{"id":841980,"date":"2026-08-03T14:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T14:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/841980\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T14:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T14:21:08","slug":"former-nhl-enforcers-surprise-career-turn-acting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/841980\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NHL Enforcer’s Surprise Career Turn: Acting"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n Sean Avery made his name in the NHL a generation ago as a tough agitator more familiar with the penalty box than the scoring sheet. Now 46, the former New York Ranger hasn’t taken the traditional post-playing career route into the coaching ranks. Instead, he’s traded pucks for scripts\u2014and he’s quietly become one of director Christopher Nolan’s favorite ensemble actors, writes Peter Baugh in a profile for the Athletic<\/a>. Avery has had roles Tenet, Oppenheimer, and Nolan’s new epic, The Odyssey, in which he plays one of Odysseus’ soldiers. \n <\/p>\n

“I think Chris just likes people that show up to work ready to go and have a mindset where they understand that the stakes are high,” Avery says. “So like all great coaches, I guess (directors) kind of identify talent and know who they need in certain situations. Maybe I’ve fallen under that category with Chris.” Baugh details Avery’s grind behind the pivot: years of New York acting classes, his turbulent off-ice life, his blunt hockey commentary, and his ambitions beyond Nolan, from CBS’ Einstein to Netflix’s The Night Agent\u2014and a potential comedy role in HBO’s I Love LA that he insists could win him a Golden Globe. Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sean Avery made his name in the NHL a generation ago as a tough agitator more familiar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[62414,64,63,129268,1973,31174,3617,575,165587,347080,85,30335],"class_list":["post-841980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-acting","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-christopher-nolan","tag-hollywood","tag-matt-damon","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-oppenheimer","tag-sean-avery","tag-sports","tag-the-odyssey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}