Zach Gilford on Off the Map, Mourning Friday Night Lights and Fishing with Tom Brokaw

You mentioned leaving Friday Night Lights. I know that fans will definitely mourn the show once it ends, but did you yourself go through a mourning period after filming the finale?

Definitely. I think we all did. But five years is a great run for any show, especially one that has a bunch of high school-aged characters. We prided ourselves on being authentic and you know, people leave small towns. Coaches get bigger and better jobs and leave. To keep it authentic we had to introduce new characters every season but I think people were very much attached to the core cast, and to keep this show real, we had to wrap it up. Just like any great show, it has to come to an end. You can't just bottle people or characters their entire lives.

Do you have any good stories from the wrap party?

The wrap party was great. The whole cast and crew went line dancing and was up late. After the bar closed, we actually all went over to the field, broke into the field house, stole a bunch of footballs and ran around the field playing football until like 4 in the morning.

Back up please. Who is the best line dancer on the show?

You mean after me? [Laughs] Anyone on the crew since they are actually from Texas. The cast isn't from Texas so we all pretty much suck.

Whenever I hear that someone is going line dancing, I assume that they will be dressing like a character from Urban Cowboy. Were you wearing cowboy boots?

No, I have these hiking boots that I wear everywhere. I actually wore these boots -- which I hiked across Alaska in -- on every episode of Friday Night Lights. Those were the only shoes my character wore besides cleats. But, early in the first season, I decided to go get cowboy boots. So I went to the store, tried them on and then I realized that I would be such a poser if I bought them. Even if I lived in Texas for ten years, I will never be a cowboy.

Fair enough. I was scrolling through your credits and saw this one bizarre film you starred in awhile ago called The Handbook to Casual Stalking...

[Laughs] Oh yeah. That was from college. I don't know if it's online anywhere or anything but it was like a 15-minute short. I didn't write it. My friend did.

Were you the stalker or the stalkee?

I was the stalker. It was me and another girl as the stalkers. It was really comic book-y and goofy. Completely idiotic. But we filmed it while we were in college so of course we thought it was hilarious.

Would you be embarrassed if it popped up on YouTube?

No, not at all. I mean, I made it when I was 21 years old. It's something I did. I don't even know the last time I watched it but I'm pretty sure I laughed.

Finally, what's this outdoors show I read that you filmed with Tom Brokaw?

Yeah, I was in Belize for like ten days with Tom Brokaw, Michael Keaton, Bill Klyn and Tom McGuane. It was for Buccaneers & Bones for the Outdoor Channel, these fishing programs about conservation. We were basically tagging these fish as we caught them. It was super fun. We're going to do another season in the Bahamas and Liam Neeson will be there as well.

That's quite a cast.

Yeah, it's funny because I was watching it with my girlfriend and the show is clearly targeted towards people who like fishing. I think by bringing me on, they were hoping to catch, if you will, a younger crowd, which I hope it does. And my girlfriend, who has never fished in her life was saying "fishing looks fun!" after seeing the first episode. Of course, the channel cut down ten days on a boat into a half hour program. You're not seeing the hours of, you know, me and Tom Brokaw just sitting on a boat in silence.

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