From co-creators Max Borenstein and Jim Hecht, and with a pilot directed by executive producer Adam McKay, the 10-episode HBO series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty follows the intertwining professional and personal lives of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers. What became one of sports’ most revered and dominant dynasties started with a vision set in motion when Dr. Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) took over and reinvigorated the franchise, bringing together the flashy characters and the unsung heroes that forever changed the NBA and what the fans grew to expect from basketball.

During this interview with Collider, co-stars Reilly and Quincy Isaiah, who has the daunting task of taking on Earvin “Magic” Johnson with more than enough flare to go around, talked about the contradictions of Jerry Buss and what made him such a rich character to play, finding this early version of Magic Johnson, finding the swagger on and off the court, and the unusual approach of playing moments directly to the camera.

Collider: John, we get to see Jerry Buss in a warts and all, not always flattering way, in this series. He’s crude, but he’s inspirational. He can’t seem to get enough of young women, but he also gave women employment opportunities that they weren’t getting anywhere else. What did you find most interesting about the man that he was, in this time period, especially with all of those contradictions going on?

JOHN C. REILLY: You’re always looking for a character that has contradictions because that makes someone interesting. Jerry, definitely, was a man of contradictions, in some ways. He definitely had a hedonistic lifestyle, like a lot of guys in the late ‘70s, early ‘80s, especially in the NBA. There’s this expression, “If you wanna know what someone’s really like, don’t listen to what they say, watch their feet. What are they doing? Where are they going? What are the moves they’re making?” The moves that Jerry made were all pretty feminist, in my opinion. He definitely liked to date a lot. But for all the hedonism of that lifestyle, at Jerry’s memorial, there was no conflicted, “Well, he was this, but he was also awful.” He was a beloved character, across the board, from all the women he dated, to all the players and people that he worked with, the women that he empowered in his organization, Claire Rothman, and his own daughter. He made that business a family business. When a lot of teams became these corporate entities with boards of directors, he kept it a family business, and it still is, to this day. I just thought it was a really rich character to play.

All that stuff, with the open shirts and the partying lifestyle, was just a feature of the ‘70s in L.A. for men. That’s just the way it was. He was friends with Hugh Hefner, and that says it all. That was the scene he was involved in. But ultimately, that stuff was really just the tip of the iceberg. That’s what you would see of his public persona, but what Jerry really did, the moves that he made, what he did for Black players on his teams, and the fact that, unlike a lot of owners at the time, who were essentially racist in their practices – I don’t know if they were racist personally, but in their practices, they were often racist – Jerry was like, “None of that means anything. I want the best players. I don’t care what color they are.”

For a person in a position of power in 1979, to take that point of view was very impactful in the world. I felt really proud to play Jerry Buss. Obviously, I’m very sensitive to the family of someone you’re portraying. A constant concern of mine was how difficult it would be for me to see my own father portrayed in his triumphant moments and his less than triumphant moments. Ultimately, I felt like the guy was such a brilliant, captivating character and a real, incredible American success story, that I felt it was worth doing, even if we had to show some of the less noble sides of the guy. At the end of the day, I hope you’ll agree when you see all 10 episodes, that all of us approach these characters from a place of love, respect and admiration.

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Image via HBO

ELATED: 'Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty' Sets Release Date, Releases New Character ArtQuincy, you’ve experienced the ups and downs of Hollywood, culminating in getting this role. You got bit by the acting bug, you came out to Hollywood, and then you thought about quitting, when you didn’t get cast in projects. By the time you got to audition to play Magic Johnson, what was your mindset like? Did you spend a lot of time prepping and practicing for the audition, or did you just go into the audition figuring it would be another role you wouldn’t get, so you didn’t overthink it?

ISAIAH: I think the latter. By this time, I had done a lot of auditions and hadn’t booked one. I still approach all my auditions with, “What can I do? What can I bring? Can I do something different?” I didn’t realize that I had the sides. I was thinking it was a cold read. On the morning of the audition, I realized that the sides were attached. I went in and I guess I was freer in the way that I delivered the lines. I was reading off the sides and I didn’t think much of it. But then, once I got the callback, that’s when I saw the source material and I really realized how big it could be, and that it was in HBO. I went back and read the book and read Magic’s book. I started watching all the clips online that I could, to really start figuring out who Magic was then. I knew him as a businessman and this great entrepreneur who made money after he got done playing basketball in the early ‘90s. For me, it was about really tapping into all the resources that I could find, and going from there.

Did it feel like it was more challenging to find the swagger and the confidence that he had off the court, or was it more challenging to figure out his style on the court and how he played?

ISAIAH: Being an athlete, I practiced a lot, before we got into the team basketball and the passes. I was able to work out with our basketball trainer, and he really helped me find that swag on the court. I don’t know. It came naturally for me, honestly. I just love basketball. I love acting too, but I’ve loved basketball since I was three. That being deeply ingrained, I feel like the swagger just came. The acting was a journey, in finding the right approach. For me, Quincy, being comfortable, as an actor, and being comfortable in myself, and being free enough to try things around these other incredible actors on this HBO show that Adam McKay has directed and was executive producing, with everybody being so gracious, I was able to eventually get comfortable and really start figuring out who this character was. I really fell into it and just start taking that into my everyday on set.

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Image via HBO

John, you weren’t playing basketball in these scenes, but you were there for some of those moments, and it looks like they were shot like nothing else you’ve probably experienced before. What was it like to be in those moments, even if you weren’t actually on the court playing?

REILLY: I went into this going, “The challenging part of this is gonna be looking at a piece of tape off-camera and pretending like someone just scored the winning basket.” There’s a certain amount of green screen acting that’s required when you do sports things. The real learning curve was learning how to be the narrator of the story directly to the camera, directly to the audience, and then switching right back into a scene. Oftentimes, I would have to go back and forth, to the audience, back to the scene, back to the audience. I found that really fun. That was a new way of working. It really works well in Adam McKay’s style of filmmaking.

Also, even though Jerry has all these insecurities and these major setbacks behind the scenes, he’s always projecting this confidence. That’s what got me through those days when I felt like, “I’m not some sexy guy with an open shirt. That's not who I am. I’m not some uber-wealthy owner of a team.” That confidence gave me enough cover to get through it all. That was really what it was, every day. It was about psyching myself up by putting on the gold chain on and those glasses and getting my hair done. It was like putting on this suit of armor called confidence.

Winning Time airs on Sunday nights on HBO and is available to stream at HBO Max.