LaMarcus Tinker's hail mary pays off with role on Friday Night Lights

LaMarcus Tinker is a Houston native who took a Greyhound bus to Austin to audition for LaMarcus Tinker took a Greyhound bus to Austin to support friends who were auditioning for Friday Night Lights, but he ended up meeting the show’s director, who gave him a shot at a role for the final season of the show. less LaMarcus Tinker is a Houston native who took a Greyhound bus to Austin to audition for LaMarcus Tinker took a Greyhound bus to Austin to support friends who were auditioning for Friday Night Lights, but he ... more Photo: Michael Paulsen :, Chronicle Photo: Michael Paulsen :, Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close LaMarcus Tinker's hail mary pays off with role on Friday Night Lights 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

LaMarcus Tinker had no reason to appear confident. He was bored and sitting in a holding room for extras hoping to land a small role on the TV show Friday Night Lights when he challenged a stranger to a game of pool, unaware the guy was a filmmaker whose most recent project grossed $228 million.

After the guy ran the table on Tinker, some extras informed him that his formidable opponent was Peter Berg, the director of feature films Hancock and Friday Night Lights. Berg was also the executive producer responsible for bringing FNL to TV.

Tinker lost the game of 8-ball but won the attention of the show's most important creative force. Within two days, the fourth season was being re-jiggered to accommodate a new character named Dallas Tinker, who would prove to be a crucial calming presence on a ragtag high school football team.

That was a year ago. Both Tinkers — Houston native LaMarcus and fictional East Dillon, Texas, character Dallas - return for the final season of Friday Night Lights this week. And Tinker has already landed a recurring role on ABC's Cougar Town.

His break started with a Greyhound ticket.

Tinker's plan was simple. He was tagging along to support two friends who had won work as extras on FNL. Each of the three scraped together $33.50 for bus fare from Houston to Austin; the show shoots in nearby Del Valle. The hang-up: They'd arrived a few days early. The three walked around the corner from the Greyhound station and dropped anchor under a tree in front of a Travelodge with no real idea of how they were going to find their way to the show.

"We had no food, no money and no place to stay," Tinker says between bites from a formidable tray of food at Treebeard's downtown. "We sat under that tree for eight hours."

One of his friends suggested they start thinking of a way to go back to Houston. "I told them I wasn't going back," he says. "I was there to support them, but I felt like I was stepping out on faith being there."

Tinker, who turns 20 today, at the time had a full ride at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he was studying English. Though he'd changed his status to inactive, he called a former teacher, who called a friend and drama teacher in Austin, who fed the three and paid for two nights at the hotel, which carried them to the beginning of the show's shooting schedule.

When Tinker first saw Berg, "I thought he was just a crew member," he says.

Berg asked his name. "He said, 'Tinker, huh? I like that. Are you an actor?' "

Berg was directing the first episode of the show's fourth season because it was something of a rebirth for FNL after three lauded yet under-watched seasons. The cast had been significantly overhauled, a natural-enough occurrence since many key characters would have graduated. He quickly threw Tinker into a scene with mainstay Taylor Kitsch and newcomer Madison Burge.

"It was camera's up, let's go," Tinker says. "I did it, and he liked it. In the industry that's considered an upgrade. They usually pay you, and then you don't come back."

But Berg wanted him back.

Tinker's role on Friday Night Lights is testament to the show's fluidity. FNL premiered in 2006 and was instantly showered in critical praise, but never got big ratings. A difficult show to market, it was an easy target for generalization and dismissal by those who hadn't seen it. A casual glance made it look like a football drama; another made it look like a teen drama. It is actually a big-hearted series about making and breaking connections, holding on and letting go.

Through four seasons - this will be the fifth - FNL has demonstrated a graceful ability to evolve because its creators are good at recognizing strengths and developing them. Interesting peripheral characters sometimes become integral to the show's themes. Such was the case with Tinker, whose character was drawn as the show filmed. Tinker, who forged a bond last season with an important new character played by Matt Lauria, eventually became a significant part of the series.

"There's a lot of freedom on the set, so we kind of encourage the actors to take ownership of their roles," says Jason Katims, an executive producer and writer for FNL. "By doing that a lot of times actors in supporting roles are really able to come in and bring something to the role as Tinker did.

"Tinker was completely natural, he was totally real. He was funny. He developed a rapport with the other actors. It was easy to write the character because Tinker had so much charm."

Tinker says the role was "a one-in-a-million chance. I didn't audition, my audition was on camera."

He says he briefly had butterflies when he first stepped in front of the camera for Berg. "But I'd done a lot of theater, I've written and produced and directed my own plays. I'd trained to be able to do it. I had to learn some things quick, but I've had some great teachers."

One of them was Laura Manning Stokes, who made the call to the friend in Austin to help Tinker and his friends. Stokes took a five-year break from the marketing business to teach theater at the then-new West Briar Middle School, across town from where Tinker lived with his grandmother. Tinker was in her first sixth-grade class.

"He walked in the door and said, 'Hello, I'm LaMarcus Tinker, and I want to be a di-rector,'" she says.

Theater had an early pull. "I tried football once," he says, laughing. "That was about it."

"I saw the personality," Stokes says. "He was always a foot taller and bigger than the other kids, and he had a very dynamic personality. In his mind, though, he was going to be a director. We did regular theater assignments that involved memorizing lines and doing some acting. He looked at me once and said, 'Steven Spielberg never had to do this.'

"I'm not sure what Peter saw in him specifically that he thought would reflect back on TV, but he really does pop out to me on the TV. There's something there, and Peter caught it early on."

Stokes also drilled her students in improvisation, which proved useful as Tinker's character evolved on Friday Night Lights.

As a teenager, Tinker would do Christmas and Black History Month programs along with speech. He was interested in every facet of drama: working tech, directing and acting. After West Briar, he attended the High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice but continued to work all sides of theater. "I love acting," he says. "And now it allows me to do the other things I love as well."

These days he has a home in Cypress, though he's spending long spells in Los Angeles for Cougar Town. In the sitcom, he appears as the college roommate of the character played by Dan Byrd.

These two big breaks occurred in the span of one year and two months.

"It's amazing that it all transpired in a year," he says. "And I think it's simply from walking out on faith and doing well by others."

Tinker is adamant about nurturing young talent in this area. "This is my home, and I won't leave," he says. He maintains ties to his high school and has a partnership with Houston's Boys and Girls clubs. He's also executive producer of a film called Down by the River, which is shooting here.

"You have to help people who are younger than you, and then they'll lend a hand to someone else," he says. "After you die, it'll still be going on. That's my hope, because if the rest of this ended today, I'd still say I've enjoyed my life. My dreams already came true. That's the story."

andrew.dansby@chron.com