THE WORLD’S GREATEST ROAD TRIPS 18 EPIC DRIVES KYLE CHANDLER KYLE

JUNE 2019 Vol. 28, No. 6 THE ULTIMATE KYLE HIGH-INTENSITY TOTAL-BODY WORLD’S GREATEST ROAD TRIPS CHANDLER FITNESS PLAN The Star of the Monster Blockbuster Godzilla and the New Series Catch-22 /

SUMMER SUITS 17 Perfect Gifts for Any /

PINBALL WIZARDS Dad HOW TO IS BASEBALL BUY A DEAD? SUMMER A CRAZY PLAN SUIT TO SAVE JUNE 2019 THE GAME Kyle WORLD’S GREATEST Chandler’s ROAD TRIPS

RULES OF THE ROAD

by JESSE WILL photographs by THE ACTOR, NOW JEFF LIPSKY STARRING IN CATCH-22 AND GODZILLA, LIVES FOR THE OPEN ROAD. PARTWAY BETWEEN AUSTIN AND L.A., HE SHARES HIS RULES FOR A LONG-ASS DRIVE—AND, BY EXTENSION, LIFE ITSELF. 1. GO THE LONG WAY

“Welcome to my hovel,” says Kyle Chandler. these people here have a sense of adventure,” Wearing a frayed chambray shirt, well-worn he says. “And they’re trying to fulfill it in one khakis, and dusty cap-toe boots, he’s stand- way or the other.” ing beside me inside his gleaming aluminum 16-foot Airstream Sport, which he has affec- 2. STEER INTO THE UNKNOWN tionately named Tookus. He’s hauled the trailer up a serpentine road to a campsite near We head over to a picnic table set between the 9,000-foot peaks of the Organ Mountains, a few alligator-bark juniper trees. Chandler outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico, behind his has grilled up jalapeño sausages, onions, and manual-transmission Ram pickup, because— baked beans on a tabletop charcoal grill. He well, why not? throws down some enamel plates and pops the The 53-year-old actor is three days into tops off a couple of bottles of Guinness. As we a weeklong, 2,800-mile out-and-back drive take in the desert panorama, I tell him that the from his home near Austin, Texas, to Los desk clerk at my hotel told me that this is one Angeles, for a photo shoot and some other day of two every year when you can drive right business. It’s a route Chandler has driven up to the Trinity Site, where the U.S. Army set countless times, often with Kathryn, his wife off the first atomic bomb, in 1945, somewhere of nearly 25 years, and his daughters Sydney, down in the distance to the north. 23, and Sawyer, 17, photos of whom bedeck the “Well shit! Why didn’t you text me? I’da walls. But his sole companion on this trip is been all over that!” says Chandler, who says Geronimo, an 8-year-old mixed-breed rescue he’s all about roadside oddities. I tell him it dog who’s recovering from cancer surgery and would have required meeting at the local high shedding white hair in tufts. school parking lot by 7:30 a.m. After a walk-through of his travel totems “Got it. Damn. Well, we’da just got irradi- and movie-set mementos and a tour of the ated anyway. Cheers.” rig, which requires just a pivot—“there’s the He shares a few tales from his current trip, shower, which I actually used today,” Chandler which include overnighting on the shores of says—we’re back in the sun of southern New a spring-fed lake he found in West Texas, at a Mexico. I ask the obvious: Why not just fly? “I campsite five miles down a dirt road. “Paradise do fly every once in a while, when I have to,” he in the middle of nowhere,” he says. “I’ll go back.” says. “But I’d much rather do it this way. I mean, Chandler’s ease and equanimity are easy to look at this.” He gestures to the valley a couple understand: He’s in that coveted place where of thousand feet below. It’s an active artillery nearly all actors want to be, with a pair of range, currently airbrushed with a super- projects out this month that cover the spread: (HIS ORVIS BY PANTS CITIZEN, COTTON BY T-SHIRT MASON, BUCK BY SHIRT WEARS CHANDLER SPREAD: PREVIOUS bloom of cadmium-yellow poppies. Behind us from a blockbuster payday in Godzilla: King

