Taye Diggs Reveals How Relationship with His Athlete Son Connected Him to All American Character

Warning: This post contains spoilers for All American.

Taye Diggs is reflecting on his time playing coach Billy Baker on All American.

Appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers on Wednesday, the actor looked back on his five years playing a high school football coach, saying he "had a ball" taking on the role, which ended after Monday night's episode where Diggs' character was killed off the CW series, sparking shock amongst viewers.

The Rent star, 52, went on to explain that playing a coach drew some parallels with his real life as he got more involved with son Walker Nathanial's athletic interests.

"It really helped, I have a 13-year-old son who is an athlete, so I was able to kind of use what I was doing at work with my son at his games and whatnot," he shared. "It was a life-changing role, I'm very thankful."

Kevork S. Djansezian/Getty, Troy Harvey/The CW

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Diggs shares Walker with ex Idina Menzel. When asked about co-parenting during a 2022 interview with PEOPLE, the Best Man actor had nothing but praise for the Frozen star.

"She runs the show," he said. "She has a career and she has her own relationships and she still makes sure that Walker is where he needs to be when he needs. He's got the best coaches and the best teachers, and we're at the best schools, and it's all because of her."

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Of his departure from All American, Diggs told TVLine: "It was just a feeling that I got [that I was ready to leave], and I just honored that feeling."

"It was maybe mid-fourth season. I don't even remember, to be honest, because the showrunner [Carroll] and myself are close," he continued.

Kevork S. Djansezian/Getty

"We'd been keeping in contact, so she had known, and we'd been talking. And we decided how to go about it, and storylines and whatnot, so it was all above board, and everyone was in the know."