BOLLEN: [laughs] But it must be hard, though, in general to live in a city where you can’t live a completely free life. I’m glad you’ve managed to find some way of making New York yours.
CRAWFORD: Oh, I love it here, to be honest. I was talking to someone the other day. They were like, “You can’t really plan any trips, can you?” And I was like, “You know what? No, I can’t. Because I don’t know our schedule out from a week in advance. You have these little days off, but they don’t really let you go—you have to get it cleared. It’s kind of a hassle, but what better place is there to be stuck? New York’s a big playground. I have a bike, and I’m really into just being outside. Especially in the summertime. The winters could eventually get to me, I mean, I’m a southern boy, so I like that humidity. It can get hectic here, but look, I’ll be 24 in two days. I’m single, and kind of loving it.
BOLLEN: Look, I don’t feel sorry for you. You’re famous, you’re young, you’re single in New York. You’re doing pretty well.
CRAWFORD: [laughs] Not bad.
BOLLEN: On the show, you guys all finally graduated from high school, which is great because I was worried you’d be 30 and still breaking up with each other around cafeteria tables. What is the show going to be like now? It goes on to your college years?
CRAWFORD: And then med school. . .
BOLLEN: And then it will be sort of like a Golden Girls thing, where you guys are together in the retirement community.
CRAWFORD: [laughs] Oh, we all happen to go to a few colleges next to each other! No, it’s great. I mean, god, if we were in high school one more year, it would get a little weird. Everyone’s pretty happy about it because it opens up a whole new can of material. And I burned that private-school uniform—it was great. We all burned ’em.
BOLLEN: Did you really?
CRAWFORD: No, I’m totally kidding. But that was the main thing we were so happy about—we don’t have to wear those uniforms anymore! But the show’s material has always been more mature than high school. So now it’s like, Okay, let’s move on a little bit and get into some more mature, cooler storylines.
BOLLEN: Your character’s going to Columbia. But you actually went to Pepperdine, outside Malibu.
CRAWFORD: For like a year and a half. It was gorgeous. It’s kind of hard to believe there’s actually a school there by the beach.
BOLLEN: Or that anyone attends classes. What were you going for?
CRAWFORD: I went into broadcast journalism. I loved every class I took, I just got anxious becauseI came to the realization that you’re groomed in high school to get good SAT scores to get into a good college or else you’re done for. I didn’t have a career path so I switched to business and didn’t like it. I got nervous, like, If I’m really going to buckle down and study one thing, I better do something that I love. And my parents saw me panicking. They said, “Listen, take a semester off.” I was like, “Okay, I’m going to come back and do business.” I’m actually good at math, I tested out of all my math classes, except that in business, you have to take some really high-level calculus ones. So, I was just thinking, Oh god, I need a little break so I can gear up and kind of tackle that. I was living with some friends just valeting cars in Malibu.
BOLLEN: You were valeting cars? That’s awesome.
CRAWFORD: Yeah, it was one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. I loved it. I love cars to begin with. It was right on the beach next to some really nice restaurants, so you got some pretty nice cars. We’d get to just put it to the floor on the Pacific Coast Highway, then we’d have to pull a U-ey and gun it back up, park on the shoulder, and run across the highway. It was a lot of fun. And then a friend tried to get me to meet a commercial agent, but I was like, Nah. I did the modeling thing a little bit when I was younger and I hated it. But she talked me into it.
BOLLEN: Had you acted before? So many actors say, “When I was a child, I knew I wanted to be an actor.”
CRAWFORD: “I wanted to be famous.”
BOLLEN: Right, “I knew I was destined to be an actor because I played with my sister and we dressed up and put on plays.” But it’s like, every kid does that.
CRAWFORD: [laughs] Exactly. “I had a stage built for me when I was four and I knew right then.” But you know what, I think that might be why I had a bit of an advantage over other people because I went in with such a cynical attitude—almost a realistic skepticism. I was kind of wary of people. The smaller boutique agencies starting sending me to these classes, and I thought, Jesus, 90 percent of these kids aren’t really balls-to-the-wall trying to learn this craft. I got into a couple of serious classes, and that’s when it started clicking, over the course of a year. My dad—he’s the coolest guy I know. This was all on his dime, after all. I remember I went back to school part-time and I got frustrated, classes were tough, and I was commuting back and forth, trying to make these auditions. Finally my dad came up and he said, “How you doing?” and I was like, “Listen, I’m half-assing both things, Dad. I’ve got to be honest with you. I really need to give one thing my all. I’m really bummed.” And then he said, “Well, then quit school.” I was like, “Wait—excuse me?” He said, “Chace, just do it, man. Just go!” That’s what it took. He was confident. I don’t understand how people do it without some moral and emotional support, you know?
BOLLEN: Because it takes a lot of love to tell someone not to do the safest thing possible, which is to get a college degree and then figure it out from there. It takes real trust and belief in someone to say “Okay, just drop out and follow the dream.”
CRAWFORD: Yeah, then I kept getting great feedback and finally landed a peripheral role on this supernatural thriller called The Covenant back in ’06.
BOLLEN: Wait, one night I couldn’t sleep and I turned on the television and saw you in your first role [Long Lost Son (2006)], where you were kidnapped from your mother by your father and taken to a Caribbean island.
CRAWFORD: Oooh, god! You turned on the Lifetime Channel!
BOLLEN: No, it wasn’t even cable! It was regular TV. But it had the most fantastic plot.
CRAWFORD: Yeah—males are devils.
BOLLEN: I actually never quite understood why your father made it look like you died just so he could run off with you to an island. Did he just not like your mother?
CRAWFORD: At that point I’m obviously taking anything I could get. I’m thinking, Oh god. How do I even, like, craft this into something believable? The woman they cast as my mom was like, 36 and smoking hot. She still is! She’s on Burn Notice. Her name is Gabrielle Anwar, and we’re still friends. I thought, This is going to look like I’m attracted to her—like when she finds me, I’m not supposed to know she’s my mom, you know?
BOLLEN: Yeah! [laughs] I actually was waiting for that plotline where you make a move on her in the scene when you’re in a boat together in your swimsuits, and she asks you to take her somewhere deserted. I kept thinking, Lady, he’s 16, you’d better tell him he’s your son before he tries to make out with you.
CRAWFORD: It could have been a better movie. [laughs] But yeah, that’s embarrassing that you saw that.
BOLLEN: So in Twelve, where you play something of a down-on-his-luck drug dealer, was it important to take on a different role like this one from Nate Archibald on Gossip Girl? I mean, you easily could have made a career playing. . .
CRAWFORD: . . . the rich, preppy Upper East Side kid. Absolutely. I’m in awe of Joel. He’s an artist. And he has such a vision that he makes you feel comfortable. Obviously, the role is a bit of a risk for me -personally, but he gave me this confidence when he set a certain kind of tone or energy on the set. Joel’s the man.
. He is just too damn pretty!
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