is a steep wall of mountain, with a light breeze of the Monsters to prestige TV, with Catch-22, OWN) (HIS ORVIS BY LEVI’S, PANTS BY SHIRT PAGE: THIS MWC. BY WATCH CORCORAN. BY BOOTS OWN), coming down the pass. I get his point. a limited series on Hulu. Check one for com- For the past day, Chandler and Geronimo merce, one for art. have been soaking up the severe silence of this In the former, Chandler co-stars in the $7-a-night campsite. He’s been doing a bit of reportedly $200 million monster movie, shar- work, too: Last night, the actor read two scripts ing screen time with Millie Bobby Brown, while pondering the real Friday night lights— Vera Farmiga, and, of course, a giant lizard fiery pink clouds hovering over the high with atomic breath. He says he can’t wait to Chihuahuan Desert. watch the thing on a big screen. With the lat- He’s already made some friends at the camp- ter, George Clooney’s production company ground. There goes Bliss, recently retired, been takes on a six-episode adaptation of Joseph on the road for two months. There’s Don, who Heller’s 1961 novel about an Air Force bom- wired his RV with both AC and DC power so bardier (Christopher Abbot) wrestling with he can plug in more kitchen gadgets. A guy in a the fringes of sanity on a sun-soaked Mediter- Phoenix Suns jersey comes up to ask for change ranean island base during World War II. It’s a for the fee box—he only has a 20. After each taut, dry, soulful, hilarious, absurdist riff on interaction, the campers’ eyes linger for a half- the insanity of war and capitalism’s ties to it. beat, perhaps trying to place Chandler. Maybe The series also addresses, in writer Luke they’re taking in those familiar eyebrows, which Davies’ words, “lunatics in positions of power “I WAS SCARED TO DEATH. BUT MY CAREER HAS sometimes cock to an angle that’s like the pitch who should not be in those positions of power.” of a doghouse roof. Isn’t that the guy from… Chandler plays one of those lunatics—Colonel BEEN FULL OF THESE SITUATIONS WHERE I GET Bloodline? The Wolf of Wall Street? First Man? Cathcart, a barking, insecure bureaucrat who OPPORTUNITIES THAT I CAN’T SAY NO TO.” Manchester by the Sea? Friday Night Lights? jeopardizes his troops as he thirstily aspires Basketball-jersey guy walks away, and for a promotion to general. Originally, it was Chandler remarks that he shares these folks’ Clooney’s part, until the actor wanted to step sense of wanderlust. It’s why he’s here. “All into a smaller role that would afford him

068 055 more time to focus on producing and directing. was such a great way to bond and also to just made that show so great,” Chandler says. “I’ve Clooney called Chandler in Texas, but the sort of leave Hollywood behind and really taken that to everything I’ve done.” actor took some convincing. “First off, making drive into the world that we were gonna be The results of that approach resonated. Peo- remakes of certain things is beyond the pale,” inhabiting. On those road trips, we were cre- ple still shout “Coach!” at Chandler in public, he says, citing Mike Nichols’ 1970 film adap- ating our own dynamic.” whether in San Marcos or Santa Monica. Yes- tation. “And Catch-22 is such a historic book. The pair’s dialogue, much of it improvised, terday in a Las Cruces grocery store, a kid asked Then there’s the fact that Cathcart is incredu- has a push-and-pull rhythm that makes the Chandler for life advice. “Just give me anything,” lous—the things that he says and the things couple’s conversations seem ultrareal, like he’d said. Forced to come up with something, that he’s doing are almost cartoonish.” something that you’d hear over the fence, or, if the actor shared a staple: “Nobody is any better Chandler is known for subtler characters, you’re lucky, inside your own house. Both got than me. I’m no better than anyone else.” men who dwell in the zone between authority Emmy nominations—Chandler won in 2011. “I and empathy. But he still took the part. “I was knew that if I fell backward, she’d always grab 4. YOU’LL GET THERE EVENTUALLY scared to death,” he says, “But my career has me right before I hit the ground, and vice versa,” been full of these situations where I get oppor- he says. “I would start getting after her, and Chandler’s kinetic nature might be a result of tunities you can’t say no to.” a childhood spent on the road, To prepare, Chandler worked out bunking in a motor home over- of the Airstream, parked at home, for head. He was born near Buf- a month, marching up and down the falo, New York, the last of four driveway, going back and forth over siblings by a wide margin—an chunks of dialogue, trying to find the unexpected addition after a wild right pitch. According to Clooney, the New Year’s Eve, according to an approach paid off. old family tale—and spent his “He’s one of my favorite actors,” early years in Lake Forest, near Clooney says. “He’s the only guy I Chicago. His father was a trav- know who could’ve taken Cathcart eling pharmaceutical salesman; from a vindictive buffoon to, by the his mother’s passion was breed- end, a guy you have sympathy for.” ing Great Danes. By the time he I relay this to Chandler—being was 8, Chandler and his parents one of Clooney’s favorite actors is not would road trip for a month or nothing, right? “I probably owe him more at a time, entering their a check now,” Chandler says. “I’m dogs in shows across the country. just good at making an ass of myself. Compared with his siblings— I never thought it would pay off, but they’d left the house by then— I guess it has.” Kyle’s upbringing was hands-off. At the dog shows, the Chandlers 3. FIND THE RIGHT CO-PILOT would park their motor home in a sea of RVs. Kyle’s dad would hand Before his Emmy-nominated role him a few bills and the kid would and the critical success of the Net- wander off, reconnecting with

