When shares of Bear Stearns fell 47 percent on March 14 2008, Scott Porter was on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Instead of widespread panic, an eerie quiet descended as shell-shocked traders struggled to fully comprehend the implication of their losses. Porter, perhaps best known as Jason Street from NBC’s Friday Night Lights, had been granted privileged access to the heart of the action on Wall Street in order to prepare for the role of an ambitious hedge fund hot-shot in The Good Guy.

Based on a script written by Julio DePietro, who had previous experience at a Chicago investment firm, The Good Guy is the story of Beth (Alexis Bledel), a New York urban conservationist, who has a successful career and supportive friends. But finding the right guy in Manhattan is never simple. Beth begins dating Tommy (Scott Porter), a young, handsome, confident Wall Street player. When a member of Tommy’s financial team leaves for another firm, he decides to promote Daniel (Bryan Greenberg) from an IT specialist to the vacant position. Daniel is eager to 'play with the big boys' but does not have the cutthroat, A-type personality traits needed for the job. Tommy takes Daniel under his wing but things get complicated when Daniel falls for Beth.

Scott Porter talks exclusively to CinemaSpy about how he landed his big break on Friday Night Lights, doing 'The Motorcycle Thrust' with Hugh Grant on his first movie, the success of Dear John, and why he took the role of Nestor on television’s Caprica knowing little to nothing about the character.

CinemaSpy: I thought Tommy was masterfully created. He’s a bit of an enigma in the beginning of the film. Although competitive, he risks his reputation to help Dan, an IT guy, step into a trader position. He is also very attentive and romantic with Beth. But then he has so many of the characteristics of Wall Street a-holes like Gordon Gecko and Christian Bales’ character in American Psycho. Did you look to other films or influences to help create Tommy?

Scott Porter: It’s funny because in the movie Tommy is watching American Psycho when Daniel calls from the bookstore. He has got the TV paused. It is not shown completely—it may have something to do with copyright. He is the same type of personality [as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho]. He just doesn’t know it. He’s a salesman. I watched Wall Street. All of what I knew of this Wall Street mythology was what I’d seen in movies. So when I got there it was more important to go onto a trading floor, and see things as they really exist. Julio had worked in this world before and so he was great at imparting knowledge as far as how [traders] react and why they act the way that they do.

CinemaSpy: The Good Guy could almost be seen a cautionary tale about being wary of first impressions when dating. When do you think Beth begins to suspect that Tom is not being completely honest and when do you think her feelings for Dan change?

Scott Porter: I think the film is big on trusting yourself, as opposed to trusting others. She hasn’t gone all the way with Tommy yet, and she is kind of hesitant to get into a serious relationship with him. Something about it is making her hesitate a little bit. And with Daniel it seems very immediate but because of the relationship she is already in and because of who Tommy has sold himself to be, she can’t quite see past the façade that Tommy has been showing. I think it is a bit of a cautionary tale but it is more of a lesson. You have to know yourself and trust yourself and know what you need. That is what makes, to me, Daniel successful where Tommy is not. I don’t think that Tommy knows who he really is. He is searching. He is a bit of an egomaniac. He has a bit of an addiction to always winning and to always being top dog in the room or the best man in a relationship, and he juggles it all—but through it all he doesn’t really know who is.

CinemaSpy: The film also explores stereotypes. At one point Beth says of Dan to her friends, "If anything, he is too old-fashioned." And her friend says "If he’s polite and early, he’s gay." Do you think women are just as prone to believing stereotypes of masculinity that are perpetuated by guys themselves?

Scott Porter: I think so. Perception is reality and there are certain things that are put out there so often that you start to just believe them. Not every person that seems like a bad boy is a bad boy. You see in so many real life cases as well as in the movies that there are stories about the guy who seems rough around the edges but has a heart of gold. People kind of gravitate towards those stories. But that is not always the case. Bad guys are bad, and you are not always going to turn them around, and a lot of girls think that they can.  

CinemaSpy: Shooting this film all over New York, from SoHo to Central Park to The Cloisters, must have been so much fun. I know you have lived in New York but was there any particular day of shooting on location that stands out in your memory?

Scott Porter: I will pick two. The Cloisters were beautiful. I didn’t know that they existed. It’s odd because I lived in New York for three years but the thing is that when you live and work there, you don’t always have the chance to appreciate New York, and everything that is there. I’d also say that a day that I remember — although I don’t know if it was necessarily fun — was the day I got to go on the trading floor, down on Wall Street. It had four levels of security. You have to sign release forms. Julio had existed in that world before so he pulled some strings and got us to actually get onto a trading floor. It was the day that Bear Stearns crashed...

CinemaSpy: It must have been mayhem?

Scott Porter: It wasn’t though. It was just everyone just standing there watching the TV monitors kind of going "This is real." And then the phones started ringing. And so instead of [thinking] "More! More! More! How can I trade up?" they were thinking "How can I pull out? I want to pull out!" These guys had a whole new challenge on their plates, trying to keep these people invested as opposed to just moving it around and trying to make them more money. They were trying to just keep them there. It was incredible to see. We couldn’t put all of that into the movie because we didn’t want the Wall Street portion of it overshadow the true heart of it—which is this relationship between the three. But it was an incredible day. I expected to see these very cocksure, very fast talking, very intelligent guys at their best and what I ended up seeing was these guys who had been rewarded for so long actually see the high risk element of Wall Street. It was interesting.

CinemaSpy: I know that you had a brief turn on As The World Turns but it was really joining the cast of Friday Night Lights that was the breakthrough. How did that experience change things for you?

Scott Porter: What happened leading up to Friday Night Lights was really what changed my perspective of things. I was in New York City doing "Altar Boyz" which, although was an award-winner, but was never going to reach a certain peak of success. It was an off-Broadway show, and it wasn’t really feasible for it to move to a big Broadway house. I auditioned for "Tarzan", the musical that got panned. It came down to me and one other guy, and I was offered the first understudy for Tarzan. I was told by Disney that I would go on [stage], and I would play the role and they would teach me really how to own a stage—because "Altar Boys" could only teach me so much. We asked for 'outs' for television, just in case I booked a TV show. And the response was "You don’t want to do TV. If you did TV right now, you would just be fourth handsome guy from the right on some WB show. You should do Tarzan."