Famous, Manolia, etc,).
And he auditioned for Finn in Star Wars, which makes sense because he does kind of resemble a palette swapped John Boyega.
I love John Boyega and I’m glad that there’s a POC among the leads of the sequel trilogy, but man do I want to see Plemons’ version of Finn.
Based on the concept art, Poe would’ve been a black guy if Finn had been white.
He’s a phenomenal actor but I had no idea he’s only 32. Dude looks 40 at least.
Jesus we’re the same age?? He literally looks 20 years older than me.
I’m 32 as well. Reading that this morning was definitely a boost to my self-confidence.
Looks aside, I think I also assumed he and Kirsten Dunst were the same age so I had him pegged for closer to 38, but then I also forgot he was on Friday Night Lights and presumably not that much older than his character.
I was slightly disheartened to learn that I’m almost a decade older than him.
Plemons also played the son of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s cult leader in The Master. Now that is some stellar father-son casting!
I actually see Plemons’ career perhaps echoing PSH’s a bit. An actor naturally destined towards being a character actor impresses enough top-tier directors with sheer talent to become a leading man.
Agree. I think serious directors – craftsmen – will recognize Plemons’ talent and be open to give the juiciest and most challenging roles to the best actor they can find. Assuming Plemons doesn’t have the same personal demons as Hoffman, I think it’s possible he may even have the opportunity surpass Hoffman’s mark, given the time.
You took the words right outta my head.
Where’s Plemons’ Along Came Polly?
I’m looking forward to his role as Dusty in 2wister. Or would, if Bill Paxton was still with us.
Jesse Plemons is my favorite actor! He’s done a lot of really great work recently playing creeps, but he was so good at playing sweet Landry, I’d love to see him play a good guy again.
I have been saying this to no one in particular for years. Black Mass and Fargo really showed it for me.
If you want to have a full on ugly-cry, check him out in Other People, him and Molly Shannon kill it.
Good stuff, Chris. If I may offer my own take: Plemon’s performance in last year’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things was, in my view, the best role of his career, and the second best acting performance of 2020. Second, of course, to his own co-star Jessie Buckley’s performance in the same film. (can you tell I loved that film?)
I loved that film too, but honestly Plemons just doesn’t have range. Something about his physicality prevents him from having the kind of magnetism a leading actor really needs, and especially a star. Maybe I’m just being petty and he needs to be more handsome? In his supporting roles I’m distracted by his lack of facial range and check my watch till he leaves the frame. I was also confused when Leonardo de Caprio was shoved into leading roles, I think he’s a bit one-octave too, so maybe my taste is off. But for me, the test of a “leading” actor is the breadth of their convincing range.
Great article, minus the fact that it’s Like Mike erasure, which he’s great in.
Landry? You mean Lance?
I know Phillip Seymour Hoffman is the obvious comparison, but he really comes off to me like Noah Emmerich 2.0 and that’s a great thing too
Nice. You’re exactly right.
Fat Matt Damon!
“Fatt Damon” was right there…
Hollywood only cares: do you want to fuck them? Everything else is secondary.
Not gonna disagree. We have this hanging in my wife’s office:
That’s amazing! How did you get that, and do you know if there’s other authentic FNL merch out there?It’d be tough to top that t-shirt, but I’d even take some of Santiago’s cargo pants or Waverly’s lithium.
NBC did a charity auction with a bunch of FNL props when it went off the air back in 2011. Lots of cool shit that was out of my price range, like jerseys and coach T’s jacket; and some weird stuff… Like a baby doll that was a stand-in for coach’s infant child. I love band T-shirts (and Landry), so when I saw the Crucifitorious shirt, and it was in my price range…it was really easy to pull the trigger.It was conducted through vipfanauctions.com. just checked it out and it’s still around. They’re doing Vikings now, and it looks like they just wrapped up a Fargo auction. FNL stuff is probably floating around. Just make sure there’s a certificate of authenticity and/or a reputable seller.
Good stuff. Thanks for the info!
It’s wild which young stars from ‘Friday Night Lights’ has come to do big things after that show. I mean Jesse and Michael B Jordan are prime examples. Yes the others like Taylor Kitsch, Minka Kelly, Adrianne Palicki and Scott Porter have found some success. But nothing compared to the other two.
Fatt Damon had his chance. For a hot minute, he was super popular on Breaking Bad. Then it just slipped away. He is a very good actor, but the leading man roles are many years and pounds behind him.
Fatt Damon had his chance. For a hot minute, he was super popular on Breaking Bad. Then it just slipped away. He is a very good actor, but the leading man roles are many years and pounds behind him.
Fatt Damon had his chance. For a hot minute, he was super popular on Breaking Bad. Then it just slipped away. He is a very good actor, but the leading man roles are many years and pounds behind him.
To me he’s definitely leading man material – he’s also a hell of a character actor (see also Clooney, and Brad Pitt). I first saw him in Breaking Bad, and when I got around to Friday Night Lights I was blown away. I completely believed him as a neo-Nazi meth king (prince I guess) but as Landry he embodies sweetness, intelligence and wry humor. His Black Mirror episode was one of their best, and wouldn’t have worked nearly as well without him. I don’t know how widely-seen the movie Other People was, but he anchored that whole thing with a nuanced and not always sympathetic portrayal. (I highly recommend that movie – D’arcy Carden’s got a small role in it, and Plemons’ mom is played by Molly Shannon in a career highlight part. Oh, and Bradley Whitford’s in it too.)Also – not that it matters much but I know someone who’s worked with him and she says he’s really nice.
He’s in a show called No Activity (which is a reboot of an Australian show ) which I literally had never heard of until 2 days ago. Which has a massive amount of great actors.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7230846/