The Crown Julian (with Austin Nichols)

First of all, you don't know me. We all about that high school drama, Girl Drama, Girl, all about them.

High school queens. We'll take you for a ride, and our comic girl shared for the right teams Drama, queens up girl fashion, but your tough girl, you could sit with us.

Girl Drama, Queens, Drama, queise Drama, Queens Drama, Drahma, Queens Drama, Queens.

Hello, friends and fam We had so much fun having our very own Austin Nichols join us to talk about episode six, so nine, we're gonna make you come back all the time. But we have so many fan questions for you that we thought it might be great to just do a fan Q and a follow up.

Everybody likes Austin, everybody loves and.

You know, apparently we didn't answer enough of y'all's questions about his time on the show because we were too busy reminiscing.

So busy, Gabin, We're gonna get to.

It for you this week.

I love it.

Are you nervous?

Yes?

Him?

Ask him the hardest question? First, go what's the hardest No? Okay, well, let's hear. Did you know your character was going to become a permanent. Was this a series regular thing that you signed on for? Was it just recurring you were only going to be there for a short arc?

It was recurring. It was ten episodes, and then I don't even think they dangled possibility of series regular like they do sometimes. I think it was just said, it's ten episodes and that's all. I know.

That's a big order though, because if you show up in six oh eight, that takes us through six eighteen. Yeah, that's a that's a big order for a new character.

Yeah, And I was like, you guys said too. I was, you know, once we got through like the first three episodes and we got to Julian and Brooke, Julian and Brooke was so heavy that I was doing the workload of series regulars. I remember like, wow, this like this got really busy, really fast.

Yeah, yeah, what I signed up for.

Hold on a second.

I mean, well, the rest of us are at the beach.

I wonder if they knew that contract negotiations were going to be coming up at the end of season six and we're starting to think about like if they were going to need new new people. I mean, that would make sense that they wanted to give you a good, good runway to build up to that if possible.

Good question. I don't know, maybe I don't.

Know me there, I mean I do.

I remember us being told exactly that. It was like, hey, there's no guarantee in The highest paid people on the show at this point were me and Chad, and so it was like, hey, we can bring in people that they'll love every bit as much of you and as you and they did, you know. And so that was actually something that I would talk to younger actors about after I left One Tree Hill. They'd get like a pilot or they'd get like a TV show picked up, and I even like really big shows, and I'd be like, guys,

Something nobody tells us as young actors is you know, when the cast renegotiates, and also producers, writers, EPs and salaries go up, what happens to production and the case of shooting could go to seven days of shooting for an episode, and things can get short change, and nobody ever teaches you that the thing is, oh, get as much money as you can. And I'm constantly like so turned off by our world and the greed of our world.

Yeah.

That's always been like mind boggling to me that no one talks about that.

Budgets, you're learning stuff kids.

All right, Well, now I'm gonna ask. I'm gonna ask an upper question. Let's ask let's ask something fun. Uh, Hey, how'd you feel about leaving the kids in the car in that storyline?

That that was fun?

I get so much flak for this.

Do you still I mean, people really really.

Feel like, hey, man, loved your character, but god, when you left the kids in the car? Oh, I still get I still get shame, shame on the streets. Yeah, but you know, I think they You know, Julian was for a long time was you know, after the intro where we were scared of him his intentions and then he but then we started to like him and he became safer. Julian for a long time was very like I don't want to say perfect, but he was like

Yeah, because you were looking to get hurt.

How long was the kid in the car?

I mean I had to go to an ATM, talk to Dan and get a bottle of booze. Oh maybe someone, Yeah, I don't know, fifteen twenty minutes.

I don't like somebody.

Somebody had to break the glass and get the kid out.

It had to have been longer, right enough to.

I'm just trying to act like it wasn't because you're still traumatic.

Yeah, you're still embarrassed.

Was probably very long time.

Yeah, that's sorry.

Yeah, super super scary.

I had a lot going on. It was a lot, a lot on my mind.

Yeah, but you touched on something that relates to this next question, because Julian came in in one way and then there was there was a lot of change for you and and some of that I think was you know, him getting to shift into a good guy and a good partner, and some of it was like very weird behind the scenes, strange energy. What man can't have five I'll never get over it. So sorry they did that

Husband and father? Julian without a doubt, And I'll tell you why. I've spent so many years playing the sort of you know, sometimes villainous sometimes dark guy, and it's so fun and I hope I never stop doing it. But to be to have the audience trust you is such a gift, and it's so it's so rare for me and it's it's such a I can't even tell you how fulfilling that is for an audience to trust

So nice.

Who's your comfort actor? Like when you sit down, you're.

Like, forty four minutes with this one done.

I have a lot. I have a lot. I mean Tom Hanks is someone that I think everybody feels safe with, you know, And he's whether it's a drama or comedy or whatever, he cares so deeply about the final product and about taking care of everyone on his set. And he's from what I hear, just you know, the best version of the whole deal. You know, that's the kind of that's the kind of actor I look up to and want to be.

I like it.

Just Austin at home watching Polar Express.

Really say, Austin, what was your favorite storyline for Julian?

My favorite storyline was probably when he locked in on turning the story into a show at the very end, because that was like him coming full circle and saying, look, you know, I'm a movie guy, which is which was my own life, and that was mind by the writers, and it was when I was okay with because I started in movies and then it it evolved to doing a lot more television and then happened with television, you know. And so I'm so thrilled that that happened to me.

I liked the meta of it all.

See, I wasn't around for any of that stuff. And so the idea what was the show called.

I don't know if it ever happens the Ravens.

