Editor’s Note: This interview contains minor spoilers for Tiny Beautiful Things.Quentin Plair is at an exciting moment in his career, appearing on shows like Welcome to Chippendales and Roswell, New Mexico in the past few years. Plair comes from a sports background, having played college football, but has easily found a home on the screen as well as the field.

His newest role in Tiny Beautiful Things sees him take on the role of Danny, whose marriage to Clare (Kathryn Hahn) is falling apart. Based on Cheryl Strayed’s best-selling book, the series revolves around Clare and her journey to becoming a revered advice columnist despite her life crumbling around her. Plair is absolutely magnetic as her husband, and his dynamic with their rebellious daughter Rae (Tanzyn Crawford) is a true highlight.

I got the chance to speak with Plair, where he discussed how he developed that strong onscreen connection with Crawford, working with comedy legends like Luenell and Kathryn Hahn, where he’d like to see Clare and Danny’s relationship go from here, and more.

TAYLOR GATES: One of my favorite aspects of this show is the father/daughter relationship between Danny and Rae. Can you talk a little bit about how you developed that chemistry with Tanzyn [Crawford]? You guys are so fun to watch together.

QUENTIN PLAIR: I’m really glad that that’s the case. Honestly, Tanzyn is just a really great human being, to be real. And she loves bothering me. She loves messing with me and pushing all of my buttons in the best way possible. She says I’m so easy to get riled up, which is kind of true. [Laughs] But no, she was just great. I was personally so excited to play a father — I never had before. It’s something that I’m passionate about in my real life. I’m not a father yet, but I’m really looking forward to it. So much so that adopting and fostering is my biggest passion in life. I want to do both of those things. So I think, going into it, I was so looking forward to this. Like, “Oh I’m gonna have a kid. I’m gonna play this out with a teenager.”

And then she just has this really great, fun energy. And she’s in a newer place in her career where I felt like I could actually help in a sense. Not an overbearing thing but advice here or there, or help with a bad day, or be like, “No, you killed that scene. What are you talking about? Why are you worried?” She’s so hard on herself. But it was really great. And she also lived very close to where I live while she was here filming because she’s from Australia. But while she was here, we lived in the same place. So a lot of times, I drove her to work when we were getting there together, and we hung out off-set. I hope she doesn’t get mad that I’m telling these things. [Laughs] But she didn’t like eating lunch alone, so she would eat lunch in my trailer — bother me during lunch because I do like to eat lunch alone.

I thought it was great because it also helped the show. Obviously, she has a contentious — while still loving — relationship, at times, with Clare. Any time where it was just the two of us or me speaking to her when it wasn’t a direct time where I had to reprimand in a sense, I wanted there to just be so much love so that you could feel like, “Oh, there’s a difference between Rae and Danny’s connection and Rae and Clare’s.” I wanted that to be a palpable thing.

Image via Hulu

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I love that fatherhood is such a main theme of the show, in addition to motherhood. It’s very refreshing to see. I feel like there are a couple of standout episodes for Danny. The first one I want to talk about is the one with the Easter celebration, where we get to see his big family. Can you talk a little bit about what it was like to shoot that?

It was extremely fun. And one person in general, Luenell, was on set, and oh my gosh. Everybody was just dying laughing the entire time. So much so that I’m like, “All right — I’ve got these like really kind of heavy argument scenes. I need to go off by myself because everyone in the green room was just dying laughing at her. It was nice to have. I was looking forward to it. Tanzyn and I had talked — and it was written in the script as well — where there’s a different level of comfort that Rae felt around Danny’s side of the family. Her Black side of the family. And so we wanted that to be a thing, and everybody on set instantly brought that out — we didn’t even have to like make it a thing or talk about it or think about it. My parents in the show were incredible and really giving of their time, and we had great conversations in the green room. And like I said, Luenell was just so funny the entire time. And it was great because we had some kind of heavy arguments in the pantry — some really heavy stuff — and it was really nice to just be there with Kathryn and just kind of go after it.

And one thing that I remember specifically happened is that there were just some things that were in my head and in my heart that I wanted to say, and [showrunner] Liz [Tigelaar] was always so open about improv and discussing things and so collaborative. So I just did, you know — I just let out whatever came out, and of course, Kathryn was right there with me and bounced off with me. I think we were there for a couple of days doing that stuff, and it was a really fulfilling couple of days. It kind of reminded me of some of my family reunions in real life in the different mix of people there and the hierarchy of the elders and where they sit and always wanting to play with the kids and all that kind of stuff. It was a few really good days on set. I mean, I really enjoyed this entire filming process, but I remember those days stood out to me as well.

You mentioned working with Kathryn, which brings me to my next question, which is about episode six — AKA the one that will never let me look at a Home Depot the same way again.

[Laughs] Yeah, absolutely.

That episode strikes such an amazing balance of sad and sexy and silly at times. Can you talk a little bit about how you approached that? It’s such a unique tone, but it just all works together so well.

I was so excited for that episode because when I originally got onto this and signed up, I’m like, “Beautiful. It’s gonna have this incredible, messy, grounded, tough love story with Kathryn Hahn as Clare. It’s gonna be incredible.” And we had this great chemistry in the audition process. And then I get through it, and I’m like, “When are we ever not arguing?” You know what I mean? So episode six was really one where I felt like we got to see a little bit behind the scenes of why the two of them were — what the good times were like, what the exciting times were like. See that these two people who originally found themselves to each other are still in there, you know. They’re not gone. And I was so excited to do that, and from our conversations, Kathryn was as well.

