The Emmy- and Tony-winning actor shares how he prepared for the role as the longtime NBA coach, including what he learned by inviting Rivers to a party he hosted last year.
In 2014, audio recordings emerged of Clippers owner Donald Sterling saying various unsavory things to his girlfriend about Blacks, including that she shouldn’t bring them to his team’s games. The fallout was swift; five days later Sterling wasInteresting, yes, but is there enough meat there for a six-part limited TV series? It turns out there is.
Thank goodness Doc is alive and well. We had some mutual friends who passed my number to his, and I was able to contact him and talk to him a little bit on the phone, then invited him to my home. I was having a party on Labor Day with some other friends. He arrived and got into a debate about the late Bill Russell, and whether or not he was the greatest that ever played the game, which was fascinating. And it allowed me to observe him in a very natural and just perfectly relaxed environment.
I mean, you think of a guy like Pat Riley, for example, right? It always seemed like Pat Riley was like one of the stars of the team. And that’s not Doc’s approach at all. He’s the man behind the team, who is encouraging gently, guiding gently and asking the right questions at the right time that allow the players to go through their own thought process and arrive at decisions for themselves.I didn’t know who Doc Rivers was. I’m not a sports fan. I knew who the Clippers were.
Ed O’Neill, right, had the unique challenge of playing disgraced former Clippers owner Donald Sterling. / Kelsey McNeal/FXEd O’Neill has played a lot of buffoons in his day, but they’ve always had redeeming qualities. And now, Donald Sterling doesn’t really fall into that category. How do you think Ed did?I can tell you hands down, I know he’s been successful, because Ed is one of the great American actors. I mean, he just is.
And yeah, I do like playing people that are real, because they’re fascinating. I was lucky enough to play Nelson Mandela at one point. That’s a fascinating man. When do you get the opportunity to play a person like Mandela? Well, there are only a handful of those kinds of people.
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