'Friday Night Lights' star Scott Porter has 'zero regrets' about playing wheelchair user Jason Street: 'Everything that we did was done meticulously'

• Scott Porter reflected on disability representation in "Friday Night Lights" for Insider.
• He's encouraged by progress in Hollywood and has "zero regrets" about playing Jason Street.

"Friday Night Lights" star Scott Porter recently told Insider he had "zero regrets" about playing wheelchair user Jason Street in the football drama, though he is able-bodied.

"My character's a very unique character, and the fact that you had to see him able-bodied as well as post-injury, they had to have an able-bodied actor to play the role," he explained about Jason, a starting quarterback for the Dillon Panthers.

In the pilot episode of the critically-acclaimed NBC series, which ran from 2006 to 2011, Jason sustains a spinal injury during a routine tackle that paralyzes him from the waist down, cutting short his promising future career in the NFL.

Jason's arc throughout the series focuses on him learning to live with his new level of physical ability and reconsidering a new set of goals and dreams.

Porter pointed out that the "Friday Night Lights" production crew took important steps to ensure that Jason's journey was portrayed authentically, explaining that "everything that we did was done meticulously" to honor and to tell the truth about what living with a spinal cord injury might look like.

"I have zero regrets because we had people there every step of the way, like Coach James Gumbert, who was my technical advisor, was my guru on everything to go off of as far as making sure that this character was true to life after his injury," Porter said. Gumbert is a Paralympian based in Austin, Texas, where "Friday Night Lights" was shot. He played and coaches wheelchair rugby, a sport that Jason eventually learned.

The "Lucifer" actor interviewed Gumbert for the "Friday Night Lights" rewatch podcast he co-hosts with his former costar Zach Gilford and the drama's most famous superfan, "Parenthood" star Mae Whitman.

On "It's Not Only Football: Friday Night Lights and Beyond" Gumbert told Porter and Kevin Rankin, who played Herc, Jason's roommate in rehab, that advising them on things like how to play his sport and hold a cup when you have a specific spinal cord injury was a "badge of honor."

"You guys wanted to live the part," he said. "The thing that I'm most proud of, of what we accomplished is that people really believed that you guys were in chairs."

Porter acknowledged that the show could've made some different choices given the advancements in the authentic representation of disability today.

"Nowadays, a role like Herc who comes on having already become a quadriplegic, that in today's climate, thankfully, it would be probable that you would find an actor who actually has that disability and they would be able to portray that," he said. "And you're seeing actors of all walks of life be able to actually play these roles now."

Porter finds comfort and connection in Pokémon GO

After starring in "Friday Night Lights," Porter went on to join the cast of another comfort show with a cult following, "Hart Of Dixie." He currently plays Mayor Paul Randolph on another show that's easy to escape into for hours, "Ginny & Georgia" on Netflix.

"Comfort television is different for everyone. Some people like to see their life or something that mirrors their life on TV as a sense of comfort. Some people like to watch a show that they can escape into for comfort," he said, reflecting on the meaning of the term "comfort TV."

He noted that even action and thriller shows could provide a sense of comfort, as long as "community is at the core" of the show.

Though he spoons out comfort for fans through his acting, Porter finds that sense of community for himself through an unlikely medium — playing Pokémon GO with family, friends, and even strangers. Pokemon Go is the mobile interactive version of the original Pokémon game released in the late '90s. Released in 2016, the game encourages people to go out into the world and hunt the creatures that randomly pop up in their neighborhoods.

As a teenager, he would play the original Pokémon while his little sister watched along, rooting him on.

"My sister now lives in Virginia, my dad lives in Florida, and I live in California and we still play together. There are remote rate passes and ways to play together even though you're in different parts of the country or different parts of the world," he said, reflecting on what the game means to him. "Pokemon Go is about community and getting out and exploring the world, and there's nothing better than doing that with people that you know and love."

He and his dad recently attended a Pokémon GO live event together in Las Vegas. Porter compared the bonding experience to "hearing the first strums" of your favorite song at a concert.

"It makes you feel safe," he said.