Taylor Kitsch Recalls 'Sleeping on the Subway' During Period He Spent Homeless BeforeFriday Night LightsFame (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Taylor Kitsch attends the Critics Choice Awards on January 14, 2024 in Santa Monica, California.Photo:Frazer Harrison/Getty

Frazer Harrison/Getty

Taylor Kitschis reflecting on the period of time he spent homeless before hisFriday Night Lightsfame.

When the actor moved from Canada to New York City in 2002 to pursue modeling and acting, he couldn’t make ends meet, “I was literally sleeping on the subway,” Kitsch, 43, tells PEOPLE.

Things started to shift in his favor though when he got a chance opportunity to meet with a talent manager.

“She was like, ‘What do you want to do?’ I said, ‘Character pieces,’” he recalls. “She was like, ‘All right, I’ll take a risk on you.'"

That same manager has stuck with him to this day.

“All I’ve ever wanted to do is disappear into different characters,” Kitsch says. “It’s never been about leading a show or being in the limelight or money.”

“People, for some reason or another, just really gravitated to Riggins,” he says. “It truly affected my life, and all for the better.”

While shootingFNL, Kitsch also made the jump to the big screen, notably as Gambit in 2009’sX-Men Origins: Wolverine.

“That process couldn’t have been more different with being on stages and hitting marks,” he says. “They didn’t want me to do improv like onFNL.”

Taylor Kitsch in Friday Night Lights in 2006.NBC Universal/Imagine Television/Getty Images

NBC Universal/Imagine Television/Getty Images

“Probably the proudest thing I’ve done in my life is sticking with her and being a part of the way it’s turned out,” he says.

“It was really cathartic,” he says. “It’s probably one the closest jobs to me that I’ve ever done.”

“I didn’t even know sober escapes existed until I had the crash course with my sis,” Kitsch says. “I was like, ‘Man, it sounds incredible to offer people a chance to reconnect in nature and slow things down.'”

(L to R) Shawnee Pourier as Two Moons, Taylor Kitsch as Isaac, Betty Gilpin as Sara Rowell and Preston Mota as Devin Rowell in ‘American Primeval’.Netflix

Netflix

When Kitsch — whose new Netflix WesternAmerican Primevalis streaming now — isn’t on location, he often takes his adventure van to the backcountry for fly-fishing or photographing wildlife.

“After you do jobs that are intense likePrimeval, you need a breath,” he says. “There’s no better place for that.”

But even the depths of the Montana wilderness couldn’t shield Kitsch from the attention that came his way when aFNLreboot was announced last month. Kitsch isclear-eyed about whether Riggins should return.

“A visiting coach with two lines, that would be the most I would do, because I love the way we left it,” he says.

As for the next generation of Dillon Panthers, “I hope they create some characters that people f—ing fall for, just like we did.”

source: people.com