What Connie Britton And Kyle Chandler's Relationship Is Like In Real Life
As the two star players on Team Mr. and Mrs. Coach, the potential for "Friday Night Lights" co-stars Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton to experience relationship drama both on-screen and off was as expansive as the Texas sky. Sometimes, playing a couple on television for as long as they did — five years, to be exact — can make co-stars start to despise each other and even want to quit. First impressions can also play a crucial role in how a professional relationship develops.
After she finished shooting the show's final season in 2010, Britton spoke to Entertainment Weekly and reflected back on the moment she first met Chandler. "He was sitting in his trailer, listening to some goofy radio station, and I think we immediately started making funny jokes or something. I thought he was goofy," she said.
As for Chandler, he got a read on what his headstrong TV wife is like in real life after briefly chatting with her. "Connie has no bulls**t. It's all out in front. She's a very sweet person, very intelligent, very witty, and loves to play the fool," he said. He believed that he and Britton would get along so swimmingly that they embarked on a road trip together from Los Angeles to Texas before filming began. However, series creator Peter Berg was concerned about what would transpire during their long journey to their filming location in the Lone Star State.
The co-stars' off-screen chemistry was almost too good
Connie Britton discovered that Kyle Chandler is quite the chatterbox. "My nickname for him is 'Didjaknow.' He would start all these conversations with 'Did you know?' and proceed to tell you some little piece of trivia about ancient Mesopotamia that you could care less about. And it goes on for hours!" she told TV Guide. Despite this, she and Chandler took walkie-talkies with them on their road trip so they could communicate from their separate cars.
It was their crazy-good chemistry when the cameras weren't rolling that made Peter Berg fear that Britton and Chandler's road trip was a terrible mistake. "I was convinced they would be having some torrid affair by the time they reached Santa Fe and Kyle's marriage would be over by the time they got to Austin," Berg said during a 2011 Grantland roundtable. But instead, Britton and Chandler just strengthened their blossoming friendship, which involved a lot of playful banter and good-natured ribbing. According to Britton, she and Chandler's wife, Kathryn, also bonded by gossiping about him. "I knew this relationship was going to work because when Connie came over to the house, she and my wife would start giggling and laughing," Chandler told TV Guide.
Chandler and Britton also wanted their on-screen bond to be Texas tough. On "EW's Binge" podcast, Britton said they agreed that they would refuse to film any episodes about Eric and Tami Taylor's relationship being tested by infidelity.
Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler's reunions
Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler crossed paths at the 2016 Emmy Awards and posed for a blurry Instagram selfie together, reminding fans of how desperately they needed an actual "Friday Night Lights" reunion. As of this writing, no such reunion has happened, but Chandler and Britton did resume their friendly bickering from afar while discussing the idea with the media.
In 2017, Chandler told Us Weekly that Britton was to blame for the lack of an "FNL" reunion. "Connie refuses to do it so I'm not going to do it without her," he said. But during an appearance on "Today," Britton insisted that this was not the case at all. "I thought all this time it was because of him," she shared. "Listen, if he wants to do a reunion — I love Kyle, I love the show. I'm just saying, I don't want to be the hold-out here. Back to you, Kyle!"
Two years later, Chandler was still talking about why there was no Dillon Panthers reunion in the cards, joking to Metro, "It's Connie Britton. Connie Britton, she's pretty miserable. She's hard to work with and she's just..." But the former cast mates proved they were still pals by posing for a photo together at a 2020 Golden Globes party, and Britton clarified her stance on a reunion during a 2021 Entertainment Tonight interview. While she doesn't like the idea of the series being rebooted, she believes a cast reunion will happen someday.