“Pryce Clearly Is Still in Love With Amber-Linn”: ‘Stick’ Stars Owen Wilson and Judy Greer on Their Emotional Bond and Ideas for Season 2
[Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for Stick.]
Summary
In the Apple TV+ series ‘Stick,’ Pryce’s past affects his coaching of golf prodigy Santi, highlighting the need to face his own personal trauma.
Pryce and ex-wife Amber-Linn’s relationship reveals unresolved feelings with the potential for reconciliation.
Co-stars Owen Wilson and Judy Greer hint at Season 2 possibilities, touching on character dynamics and potential storylines.
In the Apple TV+ sports comedy series Stick, ex-pro golfer Pryce Cahill (Owen Wilson), whose career was derailed prematurely 20 years ago, crosses paths with 17-year-old golf phenom Santi (Peter Dager) at the driving range and immediately recognizes the potential of his talent. Pryce offers to work with Santi, covering all expenses to take him to tournaments where he can try his luck. But with his personal life a bit of a mess and his refusal to deal with his own trauma, Pryce will need to work through his own past in order to do what’s best for Santi.
While pain from their past came between Pryce and his ex-wife Amber-Linn (Judy Greer), the two still care about each other. Amber-Linn wanted to move on with her own life, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t want Pryce to succeed. She has her own life now, but she’s also there to support Pryce as his bond with Santi seems to heal pieces of himself that he’s kept buried for too long.
During this interview with Collider, co-stars Wilson and Greer discussed why they want to do more of this series (since this interview, they’ve officially been picked up for Season 2), how some people are coachable while others are not, the Pryce and Santi dynamic, the dream episode that gives insight into Pryce and Amber-Linn’s past, and whether Pryce and Amber-Linn should get back together. Wilson also talks about the possibility of working with director Wes Anderson again and what it’s meant to him to be a part of the Cars franchise, while Greer explained why she loves playing a villain.
Collider: Please tell me the goal with this series is to do more seasons. The ending of the season doesn’t feel like the end of this story, so are you hoping for a Season 2?
JUDY GREER: Yeah.
OWEN WILSON: These are characters, and I think Judy felt the same way, that you want to keep going with because they’re just fun to play.
‘Stick’ Creator Jason Keller Has Some Exciting Ideas for Season 2
“We don’t know anything yet.”
It leaves things in a way that feels open. Have you had conversations about what could come next with this?
WILSON: The show creator, Jason [Keller], definitely has some ideas. The ones that he’s mentioned to us sound exciting.
GREER: We don’t know anything yet.
Owen, one of the things that I really love about your character is that even though he was a golf star in his own right, we never get the sense that he’s trying to relive that through Santi. He’s taking a more positive approach to get him to reach his full potential, which makes it much easier to root for both of them. Was that something you really thought about and talked about, in figuring out who this guy is?
WILSON: No, not really. In some ways, Pryce probably does want a do-over. Maybe he keeps a lid on it, but it is hard to separate Santi’s destiny and his ambition from Pryce’s own and what he wants for himself. That’s the struggle in their relationship and what made it interesting for me to play. A lot of times I have good stuff to tell him, but he literally doesn’t want to hear it. There are players that are coachable and there are players that aren’t. I know that from growing up playing sports. I actually think I was fairly coachable, but my older brother was not very coachable. I remember the baseball coach literally tearing his hat in half because he told him to hold on first, and he tried to stretch it and do a double and got thrown out by a mile. This coach said he had the brains of a rejected wiffle ball.
I thought it was really interesting that we get more of a dream episode than a flashback episode, with Pryce and Amber-Linn seeing their son grow up and live this life that they never had together. What did you guys think of that episode? What was that like to read and to shoot? I thought that was such a beautiful way to handle that.
WILSON: When I heard about the episode, I wasn’t necessarily sold on it because it is so surreal. It’s a leap. But when we were doing it, it was obviously moving to play.
GREER: It’s gutting. It’s really heartbreaking. It’s really beautiful. The way it’s shot is so seamless. I know that was on the page, but it really worked. Thankfully, I haven’t lost a child. Pryce has a line early on about how he misses the things he didn’t think he would miss, like telling him to turn down the music. So then, when you see this fantasy sequence, it is those moments that he’s remembering. It’s not the high school graduation. It’s getting the dinosaur stuck in the toilet. It’s so heartbreaking, but it really works to get us into the head of Pryce and where he’s been living for that chunk of time since Jett passed away and what he’s been thinking about on a loop.
With the Season Finale of ‘Stick,’ Pryce and Amber-Linn End Up in a Better Place Than They Started
“You certainly can see the push and pull.”
In episode nine, we also see Pryce and Amber-Linn get to a better place than they’ve been in up until then. She comes to the tournament, they share a moment together, and it almost leads to a hotel room. Do you think they made the right decision, with not ending up back together? Had you been rooting for them to get together? Do you think they’re in a place where they just need their own life journeys now?
WILSON: Pryce is clearly still in love with Amber-Linn and doesn’t see why they can’t be together. At the end, I don’t know if Pryce is finally respecting the work that Amber-Linn has done to move on and honors that. You certainly can see the push and pull of not knowing quite what to do.
GREER: I was surprised when I read it that she was like, “Come on in.” I was like, “Oh, okay. All right.” That was probably what she was looking for with Pryce for so long, that spark and that light in his eyes. When she sees it again, she’s like, “Yeah, that’s the guy.” For her, she’s like, “If this is what’s on the table, then I definitely maybe want to rethink my decision.” I also think there’s a love and a familiarity. This is the guy that she met, and he’s back.
Owen, what will it take for you to do another Wes Anderson movie? Is this something that you’re hoping will happen again? Would you like to make that happen again?
WILSON: We were talking about a Western. We’ve always talked about that, even back when we were doing Bottle Rocket. I think it would be fun to come up with something.
Judy, I will always think of you as the villain in 13 Going on 30. How do you feel about that character? Do you wish that you got to play villains more often?
GREER: I do love being a villain. It’s so fun. I have a couple of villainous things on the horizon that you will see soon. It’s fun to circle back to that. I also feel like I just get a lot more respect on set from the crew, in general, when I’m playing a villain. Life imitates art. Maybe people are more scared of me or something. That’s always a fun dynamic.
Owen Wilson Never Could Have Imagined that He’d Still Be Voicing Lightning McQueen for the ‘Cars’ Franchise, Nearly 20 Years Later
“They’re still looking for that perfect Ka-Chow.”
Owen, it’s been nearly 20 years since the first Cars movie came out, with you giving voice to Lightning McQueen. What does it feel like all these years later to see how it became a franchise and how long those characters have endured in different mediums, including theme park rides. When you signed on to do that movie, did you ever consider that it would be something that would still be with you, this many years later?
WILSON: No. Of course, I could never have imagined that it would continue on the way it has. They’re doing something with Lightning McQueen where I went in for and found myself saying, “Ka-Chow.” I asked them, “There must be a bank of Ka-Chows that you have at this point. The idea that, 20 years in, I’m going to have a different Ka-Chow than I’ve already said, but I guess they’re still looking for that perfect Ka-Chow. They’re chasing it.