flix series Bloodline, and before he the strange friends he’d made on BY SHIRT WEARS CHANDLER PAGE: OPPOSITE BROTHERS. WARNER COURTESY ANTONELLO/HULU; PHILIPPE TOP: FROM took parts in films helmed by Mar- the dog-show circuit. “There’d tin Scorsese and J.J. Abrams and be thousands of people around, Kathryn Bigelow, came the actor’s hundreds of motor homes,” career-defining role: coach Eric Tay- Chandler says. “Over the course lor, on NBC’s Friday Night Lights. The of a weekend I’d inevitably get drama is still talked about not just for lost. I’d come back to the show the veracity of its portrayal of life and ring where my parents were sup- high school sports in far west Texas, posed to be, but they weren’t; I’d

but because of its realistic depiction of look and they’re not in the motor MWC BY WATCH CORCORAN. BY BOOTS OWN), (HIS ORVIS BY PANTS MADEWELL. marriage and the chemistry between home, either. ‘Where are they?’ its leads: Chandler and Connie Brit- “My old man had this laugh, ton, who played Tami, a guidance and it was a fuckin’ belly laugh. I counselor, principal, and Eric’s wife. Top: Starring as Colonel Cathcart in learned to stop and close my eyes and just wait So how did the pair hash out that relation- the upcoming Hulu series Catch-22. Above: and wait, and eventually every time, I swear, ship? On the road, of course. Preparing to battle a giant lizard in I’d hear it, and I’d start heading that way, and “We’d drive from L.A. to Las Cruces to Godzilla: King of the Monsters. I’d find the old man.” Marfa and then into Austin, where we were When he was 11, the family moved to Logan- shooting,” says Chandler. “I’d ride my motor- she’d back up in the defensive, but she always ville, Georgia, and Pop bought him a dirt bike. cycle, and Connie would drive her ’72 Mus- knew I’d give her room to come back at me.” “Imagination, freedom, boom,” says Chandler. tang. One year I drove behind her, and that car Chandler says that the scripts served as road His lifelong infatuation with wheels had begun. was running so lean, I was stoned the whole maps—dirt roads they’d improvise off of. The In 1980, when Chandler was 14, his father time from the fumes.” series was shot on Super 16 film with handheld died of a heart attack. Kyle was devastated. Britton says that the first time they cara- cameras in natural light, in real restaurants and He entered a dark period, replete with totaled vanned, Friday Night Lights executive pro- other venues, with real people as extras. Actors cars, arrests, soul-searching drives through the ducer Peter Berg was sure the pair would sleep would just wander into scenes and start saying South. One quarter, Chandler took his tuition together and cause havoc for the production. lines, no “action” needed—just like walking into check for the University of Georgia from his “That did not happen,” says Britton. “But it a room. “It was alive, and that’s what I think grandparents and cashed it to buy a Yamaha

