‘Bloodline’ star Kyle Chandler relishes the dark side of Netflix family drama

TORONTO – As star of the grim Netflix family drama “Bloodline,” Kyle Chandler has found laughs hard to come by onscreen — not that he hasn’t tried.

“As far as doing something light and fun, I’ve been telling people for years now: I’m funny. I. Am. Funny. And it just hasn’t gotten me very far!” Chandler said with a laugh during a phone interview from Los Angeles.

“I’d love to play some slapstick and some fun stuff. I’m very good at making an ass of myself, and I love making fun of myself. And especially onscreen, it’s just fun — that’s who I am.

“You see these serious characters I play, and it’s quite different from who I am, really.”

The affable actor has a resume stacked with portrayals of straight-laced everymen, from his Emmy-winning turn as a high school football coach on “Friday Night Lights,” to his current role on “Bloodline” as a police detective in the Florida Keys.

But as John Rayburn, the seemingly even-keeled family man on “Bloodline,” Chandler’s character sees his life take a decidedly dark turn in an explosive series of events.

For viewers who haven’t watched all of season 1, there are spoilers ahead.

John winds up killing his deadbeat brother Danny (Ben Mendelsohn) and conceals the crime with the help of siblings Kevin (Norbert Leo Butz) and Meg (Linda Cardellini) — all unbeknownst to their mother Sally (Sissy Spacek). Season 1 culminates with the unexpected arrival of Danny’s son.

Heading into season 2, which is now streaming on Netflix, Chandler sees John as the one person “trying to keep everyone else together.”

“There are so many possibilities for things to fall apart, for exposure to be had, that he’s trying to dig himself out of a hole. And the more he climbs, the more it gets a little bit deeper.

“He’s got a lot of different arrows coming at him from different directions, and to fend all of them off, he’s got to be pretty cool and calm to be able to figure it out.”

The Buffalo, N.Y.-born actor seems delighted by the prospect of peeling back the layers of John’s emerging shadowy side and his “psychotic nature.”

“One of the great things to play on the character is trying to make friends with that feeling and control it and guide John,” said Chandler, 50.

“You can’t be really good at killing your sibling and hiding it until you’ve got a couple of screws loose, and that’s really enjoyable to play.”

— Follow @lauren_larose on Twitter.

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