What should fans expect out of Riggins in the third season?
Riggins is very supportive this year. He doesn’t have his own storyline: He’s supporting his brother in his marriage and he sees Jason Street off and sees him moving forward. I just love playing Riggs so much. If you give me something small, we can make it so great because you can go anywhere with him. And you’ve gotta expect the unexpected with him, you know?

Is everything about Riggs written, or are some of those trademark Riggins-isms improvised?
Fifty percent of that is me doing it. This year, his saying is “No regrets, let’s make some memories” — that’s all me. All the stuff on the field, 90 percent of it comes from my take on him and how I want people to see him. Usually, when you feel it’s improvised, it’s a piece of the character I’ve created. That’s the freedom we have and that’s why everyone can relate and it feels so real.

If 50 percent of Riggins is you improvising, how much of your own personality is in there? Where does Tim Riggins stop and Taylor Kitsch start?
That’s a good question. Playing this guy for three years, I’m pretty in tune with his instincts and everything, but any character I play, there’s gonna be pieces of me that I hide well and some I may not. I try now more and more to stay away from my own idiosyncrasies and create them character-wise. But, that dry sense of humor? That’s me as well. Of course, I’m living vicariously through this cat. I never was like that in high school — obviously, I would have loved to have been and get away with the [stuff] he gets away with. [laughs] The leadership stuff is a lot of me because I grew up being an athlete, and he kinda comes into his own as leader, in his own way. Obviously, I wouldn’t have made choices he made being the captain of this football team, but it's his own way of dealing with things, or not dealing with things, which is more interesting to me as an actor. I've been asking for that part of him for years, and it’s evolved the right way. He comes into it in the last bit of season three, where he recognizes his role and the coach calls him out on it and he sees it for what it is, finally.

Is Friday Night Lights as popular in Canada as down here?
I think we get it on TV, but when I do interviews up here, sure, the press and whatnot know the show and my popularity, and being the only Canadian, I feel the support. But it’s really funny, I was just in New York doing some press, and kind of got bombarded at a hockey game. I’ll walk down the hall there and people will be screaming “No regrets!” and “Riggins!” and this and that. And then you come here and they have no idea.

Riggins is quite the ladies’ man on the show. Do you have the screaming female fans wherever you go in America, armed with camera phones and such?
I’ve been fortunate enough to kind of skip that demographic of the tweens and the early teenagers. A lot of it is women and they know I’m 27, too, so it’s kind of an ongoing joke. They convince themselves that it’s not creepy to like Riggins. [laughs] So that’s been pretty fun. It’s more than flattering and they’re very genuine in saying, “Hey, look, he’s such a great character and we all wish we could fix Riggins.” A lot of women see it that way. I did an interview in New York and the gal was like, “It’s funny because there’s like the Riggins cult for women and the Saracen cult for him because he’s the good, trusting guy.” Yeah, Riggins isn’t gonna be your boyfriend. You know what Riggins is? He’s that weekend that you’ll never forget.

In Canada, did you play hockey in high school instead of football?
Yep, hockey 20 years. I played at a really competitive level and I still play a couple times a week — I’m actually even in a men’s league in Austin. I don’t think NBC really knows that but that’s OK. Even Porter, when he’s in Austin, we’ll get an intense flag football game going.

I saw that Scott’s a really big comic book fan. Was he pretty envious when you got the role of Gambit in Wolverine?
I know he read for it. He’s always been like, “Kitsch, you’re so perfect for Gambit.” Ironically enough, he texted me last night after he saw the trailer and he just congratulated me. He’s more pumped than me to see it. He’s a [freakin’] huge fan, man. He’s part of that group: He goes to the comic cons and I live vicariously through him in all that. When I went and read for it, I talked to him about the character and my ears were bleeding because he can go on for hours about any comic book guy. The biggest thing for me is doing this justice. Being with Hugh and everything else, it’s not called Gambit: Origins. I want to come into Wolverine and contribute to Jackman’s movie the best I can and I feel I’ve done everything I could possible to bring this guy to life.

So ... fourth season of Friday Night Lights. Is it going to happen?
This season turned out really well. As a cast, we were super happy with how it ended and it felt more real than it has for a long time. I’m excited. I think it could return, but you just never know.

If NBC wanted to do a Riggins spinoff series, would you do it?
Probably, man. I love that character. But it would have to be done the right way, my way. I don’t know if you could even pluck Riggins out and make him just his own show. He would definitely have to have an incredible cast around him, like any good show. I love him, man, and that’s just flattering that people can think he’s that fun where you could watch him for a full hour.