It’s one of those ideas that comes along and makes everyone wonder how no one else thought of it before.
The League, which airs Thursdays on FX, follows a group of five otherwise well-adjusted men in their early 30s who live and breathe fantasy football, to the point that it often gets in the way of their jobs, their relationships and generally makes their lives a fractured mess. With a pedigree including a producer from Curb Your Enthusiasm, the semi-improvised comedy takes a deeper look into a hugely popular hobby that has inspired a rabid following and is a staple on sports TV and call-in radio.
Each of the guys has achieved varying degrees of success in their lives — they range from doctor to stoner — but when it comes to the league, they revert to the same group dynamics they’ve always had. The cast is made up of many vets of improv comedy troupes like Human Giant, Upright Citizens Brigade and the Groundlings, along with actors from the independent film world who are used to working with low budgets and little time.
Mark Duplass (Humpday) plays Pete, who says the goal was not to create yet another variation on the man-child character popularized in Judd Apatow films, but to present a comedic portrait of regular lives derailed by an obsession.
He took some time to chat about what it’s like to improvise when you have to spout all sorts of arcane football knowledge, and how working on this TV series isn’t all that different from the world of independent film.
Tell me about the guys in this. Have they been friends for a long time?
It’s a group of four best friends, and they’ve known each other since high school, and through college, and the fifth guy is one of the younger brothers of my best friend, Kevin. He’s just kind of always around. They basically grew up the same way and even though they’re now in their early 30s and some of them have become very successful, some of them have not. The existing dynamic that was established when they were 14 years old fortunately for some, not so fortunately for some, still dominates the group dynamic.
So, are they basically pretty good guys, and this is their one hang-up, or do they just need to grow up?
I think they’re pretty good guys. The football thing is the one big tunnel-vision component to their lives. Once they get pulled into that tractor beam, we see the buffoons that they can be. But beyond that, they’re functioning dudes in their life but for this one obsession.
What about your character? How does he fit in to all this?
Pete works in marketing for pharmaceutical sales company. We picked that for Pete because Pete’s the guy who tries to get as much out of life as he can without trying. He’s naturally charming and this is about as far as he could get without doing any effort. Pete’s married. He’s got a bit of a troubled marriage. His wife would really like him to stop spending so much time on fantasy football and put a little more effort into their marriage and his career and potentially the discussions of them having a child. But he is somewhat resistant, he’s got a little bit of that Peter Pan syndrome, and you start to realize that there are some deeper problems with Pete and his wife in their marriage.
Your wife in real life, Katie Aselton, is on the show, but does not play your wife. Is that a little strange?
Not strange, just painful for me because on set all day I just get ripped on by everyone in the cast. It’s like I walk past, I hear Steve [Stephen Rannazzisi] who’s playing Kevin, like “Man, they yelled cut and she just kept making out with me.” The fantasy football ribbing on day three has already bled into real life.
I hear you’re a football fan, but how do you compare to your character?
It’s interesting, because Katie and I come from the indie film world and we’ve done a lot of improvisation stuff like this, so that was obviously a huge component. But in a lot of the movies we’ve done, we’ve been playing more artists and struggling musicians and struggling this and that, so it was exciting to me to be able to play a character that’s a little bit different from me. Even though I am a football fan, it’s not something that dominates my life like it does for these guys. It takes one little area of interest for me that I’ve never really explored that onscreen before.
Does the league dominate the show, or is it just a way to get a look into their lives?
It’s about half and half, I’d say. Because part of it is exploring the world of fantasy football and how obsessed people get and how ridiculous it is when you look at it from an outside perspective. It’s definitely a bit of a siphon to get you into the lives of a group of people in the suburbs in their early 30s. There’s definitely that feeling for my character, at least, that I am a virtual gridiron god. No one can touch me in the realm of fantasy football. I’ve been winning constantly, but everything else in my life is a @#$%ing train wreck. So it is a nice way to get into a lot of personal things that are going on.
How tough is it to improvise when you’re talking about fantasy football? That has to require a lot of specific knowledge.
It actually does take a little more planning. If you’re doing a breakup scene or whatever, and you’re improvising, you can say, “All right, I’ve been broken up with” or “I’ve broken up with someone” — you pretty much have the knowledge you need. But when you’re improvising whether you’re going to start LaDainian Tomlinson or Frank Gore and who’s on the injured reserve list, it requires some specific research. But the good news is that Jeff, our showrunner, is quite possibly the most highly obsessed fantasy football player of all time. The names and the statistics that he can rattle off effortlessly are kind of astounding. A lot of times we’ll be going to do a scene and I’ll say, “Jeff, give me two running backs who have been brutal over the past six months, and he’ll [tell me] and I’ll be like, “OK, good.” It’s a lot of quick-fire things. He’s essentially the Fort Knox of fantasy football facts.
Had you ever played fantasy football?
