Die-hard fan: Q&A with NHL, sports nut Colin Hanks
You know him for his Hollywood pedigree and classic roles in "Orange County", "King Kong" and as Gus Grimly in FX's "Fargo" (season one now out on Blu-Ray). What you should know is that Colin Hanks is as serious a sports fan as it gets.
Having grown up in Sacramento, Hanks roots for the Giants in baseball, the 49ers in football and both Kings teams of the NBA and NHL. While acting is his profession, sports are his passion. Of course dedicated to his craft, he keeps up with his teams and sports news religiously wherever the location might be.
FOX Sports Live caught up with Hanks as he recently dropped the ceremonial first puck at Staples Center and cheered on his beloved defending Stanley Cup champs.
FSL: As a guy who is very familiar with sports and the locker room atmosphere, is it fair to say there is a similarity in putting on your game face and getting into a role?
HANKS: When you're shooting in elements, and this is 100 percent accurate, whether it be incredibly cold weather for "Fargo," or (I shot a TV series) in Texas in the summer. When you're putting your costume on and you know you're going to be in those elements all day long, there is a sort of weird sports mentality that I get into where I have the routine that I put everything on.
It sounds idiotic, but, well, a lot of people don't spend all night out in subzero temperatures. We have to when we're shooting exteriors at night. Anything that helps you get mentally prepared for the day, that's what you do.
I remember having a conversation with Michael Strahan about my routine, and he pretty much said, "That was my routine for the Meadowlands, for Green Bay. We basically said, 'That's what you have to do.' "
FSL: So you shot "Fargo" in Calgary, and that's a great sports town. How did you spend the down time there?
HANKS: I went to a couple of Flames games. I went to a couple of CFL games. I went to the Western Conference finals in Calgary, and then I went to Grey Cup in Regina, Saskatchewan. Pretty much any city I go to, the first thing I look for are what are the sporting events? What are the concerts? And then what are the restaurants? That's sort of it.
I'm in my mid-30s now. Earlier it would have been, "Alright, what bars do I go to?" Calgary was a great city. I really enjoyed it.
FSL: Given your time there, you had plenty of exposure to it ... what is the main difference in the sports culture of Canada compared to the U.S.?
HANKS: Well the hockey coverage ... yeah there's a lot more of it. It's the first 15 minutes on "SportsCentre." Coming from the U.S., it's kind of like walking into a "Twilight Zone," where everything is oddly familiar but yet strikingly different. So it was very nice for me to basically talk hockey with pretty much anyone I ran into. I enjoyed that.
Living in LA, there's only a select few (hockey fans), and it's more of like a secret club. Everyone thinks Los Angeles is not a hockey town. And that is absolutely not true. It is just an underground hockey town. It's like Fight Club. We all break the first rule, though.
Kings fans in LA definitely know their stuff. Hockey fans in LA definitely know their stuff. You just have to find each other, and then it's like a secret bond that you have.
FSL: You've been a Kings fan since '87, and you know how things were before these two banners were up in the rafters. What has it been like to witness?
HANKS: It's incredible really. You know, a huge first step was this building (Staples Center). Once the organization moved to Staples, you knew, OK, things are really going to be different. Unfortunately, it wasn't that different for a while. There were some exciting moments, no doubt, but there were some lean years there.
I think the thing that's most unique about it from my perspective is, those years ('87 and '88) Luc Robitaille's rookie year. Getting (Wayne) Gretzky, being an offensive team, dethroning the Stanley Cup champions the first year he was here. Dethroning the Stanley Cup champions the next year. It's was all incredibly exciting, but I remember, even then there was this sense of "Yeah, but we're not a blue-collar hockey team." Of course, we're not. We were the LA glamour team, but I knew even then, that's what you need to win the Cup.
We knew what our weakness was. We were a streaky team, but we didn't have that grit. And I told Dean Lombardi this when I had the honor of meeting him. He sort of instilled everything as a die-hard hockey fan, everything that I always wanted my hockey team to have. Which was that grit and that sort of defensive-type team.
The kind of hockey team I always wanted the Kings to be, they eventually became. And they won two Stanley Cups as a result. That, as a lifelong fan, is about as rewarding as it can possibly get.
FSL: You mentioned it was back in '87, but how did you get introduced to hockey?
HANKS: My dad took me to a game. That was it. He was a hockey fan growing up in northern California and went to a lot of Oakland Seals games. They were an expansion team, one of the "new six." They were the only expansion team that didn't survive.
He went to a bunch of games when he was a kid and he really loved it. He took me one Saturday, I really didn't know much about hockey at the time, but I absolutely fell in love with it. And that was it.
Back then it was Forum Blue and Gold. We had Wayne McBean, Jimmy Carson, Steve Duchesne and Luc. It wasn't really anything spectacular, probably just a couple thousand people there. Then eventually Gretzky came and it became what it was.
FSL: How do you handle watching your teams as a fan? Are you the nervous, supersititous type?
HANKS: It was Game 7 against the Blackhawks, the Western Conference finals of last year, I was nervously playing my guitar and could not look at the screen. And that's how I watched the entire game. Yeah, I get really, really nervous.
The Kings having won two Stanley Cups and the Giants having won two World Series -- I'm a little bit better than I used to be. I'm a little bit better with nerves, but I still get really nervous.