I think, in preparation, I really wanted to make that pop. Because I knew that so much of the show between the two of them was gonna be them going at each other that I didn’t want people to get to the end and be like, “Oh god, can they please just end things?” I wanted there to be something that was like, “No. I don’t want that. There’s still something. I hope that they can still work things out.” And yeah, it was a journey because I feel like there was so much vulnerability that came out in that episode from both characters. Because it was them both kind of, for the first time, letting down some of their walls and really just sharing what’s going on, why, and what’s underneath all these arguments and these things in therapy. And I feel like they were actually able to share with each other in a sense of like, “Well, I honestly kind of don’t feel fulfilled as who I am as a person right now.” You know what I mean? Just kind of like release that into my wife.

Yeah, definitely. And speaking of their relationship, if there were to be another season, what do you think Danny and Clare’s relationship would look like? Or what do you hope it would look like?

You know, hope-wise and what it might actually look like might be different. I feel like, in the end, Danny makes a big decision to try to, in a sense, heal himself and get content and happy with who he is right now and find a bit of who he was and be able to hold onto that. And so I would hope that later in life, through working on himself, he would be able to figure out a bit about himself.

And I think Clare — not to speak for her — but I feel like she kind of went through that transformation in this season of really finding herself again. I would just hope that they can meet later at a point where they have space in a container for each other. And can find a bit of that excitement again and find a bit of that love again as two whole people coming together — not two broken people trying to hold on.

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This obviously has such an amazing cast. Who do you think out of the cast would make the best advice columnist?

Oh, man. That’s interesting. So I only met her a few times, but I just want to throw it out there: I feel like Michaela Watkins’ advice column would be fire. I had loved her from watching her. The name of the show is missing me a little, but I had watched her on this show before, and then Kathryn told me that they had gotten her to play Amy, and I was so excited to meet her. And the person that she is in real life holds up to all I had hoped before coming into it — she’s just so nice and so giving.

The obvious answer would be Kathryn, but I don’t know — I feel like Tanzyn’s advice column would be so quirky and goofy, but it would work. So I’m gonna go with Tanzyn. I feel like you wouldn’t even know where the advice came from or where it got to by the end, but it would be a very enjoyable read.

That’s what Sarah Pidgeon said as well. Tanzyn needs to step it up. We need this.

Did she? [Laughs] That’s funny.

You had to dig really deep in some of these scenes. What would you say was the most challenging to shoot emotionally? And then, to flip that because you are working with such great comedic actors, what was the most challenging to shoot because you couldn’t stop laughing the whole time?

It might be some of the same scenes. I think, emotionally, some of the therapy scenes were up there. Also, that scene in episode six when they’re in the restaurant. That was a real thing to go through, especially because I felt like that was the first time I was really opening up. I think sometimes, when you go to a deeper place and just release that in like a therapy thing, it can take on a one-tonal type of dynamic because you’re just releasing in the same way that you would in real life. But I think in the restaurant because we were having such a good time and we were in a place where it’s like, “Oh, we’re finally connecting.” Going through that, of finally being on a date with my wife and happy and a little tipsy, but then choosing to let this vulnerability out and then going through those waves of emotion — I think that was difficult and also beautiful to just let happen and ride.

And then some of the therapy stuff — Kathryn threw some stuff at me that was not cool. [Laughs] No, it was cool and funny. I kept pronouncing something wrong, and she made fun of me for it mid-scene, and I was just like, “You asshole.” Because I heard myself say it wrong, but I was like, “Okay, yeah — we’ll get it on the next take.” But she was not letting it go. She was letting me have it. I felt embarrassed in real life, too. I was like, “Shut up.” [Laughs] But no, it was great. It was such a great experience. She had us laughing all the time, and like I said, Luenell had everybody dying.

My last question for you: I know people have been asking what advice you’d give to your younger self, but I want to flip that and ask what you’d say to your future 70- or 80-year-old self.

Man. For one, I hope you’re still here to hear this. That would be great if we make it to 70 or 80. [Laughs] But yeah, I don’t know. It would probably be something along the lines of the same things I’d tell my younger self: Just enjoy the process, enjoy wherever you are at the time. I assume, at that point, I’d hopefully be some kind of grandfather and probably moving around the country to wherever my kids live — following them around and annoying them.

I think one thing that I’m especially finding out now as I get slightly older is people that I played sports with at a younger time are just passing out of nowhere. Going to sleep and just not waking up. I literally just had that happen yesterday. I found out a guy I played basketball with growing up who’s, you know, my exact age just passed. No nothing, no whatever — leaves behind his two kids and his wife, you know. So I think advice to younger or advice to older is just every day take it as the gift that it is. Because that’s exactly what it is: a gift. And you don’t know, and you may have no inclination. No heads up. No nothing that that was your last gift. So yeah, I think that would be my advice. Just wherever you are at whatever time, just enjoy the time you have.

All episodes of Tiny Beautiful Things will be available to stream on Hulu April 7.