I’d never played fantasy football before, but I was very aware of it. I went to an all-boys Catholic school in New Orleans and everyone that I grew up with are very similar to the guys on this show. They’re married with kids, working with day jobs and they are all in their own fantasy football league. I’ve tangentially seen it, but I haven’t been able to be entrenched until now.
From what you’ve been able to discern, is there a difference between a fantasy football obsession and any other kind someone might have?
It’s hard to say. The specific thing about the fantasy football scene to me is there’s an inherent sweetness in it. It is either an ex-athlete or I never was an athlete. So there’s a dream of becoming a part of something and getting to say and do the things that athletes do virtually. As buffoonish as the guys get sometimes and as obsessed as they are, there’s an underlying sweetness. It’s like, “I really wish I was getting the gridiron glory, but I can’t do that because I’m either an ex-athlete who was never that great or I was born with a pear-shaped figure and I never got out there in the first place.” I just really like that feel to it. It’s like that wish-fulfillment thing that’s just really sweet.
So is any of this fantasy football obsession rubbing off on you?
The first week, everyone was really obsessed with the fantasy football league. We all created a league together that we all play in, along with the showrunners and the actors. The first week was a little overly obsessed, because no one wanted to lose in the first week. I’ve backed off a little bit, Katie has gotten more obsessed and turned into the @#$%-ing dominant monster of the league. It’s ridiculous. She scored like 150 points, which is an unprecedented record, last week.
I imagine trash talking is a main component of the show’s humor?
There’s a specific strata of what is expected. Pete is the champion and he’s always winning. Kevin is the commissioner of the league, he sets it all up, and he probably knows more about football than anyone else, but he can never seem to win. So he’s got a little bit of that Salieri-to-Mozart complex, where he’s just right there but never there. And Andre, the fourth, is kind of like the little dork growing up, and Bobby’s just this successful doctor, but he still gets no absolutely no respect from us. He gets crushed every year. We’re always tricking him into drafting someone who’s recently retired or with broken legs.
Why are there only six episodes in this first season?
Partially the reason that they did six is that was that was the most we could get in time, because they really wanted to start the show while the NFL season was happening. We’re really running and gunning, this whole thing came together so fast. … They wanted to pair us with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, while [The League] has the broader attraction of being a show about football, and they can reach the audience that really loves fantasy football, there’s a specificity to the humor and the interpersonal dynamic that also could be shared with the It’s Always Sunny crowd.
Coming from the indie world, you’re used to that fast-paced schedule.
I love that. It’s good energy. It’s a low-budget show and no one’s there for the money at this stage. We’re all there because it’s fun to be there and we can be creative.
You weren’t disappointed that, finally being at a network, it wasn’t different?
It’s never that way. I guess certain people get to that point, but I certainly am not.
Having worked mainly in independent film, was a cable network series even something that was on your radar?
No. My brother and I, we work a lot together as a writer-director team. I was always worried, doing a TV show, how much time that would take up, so I just never considered it. But then we met Jackie and Jeff, and it’s just very interesting how it’s two very different worlds — the TV world and the indie film world — but what we’re doing and our sensibilities are really incredibly aligned. The focus is on improvisation and looseness and [having] fun on set and run and gun, shooting fast with a small crew of — essentially — good friends out there. It just started to make sense, and before we knew it, it was like, “OK, here we go.”
Your show creators come from Curb Your Enthusiasm. How does the humor in The League compare with the caustic awkwardness we see on Curb?
It’s a very similar vibe to Curb, except that Curb is so centered around Larry David the persona and this show is much more of an ensemble cast, many more characters to follow. It’s a little less quirky and all about going for the joke, and there’s a little more relationship storyline and a little more humanity to what’s going on here, as far as actually following what it’s like to be younger and married and trying to figure out how you fit into this scheme as a new husband or a new dad or how do I belong here?
You’re a guy in your early 30s, with a wife and kid. Does that part really strike a chord with you?
All of us are really dealing with it. It’s great. I really believe when you’re improvising on a show, it’s good to have a character that’s somewhat close to you so that when you’re deep in the improv and something slips out that’s close to home, it’ll land well. It’s fun to be out there and having these conversations and exploring these things that we’re all kind of feeling on some level or another.
You got some good notices this summer for Humpday. Have you seen an effect on your career from that yet?
People always looked at me more as a writer-director. When I did Humpday, which is something I just acted in, that sort of shifted and people look at me a little bit more as just an actor, which is cool and kind of exciting. I wasn’t sure how much I was going to explore that part, but between Humpday and — I did a little part in Noah Baumbach’s movie Greenberg with Ben Stiller — and with this show, it’s really cool. It’s turned out to be a great balance for me in my life, because it’s very stressful writing and directing movies. You’re like Atlas trying to shoulder the whole thing. With the show, I basically just show up and improvise and have fun, and [the showrunners] have to worry about it and we just go home. It’s nice.