Since his last NHL game in December 2011, Avery hasn\u2019t left the public eye for long. He participated in a 2014 season of \u201cDancing with the Stars,\u201d exiting in the ABC show\u2019s second week. He wrote a 2017 memoir, titled \u201cIce Capades: A Memoir of Fast Living and Tough Hockey,\u201d and co-authored a 2025 hockey romance novel, \u201cSummer Skate,\u201d with Leslie Cohen. Avery\u2019s personal life came under scrutiny in 2022 when his wife, Hilary Rhoda, filed for divorce and was granted a restraining order against him, stating that he had been abusive towards her and their son. Avery says they have since reconciled. (He was not charged with a crime.)<\/p>\n
Avery is still involved in the hockey sphere. He\u2019s more than willing to offer NHL punditry on podcasts; on an April 2026 episode of \u201cSpittin\u2019 Chiclets,\u201d for example, he described Los Angeles Kings winger Artemi Panarin\u2019s play as \u201cembarrassing\u201d during the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. He also posts (occasionally obscenity-laced) breakdowns of league highlights on his Instagram page.<\/p>\n
But professionally, his post-playing career has been defined by an unlikely passion: acting.<\/p>\n
Now 46, he has appeared in 11 feature-length movies, including the three most recent from Nolan, one of the most decorated, highest-grossing directors ever. For \u201cOppenheimer,\u201d which won Best Picture at the 2023 Academy Awards, he shared significant screentime with two generational greats when his character \u2014 credited as \u201cWeatherman\u201d \u2014 got into a heated argument with those played by Damon and Cillian Murphy.<\/p>\n
Avery spent around six months filming \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d traveling from his Los Angeles home to Greece, Scotland, Iceland, Morocco and Sicily. He says \u201cguys were banged up\u201d from the physical demands of being on Odysseus\u2019 crew: They hiked up a mountain and through trees wearing armor, took rowing courses and spent days filming on boats to execute Nolan\u2019s vision. It was the most extensive production Avery had experienced \u2014 and it only made him hungrier for more work in his new field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m never going to stop,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\n Avery attends the New York premiere of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d in July 2026. (Dia Dipasupil \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n An NHL-like rush<\/p>\n Avery made his acting debut in \u201cThe Rocket\u201d \u2014 a 2005 biopic of Hockey Hall of Famer Maurice Richard \u2014 while still in the NHL, playing New York Rangers enforcer Bob Dill years before joining the team himself in 2007. But hardly anyone would have pictured him popping up in critically acclaimed films after his hockey career was over, himself included.<\/p>\n After a messy exit from a 2014 off-Broadway show<\/a>, Avery landed a small role in the 2016 film \u201cPatriots Day,\u201d directed by Peter Berg, whom he\u2019d gotten to know as a player. The experience, Avery says, was \u201cthe closest feeling I\u2019ve had to playing at Madison Square Garden.\u201d The rush inspired him to further immerse himself in the craft.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took me five years in New York \u2026 of just going to classes and figuring out how to do it,\u201d he says. \u201cLearning how to memorize. Understanding what the whole thing was.\u201d<\/p>\n Eventually, Avery felt ready to tap another Hollywood connection. While competing on \u201cDancing with the Stars,\u201d he had gotten to know producer Valoree Papsidera, whose husband John is Nolan\u2019s longtime casting director. So after several years of post-\u201cPatriots Day\u201d acting lessons, Avery reached out to John and auditioned for a role in Nolan\u2019s 2020 movie \u201cTenet.\u201d Nolan cast him in a small part, which was credited as Red Soldier 1, then gave him a bit more responsibility in \u201cOppenheimer,\u201d including the argument with Murphy and Damon. The ex-NHLer \u2014 who logged 28 career playoff games, all with the Rangers \u2014 called filming that scene \u201cone of the most high-stakes nights of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Along with \u201cPatriots Day,\u201d Avery\u2019s non-Nolan credits include \u201cAmsterdam,\u201d a 2022 David O. Russell film featuring Margot Robbie and Christian Bale, and \u201cHappy Gilmore 2.\u201d In the latter, which stars Adam Sandler, he and Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Chelios were cast as a pair of henchmen who serve as muscle for a mobster.<\/p>\n Avery\u2019s growing experience and recent history with Nolan didn\u2019t lead to a smooth audition for \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d in early 2025. He showed up wearing a Henley shirt that was too tight \u2014 Nolan and Papsidera both affectionately made fun of him for it, he remembers \u2014 and then blanked on his lines \u201cto the point where they didn\u2019t even make me do them.\u201d Avery thinks the fact that he\u2019d shared a screen with Murphy and Damon in \u201cOppenheimer\u201d led to Nolan feeling comfortable trusting him anyway.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure Chris, in the back of his mind, when I blow an audition like that, goes, \u2018Yeah, whatever. I\u2019ve seen Sean in the fire. I\u2019ve thrown him in it before,\u2019\u201d Avery says.<\/p>\n Now Avery seems to have established himself as a go-to ensemble member for Nolan.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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,\u201d Avery said. \u201cSo like all great coaches, I guess (directors) kind of identify talent and know who they need in certain situations. Maybe I\u2019ve fallen under that category with Chris.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Sean](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2286120268-1-scaled.jpg\")
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