The 'Winning Time' cast wanted to talk directly to the camera after John C. Reilly started doing it, says showrunner

• John C. Reilly plays Jerry Buss in "Winning Time" and often speaks directly to the show's viewers.
• Showrunner Max Borenstein told Insider the rest of the cast wanted to do it after seeing Reilly.

There are many unconventional aspects of the HBO series, "Winning Time," which chronicles the rise of the Los Angeles Lakers in the late 1970s, but the biggest is the side conversations that the actors have with the viewer.

It's called in the business "breaking the fourth wall," in which characters in a show or movie suddenly stop conversing within the world they occupy on screen and directly address the audience.

In the case of "Winning Time," new Lakers owner Jerry Buss (played by John C. Reilly) does it often to give the viewer a quick insight into who he's talking to or just to deliver a pithy one-liner.

Showrunner Max Borenstein decided to go with that style while writing the show's pilot episode.

Enlisted by Adam McKay's production company, which developed the series, Borenstein said he was guided through adapting author Jeff Pearlman's 2014 book titled "Showtime: Magic, Kareen, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s," by the note McKay's producing partner Kevin Messick gave him: "Be free with it."

"That was really a liberating thing," Borenstein told Insider. "It so happens that breaking the fourth wall made sense in that script."

However, they needed an actor to go along with doing it. Originally, veteran indie actor Michael Shannon was cast as Buss. But leading up to shooting the pilot directed by McKay, Shannon voiced his concern to the director about talking directly to the camera.

"It really bugged Michael that we were breaking the fourth wall," McKay told The Hollywood Reporter. "He kept saying, 'I don't like this. It throws me. I'm having a hard time.'"

So before the pilot was shot, Shannon exited as Buss and McKay called Reilly to take on the role.

"On day one of shooting the pilot — the scene where Jerry Buss and Jerry West are on the golf course and John C. Reilly turns to the camera and starts telling you about Jerry West's history — seeing John deliver it and the energy he brought to it, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up," Borenstein said. "I looked at Adam and he looked at me and we knew it was going to work."

It worked so well that the rest of the cast wanted to get in on talking directly to the camera.

"Every actor started coming to us and asking, 'Hey, when do I get my moment?'" Borenstein said.

Borenstein and the show's writers' room obliged. From Gaby Hoffmann to Sally Field, there are numerous cast members throughout the series who suddenly turn and break the fourth wall.

"Winning Time" airs Sunday nights on HBO and is also available on HBO Max.