Pop-Culturalist.com

Lauren Graham and Josh Duhamel are two of the stars of The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers.

After winning back the Mighty Ducks team name last year, our squad-with-heart and their coach Alex Morrow (Lauren Graham) take to the road to attend an intense summer hockey institute in California run by charming yet hardcore former NHL player, Colin Cole (Josh Duhamel). It’s a place for kids to get excellent at hockey — without school getting in the way. As our Ducks try to survive in this super-competitive environment, they’re faced with the question: Can you win summer?

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Lauren and Josh about The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, making their television directorial debuts, and more.

PC: Lauren, the first season was incredibly well received. How does the series continue to build on that success heading into Season 2? What’s ahead for Alex?
Lauren: What’s fun about having a nice first season is there are so many places to go, and what was exceptionally fun this year is to have Josh join and to have this new premise, which is this fancy sports institute that we find ourselves in. It gives us opportunities for new character dynamics. One of the things I like about the concept of this show is that we’re in a different place. It’s a sports show. We’re going to follow the team in a couple of different directions.

Alex has more confidence this year. She’s had some successes as a coach. She really wants her son to have a great, fun summer. What that means to her is camp in the traditional sense. She’s not quite prepared for the intensity of Coach Cole, but that also brings some funny and fun challenges too.

PC: Josh, you grew up playing hockey. What was it like lacing up those skates again and stepping into this beloved franchise? What should audiences know about Coach Cole?
Josh: I did have to put the skates back on after thirty-something years. It wasn’t pretty. After about five minutes on the ice, I went and hurled in the garbage can.

Lauren: We got a lot of vomit content today.

Josh: It’s true. I remember when it first happened I was like, “Well, this is going to be out there to the press.” [laughs] But yeah, it was really fun to put the skates back on. I truly fell in love with the game again. It’s something that I figured had passed me by. It wasn’t anything that I was ever going to do again. Then something like this pops up and you get to skate like a pro. It was a crash course in hockey again. That was scary but also a lot of fun, and I’m really glad that I had to go through that again.

Coach Cole is a guy who was a former pro hockey player and who for unforeseen circumstances had to leave the game early and started this camp that has since become the foremost institute in developing the best talent across the country. When the Mighty Ducks show up, he’s a bit taken aback by…

Lauren: How bad they are. [laughs]

Josh: [laughs] Not how bad they are, but how they’re not all about hockey. Everybody I deal with loves hockey. They think about hockey 100% of the time. These kids are a little bit more well-rounded, a little bit more fun than he’s used to. He doesn’t love it at first, but it’s something that he grows to appreciate. It’s a very well-written series. It’s great for the whole family because it’s not too kiddie and it’s not too adult. It’s funny, action-packed, intense, and emotional. I’m very proud to be a part of it.

PC: You’re both making your television directorial debut this season. How did that come to fruition? Have you found that your experience behind the camera impacted the way that you approached your work on screen?
Lauren: I have wanted to direct for a long time. It’s historically been a difficult ceiling to break through. So I asked to have it included as part of my agreement to do the show. I still haven’t worked with a ton of female directions in television, so it’s been a personal mission of mine.

Working with the actors was the most fun part. That was the least worrisome part to me. Directing is very technical, but I love actors and especially working with a group of young people. I have so much admiration for them. I just wanted them to have a fantastic experience. I know what that is when I have one. I just try to give some version of that to them.

Josh: To add to that, it really does in a lot of ways, give you a new perspective on acting as a director. I always wanted to do it because I always felt like I had the right mindset for it. I always saw things from that perspective from an early age. I always felt like I could do it. It was just a matter of getting the guts to go for it. And trusting that I didn’t have to know everything. I knew enough to know that I didn’t have to know everything. It gives you a completely different perspective. It also gives you an opportunity to put your mitts on all the different aspects of making a TV show or a movie. You get a chance to work with the wardrobe department, the art department, the post-production department, the writers, and the actors in a different way. It gives you a different point of view when you are acting, which I wasn’t expecting.

PC: Lauren, in the first season, your character gives her team trophies ahead of the first game. If you could give Alex an award for her journey in Season 1 or Season 2, what would it be for? And the same question for you, Josh, if you could give an award to your character for his journey, what would it be for?
Lauren: She’s growing and understanding how to be a less hovering mom and a more supportive coach. Not that she wasn’t supportive before, but I think she had less understanding of exactly what she was taking on. This is a person who really likes a challenge and is learning to let her son be a young adult and not watch him every second. I could see the “Less Helicopter Mom” award.

Josh: I would give myself the “Letting Go” award for not holding on so tight to what he believes is important but being open to new ideas, new ways of thinking, and appreciating life outside of hockey a little bit more.

Make sure to follow Lauren (Twitter) and Josh (Twitter/Instagram). Watch Season 2 of The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers on Disney+ on September 28th.