Netflix and Happy Madison’s latest comedy is Home Team starring Kevin James and Taylor Lautner. Out on January 28, the film is based on a true story. In it, James plays NFL coach Sean Payton, who gets suspended from the league after winning the Super Bowl and reconnects with his family by helping Lautner’s character coach his son’s team.
“Two years after a Super Bowl win when NFL head coach Sean Payton is suspended, he goes back to his hometown and finds himself reconnecting with his 12-year-old son by coaching his Pop Warner football team,” says the logline of the film.
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Home Team stars Kevin James and Taylor Lautner about the Netflix comedy, their athletic backgrounds, and more.
Tyler Treese: Kevin, I know you were an athlete before some back injuries, and even majored in sports management. Getting to play a Super Bowl-winning head coach, did that feel like wish-fulfillment in some way, and did you feel like a bit of a traitor wearing Saints gear instead of the Jets?
Kevin James: Good question. No, it didn’t [feel like a traitor] for two reasons. Number one, my Jets are so bad right now. They can’t be mad at anything. They can’t get upset with me. I’m still there, still a fan. Still love ’em, but don’t get mad if I’m dating other people right now. You know what I’m saying? Dating other teams for sure. And it was a great story, so it was an honor to play Sean Payton, man. He is a great dude and to see what he went through and how he turned this down time in his life into a massive upswing was inspirational, to say the least. It was great.
He won the Super Bowl and he did all this stuff and yet it was not as important as spending time with his kids. That was the true story for me, and it was fun. It was a true story about these guys bringing this team of misfits, basically, to a championship and reconnecting with his son. It’s like the perfect setup for a movie. So I was happy to be part of it. It really was, and he’s a great guy, Sean, and was so helpful on all this.
Taylor, you had really fun roles and Grown Ups 2 and The Ridiculous 6. What is it about happy Madison productions that you find so fun to do?
Taylor Lautner: I love Happy Madison, Sandler, the entire family. None of their projects feel like work. It’s like summer camp and everyone involved in them are just such great people, and I’ll say yes to a Happy Madison project for the rest of my life. But this one, this one was a blast.
Kevin, portraying a real person like Sean Payton, did your prep change any, and did you try to imitate any of his mannerisms?
James: I did. I tried to watch what he did a little bit here and there, and of course, I’m not gonna look like him, I’m a much bigger in this way, you know, I’m heavier than he is, and he’s a lot taller than me, and he’s got a much better head of hair. But you know, as much as you can, I think at a certain point, though, no one’s going ‘Is that Sean Payton?’ You know, no, they knew it was me, but you want to get the feeling of the person and bring a spirit to the project. And hopefully, I did that well enough.
Taylor, you were quite involved in school athletics. How did you pull from that experience to play a football coach here?
Lautner: I think it was just pulling from, you know, watching what coaches did for me growing up. Because yeah I started playing football, baseball, martial arts when I was super young. And I had so many coaches that taught me so much and I wanted to bring that to Troy and also bring it to myself to offer these young actors. Because I started acting when I was their age. So it was pretty cool to be there for them at this point in their careers.
