Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton Share the Secret to Their Friday Night Lights Marriage

He’s the coach. She’s the guidance counselor. Together, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton of NBC's Friday Night Lights (Wednesdays at 8 pm/ET) are TV’s cutest couple. This is the interview.

TV Guide: What do you think makes your marriage on Friday Night Lights so appealing to viewers?
Kyle Chandler: Our characters try to show that no matter what, we're going to support each other. That's the difference between a stereotypical TV relationship and one between two real human beings.
Connie Britton: Eric and Tami Taylor have an underlying trust. Kyle and I are both uncompromising about preserving that partnership. I guess that's probably true in a good marriage. Kyle has a great marriage, so he takes from that world.

TV Guide: Connie, you're single. Is the Taylor marriage something you'd like to have in real life?
Britton: Definitely. Although I can't imagine living in a small town being married to a Texas high-school football coach!

TV Guide: Is Kyle more talkative than Coach Taylor?
Britton: You can't get Kyle to shut up. My nickname for him is "Didjaknow." He would start all these conversations with "Did you know?" and proceed to tell you some little piece of trivia about ancient Mesopotamia that you could care less about. And it goes on for hours!

TV Guide: Did you know each other before this show?
Britton: No. In fact, the producers sent me his fancy, Emmy-nominated Grey's Anatomyepisode so that I could watch and figure out who the heck this guy was.

TV Guide: Is it true that you drove from L.A. to Austin together?
Britton: It was purely practical to get our cars to Austin.

TV Guide: You were in different cars?
Chandler: Thank god.
Britton: Kyle brought these funny walkie-talkies along.

TV Guide: Did you have handles?
Britton: White Trash I and White Trash II. [Laughs]
Chandler: Basically, the whole trip was me following her and making sure her new car, a '74 Mustang, didn't break down.
Britton: '73. Very important.
Chandler: It spit out so much exhaust that after eight hours sucking in gas fumes from the '70s, I lost more brain cells…
Britton: Honey, they were well damaged before I ever came along with my little Mustang! [Laughs]

TV Guide: You've turned your great TV relationship into a real friendship, haven't you?
Chandler: Actually, I knew this relationship was going to work because when Connie came over to the house, she and my wife would start giggling and laughing.
Britton: It's so great, because we can just totally dish about him the whole time.

TV Guide: Why do you think FNL doesn't score in the ratings?
Chandler: There are two kinds of people: Those who have never seen the show, and those who are addicted to it. Friday Night Lights is not about high-school kids playing football. It's about a small town and the people who live in it and the importance of their ordinariness.

TV Guide: Aren't some of your scenes together improvised?
Britton: Yes. We know we're on the same page, so we can go into a sort of improvised scene to make it more real. The greatest freedom is the style of shooting. We don't rehearse, we're not told where to stand. We can move wherever we want and the camera finds us.
Chandler: This is one of the greatest acting lessons I've ever had. I'll fight and kick to keep it on the air. When I look back at my life, I'm going to say, "Wow, [executive producer] Peter Berg really changed my life."

TV Guide: So are there any divas on FNL?
Chandler: I'm sitting across from one.
Britton: Sugar, don't say that, because then people will believe it.
Chandler: OK. Connie Britton is not a diva. But I heard her say that her water's got to be at room temperature.
Britton: No, no, no. I didn't even ask for it!
Chandler: That's how our banter gets. We find little things to attack with. [Laughs]

Get even more Friday Night Lights scoop from this week's edition of TV Guide Channel's The 411. Click here for complete listings.