070 Vision 550 motorcycle. Later, back at school, FROM AUSTIN TO L.A. he ran into some drama students tripping on mushrooms in a Waffle House parking lot and Some scenes Chandler snapped during he decided he had found his new calling. “Some his drive (right). Highlights included a time later I drove home in the middle of the stopover near Balmorhea, Texas, home to night and dragged my mom out of bed,” he says. the world’s largest spring-fed swimming “I said, ‘Mom, I figured out what I want to do.’ pool; and White Sands, New Mexico, where She looked at me, and she said, ‘Well, you know, you’ll find 275 square miles of stark “WHEN I’M SHOOTING, I HAVE it doesn’t surprise me. For God’s sakes, don’t not white-gypsum sand dunes. CRAZY NERVES. BUT ONCE I do it. You don’t want to regret your life.’ ” Chandler had started to listen to the echo of movies skews similarly: He grew up watching LEAVE THE SET, I DON’T THINK his dad’s voice. “His favorite saying,” Chandler the comedies of the ’30s and ’40s, and is “still MUCH ABOUT IT.” says, “was ‘Play it by ear.’ I can still hear him sort of stuck in it,” he says. So maybe it’s no sur- saying it.” prise that George Clooney describes Chandler as a pairing of “Spencer Tracy’s everyman with 5. BE WILLING TO DITCH THE ITINERARY Larry Storch’s nuttiness.” A few years ago, Chandler read the book Chandler walks back to Airstream and comes Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That back with a couple of more beers. Can’t Stop Talking. He dropped cable, curtailed I ask why he and his family decamped his time online, ditched most of his gadgets, for Texas after 20 years in Los Angeles. His and worked to leave the “echo bubble.” He answer? You guessed it: road trip. Chandler hasn’t gone full Luddite: He is addicted to a warns me that he’s told the story before but car- military-spec night-vision scope he was turned ries on and still gets choked up in the retelling. on to by one of Bloodline’s camera operators. “I He met Kathryn, a writer and veteran advocate, wait till it gets pitch dark, and I walk my prop- in the early 1990s, after the ABC drama Home- erty,” he says. “It’s amazing. Through the scope, front had jump-started his career. They mar- I see blue and white herons grabbing fish from ried in 1996, settled in Topanga Canyon, and the water tank. The donkeys are freaking out, had two daughters. Things, by all accounts, because they know something’s out there but were going very well. don’t see me. The raccoons are up in the trees, In 2009, during the fourth season of Friday maybe a ringtail. My goal is to one day sneak up Night Lights, he’d planned to ride his motorcycle on a deer close enough to just tap it on the ass.” back to Austin, but Kathryn decided to come at He makes a flicking motion. “And when the last minute. They took his Porsche Boxster. you point it upward,” he says, “you can see 500 “I think it was the second day,” Chandler says. times more stars than the naked eye.” “I remember very distinctly. We were both still smoking. The top was down. It was a beautiful 6. NO U-TURNS day. Out of nowhere, she just turned to me, and said, ‘Are you happy where we are?’ I thought The shadow of the peaks behind us is about it for a minute and said, ‘I’m not. I’m approaching, and it’s already a half-hour past really, really not.’ Kathryn felt the same way. “I the time that Chandler had planned to get back get emotional just saying this,” Chandler says. on the road: He’s aiming to pull up to a park 30

“It was a moment that changed everything.” miles west of Phoenix before its gates close. (HIS ORVIS BY PANTS MASON, BUCK BY SHIRT WEARS: (3). CHANDLER CHANDLER KYLE OF COURTESY During the rest of the drive, they ripped As he starts to break down camp, Chandler up their old plans. They considered moving to reflects on the past few years, unsolicited. “I Wyoming or Nevada before passing through don’t look back too much, to be quite honest,” a town outside Austin. Kathryn went back to he tells me. “I knew you were going to ask me location-scout their new life a few days later. things about the last few years in this interview, Nearly a decade later, the family still lives and last night I had to go on my IMDb and look there, on a big spread, with five miniature up what’s happened, because I sure as shit don’t donkeys, two dogs, and “a barn that I use for remember. When I’m shooting, I’ve got crazy creating things that fall apart quickly,” Chan- nerves and am constantly worried about doing dler says. Once an overgrazed site, he has tried a good job, and time flies, and I love it. But once to re-wild the scene into a native grass- and I leave the set, I don’t think much about it.” wildflower-filled prairie, seeding 10 per- As he’s talking, I glance at my notebook to cent of it a year. Kathryn particularly loves look for orphaned questions. I ask Chandler if

May, when the Texas heat comes and dries he has any rules of the road. MWC BY WATCH CORCORAN. BY BOOTS OWN), out the wildflowers and their seeds pop like “Just...I’ve found that if something feels Rice Krispies, because it means that Kyle will uncomfortable, do it. Stop at the weird cafe, talk finally mow the mess. to the person there. If a road looks interesting The whole Texas ranch deal seems pretty but you think ‘eh—I don’t know,’ just drive it.” appropriate for a man who, in a way, appears He pauses a moment. “Oh yeah,” he says. to have stepped in from yesteryear. When I ask “Kathryn has one that I’ve started to follow, about his road-trip soundtrack, he says that it’s too. Never go back. Never backward, always dialed to either classic rock or the 1940s chan- forward.” nel on satellite radio—where the hottest tracks “Unless,” he is quick to add, “you left your are by Glenn Miller and Al Jolson. His taste in wallet.” MJ

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