While on a one-semester break from the University of Texas, Austin, Stephanie Hunt auditioned for the football-centered, small-town drama Friday Night Lights (9 p.m. Wednesdays on DirecTV's 101 Network; the show will air later this season on NBC).
At the time, this Longhorn was a bit of a Hollywood long shot.
After one year at UT as a journalism major, Hunt had an urge to pursue acting. The death of a close friend, she said, prompted the academic leave and "inspired a whole bunch of self-reflection."
Within one week, and with no acting resume to speak of, Hunt was tipped off to the opening on Friday Night Lights, which shoots in Austin.
The role came with requirements. The character needed to know how to play the bass guitar, an instrument that Hunt, a trained violinist, had fiddled with for only a couple of months. Auditioners also would have to perform a rock song. Hunt opted to risk writing her own -- a song she composed only minutes before facing casting directors.
"I couldn't think of a rock song that I knew that I could sing that would sound good in my voice, so I just went off the idea of something raspy sounding," she said. "Usually I sing jazz or I sing kind of sweet, so I wanted to show a little bit more edge. It was called ‘Sweet Scratching Sound.' It's kind of cheesy now, but it worked, you know."
Hunt's Devin, an indie-rock-obsessed lesbian bass player, has become a fixture in the fictional town of Dillon.
In its three-plus years, the series has tackled race, class and domestic issues, and now Devin has given the show a clear entry into gay and gender concerns. What's more, a relatively small part on Friday Night Lights might rocket the 20-year-old straight out of Austin, as she's been cast in NBC's Parenthood, the midseason replacement from Friday Night Lights executive producer Jason Katims.
"I love her, and I know Jason does, but you never quite know how these things will work out," said Peter Berg, who directed the Friday Night Lights film and serves as an executive producer on the series. "You have a plan, but like any football game, things change."
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