ENGLISH TEACHER – Season 1 Key Art | ©2024 FX

In ENGLISH TEACHER, series creator Brian Jordan Alvarez plays the title role, Evan Marquez, an instructor at an Austin, Texas high school where nuance is everything. The comedy airs Monday nights on FX, with episodes available the following day on Hulu.

Sean Patton plays Evan’s colleague Markie Hillridge, the school’s physical education instructor and football coach. Markie and Evan are friends, even though Markie is in many ways a traditional conservative good ol’ boy, and Evan is gay and progressive.

Patton, originally from Louisiana, has appeared in a number of films and TV shows, including INSIDE AMY SCHUMER and MARON, but Markie in ENGLISH TEACHER is his first series regular role.

When ENGLISH TEACHER has a Q&A panel at the summer Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour in Pasadena, California, Patton participates. Afterwards, he sits down for a one-on-one conversation. This interview combines his comments on the panel with the solo discussion.

Patton has primarily been a stand-up comic. “That is actually how [ENGLISH TEACHER] found me,” he explains. “There was a casting director in New York, who I had auditioned for quite a bit over the years, and I guess when they were looking for Markie, she was like, ‘Oh, I know, here’s someone specific.’ And they watched a few clips of me doing stand-up, and they were like, ‘We think he’s got the right temperament for the character.’

“I got the audition – it was 10:30 PM on a Tuesday when I got the email.” The producers wanted Patton to self-tape an audition. “My manager was like, ‘Hey, do this as soon as you can.’ I was out in New York, performing, I was like, ‘As soon as I get home,’ which was 1 AM, 2 AM. And I just did it. I got her on Zoom, and we did it in the middle of the night, I sent it in, and the rest is history. So, yeah, they found me out there on the circuit.”

What was Patton told about Markie as a character for the audition?

“Strangely, they just sent me one scene. But it was a scene that said everything. It’s a scene that’s in the pilot, when Evan and Markie are talking about [Evan’s] upcoming suspension. The scene just told me everything about this character.

“I grew up with this guy. I related to this guy in a lot of ways. I grew up in the South as well, so this character who is open-minded and wants to learn, and wants to understand more, but also has core beliefs and values that he doesn’t want to let go of, and finding a middle ground and a balance [with Evan]. I think most Americans are trying to do that now. And Markie is just a more extreme version. But yeah, they didn’t tell me much, they just gave me the lines and were like, ‘What do you think?’ Which I appreciate.

Does Markie see any contradictions between some of his specific beliefs and his generally welcoming attitude?

“I don’t think he does. I think that throughout the season, you learn that’s kind of his gift, is that he’s open-minded, willing to be like, ‘Hey, my best friend, Evan, is very different from me, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get along at some point.’ Because he also tries to bring Evan into his world a little bit, too. So, it’s a constant tug-of-war between the two.”

Did Patton have to learn anything in order to play Markie? Patton says he didn’t have to learn about coaching football.

“Growing up in the South, you’re exposed to athletics. Like, you’re not forced, but you play sports growing up. It’s just what you do in the South, especially in Louisiana. You’re going to start off in athletics. And anything else you’re good at will figure itself out along the way, but every Southern parent wants their kid to be an athlete first. So, I know football very well, I know sports very well, so I was able to add that in when we talked about coaching stuff.

“The only thing I really had to learn was how to keep up with the rest of the cast,” Patton laughs, “because they’re all trained, seasoned, veteran amazing actors, and this is new for me, this is my first real role, so it’s been an amazing experience in that regard.”

While both lead Marquez and Stephanie Koenig, the series’ story editor who plays teacher Gwen Sanders, are in the writers’ room, they and the other writers are happy with improvisation on the ENGLISH TEACHER set.

“I was in an improv group, years and years ago, early on,” Patton relates. “But everything I’ve ever learned, I’ve learned by trial by fire, just getting on stage and doing it. I had improv instruction from instructors, but we’d then do a show that night. So, it was very fly by the seat of your pants. Plus, doing stand-up, you’re kind of doing a one-person show every night, and sometimes improvisation is heavily involved in that. So, I had a little bit of training, but like I said, a lot of it was trial by fire.”

There’s a sequence where Markie winds up collaborating with Gwen on a football practice-turned-self-defense class. “You know what? That was a rushed take, because we were losing sunlight, and we rehearsed it once quickly, and Steph just had this look in her eyes that was like, ‘Trust me on this.’ I was like, ‘A hundred percent.’ That was all her. She led it, I just followed. I just trusted her, followed her lead, and the scene came out beautifully.”

Sean Patton as Markie Hillridge in ENGLISH TEACHER – Season 1 | ©2024 FX/Steve Swisher

When the ENGLISH TEACHER cast is improvising, do they try to integrated the scripted lines into the scene, or is it more free-flowing?

Patton laughs. “Sometimes, it’s the actual line itself that will lead to the improv, the way it’s written or just how much weight it’s carrying emotionally, or how much plot it’s carrying. That oftentimes ends up leading to the improv more than not. So, usually you start with the lines, and then it spins off from there.

“Then, sometimes, you start here and then bring it back down. So, it’s a beautiful balance, especially with these guys. Carmen [Christopher, who plays teacher Rick] is so great, Brian and Steph are so great, and Enrico [Colantoni, who plays school Principal Grant Moretti] – I mean, it’s Enrico Colantoni. That guy is a Jedi. So, the improv comes very naturally when you know you’re surrounded by that cast with that writing.

“The casting was spot-on. Everyone, in a way, knew these characters so well. As soon as I met all of them for the first time shooting the pilot, it was immediately like, ‘Oh, we’ve known each other for three or four years, through these characters that we haven’t even started playing yet.’

“The writing was that good. It just pulled what it needed out of you, and what it needed, you wanted to give. It was great. You get what you give. The script was like an insurance policy to improvise. You take risks, knowing that you had this.”

Patton has been surprised by some details, like the outfits for when the high school football team takes drag seriously for the “Powderpuff” episode. “That costume design was fantastic. Because none of us saw it – well, I know I didn’t, Steph either, I don’t think – until we were shooting. We knew they were doing it, of course, obviously, it was in the script, but I was blown away.

“I remember [the young actors playing the team in drag] driving up in that golf cart for the first time, and us seeing it in real time. That costume design was immaculate to me. And just great. They didn’t ham it up, they made it look real, they made it look authentic, and those actors, they committed. It was beautiful. I felt the same emotion the character felt in the show.”

And what would Patton most like people to know about ENGLISH TEACHER?

“I think ENGLISH TEACHER is a real human show. It’s a show about real people living in a very real time, and being as genuine, kind, but also [different from] one another as possible, and the outcome is, we can all come together, and it’s a beautiful thing. And it’s hilarious.”

Related: ENGLISH TEACHER: Actress and story editor Stephanie Koenig on new FX TV series – Interview 

Related: ENGLISH TEACHER: Erico Colantoni on new FX TV series – Exclusive Interview 

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Article: ENGLISH TEACHER: Actor Sean Patton on new FX TV series – Interview 

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