Ryan McPartlin: Game Time: Tackling

Ryan McPartlin said it plainly: "I played tight end and went to the University of Illinois as a tight end. I found out real quickly that the jump from hi…" — and Premier Guide Miami was in the room when it happened.

Ryan McPartlin is a native of Chicago, Illinois, best known for his role as Devon "Captain Awesome" Woodcomb on the TV series Chuck. He also played Riley Martin on Living With Fran and has appeared in The Nanny, CSI, and Mad Men. His major film roles include Will Powers in Super Capers and the voice of Clutch Powers in Lego: The Adventures of Clutch Powers. He attended the University of Illinois, where he played football for the Fighting Illini. In Game Time: Tackling the Past, McPartlin plays Jake Walker, a pro football star who returns home when his father — played by Beau Bridges — suffers a heart attack. He spoke with Premier Guide Miami's Daedrian McNaughton.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Will we see your shirt off in this movie?

RYAN McPARTLIN: You don't see my shirt off. We're making it a family night, so there's no bare chest going on in this, which I appreciated because I didn't need to stay on the treadmill as often as I normally do. Beau takes his off though. No, I'm kidding.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What attracted you to this role on Game Time?

RYAN McPARTLIN: I played tight end and went to the University of Illinois as a tight end. I found out real quickly that the jump from high school to college is tough, and from college to the Pros is next to impossible, but it was always my dream to play professional football. And when that didn't work out and I decided to become an actor instead, I actually tried to get away from being branded as an athlete and just a football player because I wanted to be a multi-dimensional actor. But now that I've been doing this for about 11 or 12 years, it was interesting when this script came about because now it was a role regarding the end of an NFL career — an athlete making the journey back home to reconnect with his family. And the father/son theme in the story as well. It all came together for me at a perfect time in my life. I got to go back and have that farewell to football, that closure that I never really had, and I really felt that in my performance. And there are a lot of great father/son and mother/son moments in the movie that I just thought were good. It was good entertainment for the family, and I really wanted to be a part of it.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Were you pleased with the line-up when you saw the cast list?

RYAN McPARTLIN: I jumped on a plane and got an email right before I took off and saw that Beau had signed on to the movie. I go, "Okay. Now I know this is going to be something special." And then Catherine Hicks jumped on board, and Josh Braaten, and Katie Carr. It just turned into this really special time that we all had together.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Can you draw some similarities between yourself and Jake Walker?

RYAN McPARTLIN: I think there was at an earlier time in my life when athletes become professional athletes and go from high school to college to the pros, there's a certain type of arrested development. And I just don't think that maturing process comes until you're done with athletics and done being in the bubble and being treated like a star. That time came in my life when football came to an end for me. I graduated college, moved to Los Angeles, and actually waited tables for a year, so I was humbled really quickly. And I called my dad and we reconnected in a whole new way because I had such a respect once I started paying taxes and realizing how much money you actually have to make to support a family. I had a whole new appreciation for my father. There are a lot of similarities — I just think that my growth process came at an earlier age than Jake Walker's has come.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Going up against Beau in a game of basketball, who do you think would win?

RYAN McPARTLIN: Well, Beau's probably got a mad dunk shot.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Today a lot of emphasis is based on social status rather than a person's true values. Can you relate to that in any way?

RYAN McPARTLIN: There are a lot of self-motivation books out there, and so much of them are focused on the end result — what you're going to achieve success-wise, material wealth — and not necessarily on the character building and how you achieve it. What I've been trying to strive for in my life is more or less to work on my character and my own personal qualities first, and then hopefully success will follow. But if and when it comes, the road to get there will definitely have been traveled in the right way.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Can you describe the on-screen relationship between Jake and his dad?

RYAN McPARTLIN: We both come at it from different points of view. I feel that my dad in the movie, at least in the beginning, did not recognize the importance of the role that I played and tried to emphasize the team over the individual talents I'd achieved and the success that I felt. And that's the start of the journey and the start of the story. I actually experienced that with my own father when I was in high school and he'd tell me to take the trash out. I felt like he was picking on me versus my siblings. I'd say, "Hey, didn't you see that touchdown I made in the game the other day? I have workouts, I got homework — how am I supposed to balance all this and take the trash out?" And I can't believe he was as patient as he was during that time in my life. Now that I'm a father, I know what to expect from my teenage sons one day.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Was there a particular scene in the film that touched you?

RYAN McPARTLIN: I had a lot of moments with Beau where he would share stories about his father and himself, and then his experience as a father as well. There's a moment where we're walking down the hall of the hospital — it was a great scene, a great moment, and it really captured the essence of our whole story. All of our time that we spent on screen and off was really brought to the forefront right there in that moment.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What's your advice for actors?

RYAN McPARTLIN: Learn to be as comfortable as you are in your own skin, and work on yourself and work on trying to learn about what the story is — whatever it is you're auditioning for, a play, a film — and then just where you fit in. Whatever you do, don't take it personally, because rejection happens to us all. I'm going on an audition today that I probably won't get, but I'm not going to say, "Oh, well I could've done that much better." I'll feel that I've prepared the best I can, and if I'm not the right actor to fit into their story, I'll just say, "All right. I did my job and my job is done, and now I have to move on."

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