So do you.

I don't know if it ever had do you remember? No, I just mean the idea of the concept. I don't know if it ever. It's so weird.

But when I just went home to my high school, it felt like we had mined so much of Parkview High School for Tree Hill because we have a clean teens and state championship and all that kind of stuff, and so it felt kind of like that where it's like there's a TV show that's too close for comfort with this reality.

And it's cool, know.

I like that Julian was able to give this second, second go round to all the Tree Hill kids.

We couldn't have done it with Autri.

This is to address what Sophia said about the high five. And also there was a the things that I hated the most in the moment were also some of the things that the fans always remember, and it's, Yeah, my relationship with this career is so weird because the things that I've often liked were we're not hits, and the things that were hits I didn't like as much, and

They like it or they're just trolling you. Well, they might just be, but they remember it because you.

Came in so masculine and all of that sounds rather emasculating.

Who'd you piss off?

Well, also, that's exactly probably what it was. It was a little bit stay in your lane, stay in your lane, we stay in your box. Like Tim Okay, I did write a letter once, you did, and it was you know, me being a young ambitious actor who you know, wanted more. And I remember writing a letter once. You know, it wasn't mean, it wasn't rue, but it was passionately expressing, you know that I wanted something more or more interesting, and that might have you know, rubbed people the wrong way.

Egos, so many egos.

So creatively thinking put on your little writer's hat, what would you craft for Julian? What do you wish he had been able to do on you know, on Tree Hill.

Well, that's a great question. He was he was a he was born in the business. He was a child of movies in like La and sort of like you know, we've all been around people like this who grew up in it, and he ended up producing movies. I don't know, you know, we did do, we did do. I don't know how many episodes it was where we were actually making the movie, mm hmm. And those things don't often

I mean, I for we've all produced things at this point where there's TV shows or indie movies or whatever, and Julian is such a cool cucumber.

With the producing, My experience with it is just like you're on fire. I have to do this, I have to do this, and Julian is so chill.

Yeah.

I would have loved to see you just.

In the trenches. Yeah.

Maybe that's it, maybe putting out fires and yeah, solve the problems, because that's what it is, right, it's solving problems constantly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So okay, while we're imagining things about Julian, who would Julian have hung out with if he had gone to Tree Hill High?

If he had gone to Tree Hill High?

Yeah, Like, if you went to high school with all of us, who do you think he would have been chilling with? Would we have even known you, would you been like completely with a different group, or would you have hung out with any of these characters.

Well, I know, you know, he would have He would have had a crush on Brooke, of course, and I think because of the the sort of the audio visual component, maybe he would have been friends with Mouth and gotten to work.

Oh yeah, that's what I was gonna say.

Getting into that world at school would have been cool.

Yeah, av club.

Club, that's right.

Hmmm, Okay, well this could be a fun one. Where do you think Brooke and Julian would be?

Now, oh oh that's so hard.

I mean, I know so much of Brook's journey was about, you know, I think finding she had so many heartbreaks and finding the right person. So you know, my gut is to say that they would have lived happily ever after because the show ended and blah blah blah. But that's not terribly interesting.

You know.

As a writer, I start going, well, like, how can we How could this be more interesting? And I don't, I don't. I don't really know if I have the answer, you know, Like I think I think the a great version of this be if there's still a very very strong love between them. But maybe they didn't take a traditional route, and you know, their careers have pulled them

Yeah?

I love that because I feel like the easy answer is to say, oh, yeah, you want these people to be happy, and then you're like, well, these people exist in a television show, and television shows don't exist without drama, so you have to find like something for them to be working on. Right, They're just happy, We're bored exactly.

Okay, great, we have someone that wants to hear your side of the ghost story.

That's somebody else.

Yeah, this is.

Your time.

We share.

Yeah, oh yeah, because she's already told that story here. I did.

We were It was dark in the middle of the night. Weird. It was dark and I sensed or saw a shape, shadow, silhouette.

It was the noise first.

Oh, oh, I don't remember that.

Oh, two different realities.

Now that you say it, it makes perfect sense.

Well, no, because I remember it because I thought you were I didn't know what you were doing, and I.

Like hit, I was like, what are you doing? What is that?

So I woke you up thinking you were doing something, and then realized you were.

Asleep right And then I remember looking and seeing this silhouette shape shadow whatever it is, rushed towards us. Oh, and we both went ape shit, and I think I or she grabbed the lamp to turn the light on and there.

Was Oh my gosh, was it a dark shadow?

Was it a light?

What was it? I thought it was a smaller person, like a child, I don't know, child or woman.

It started like this, like it started round like all.

When it came at us.

Got tall, but yeah, never got taller than like a three year old.

So that's actually really common folklore in Appalachia. Really. Yeah. My daddy used to tell me stories about the shadow people when I was a kid, and they He would tell me about being in the woods and they'd roll around your feet like a bunch of bowling balls, and then right as they got to you, they would unfurl.

Into like a big human shape. Really is that what happened?

I don't remember it ever being that small, but it was also we couldn't I don't know that we could see the floor. I remember imitating.

Because I remember.

Realizing that the sound like wasn't coming from where you were or like the door that was on the other side of you, realizing it was coming from the window that looked over the alley, like in that general vicinity, and like starting to move toward it to be like what is it. I thought like an animal was going to come through the wall, like that building was so old. I was like, some feral squirrel is going to like

And got tall.

We both ran backwards like against the wall, screaming.

I just remember something was rushing at us and it felt like it was going to get us.

Yeah, And I felt so much better about the fact that I was screaming so loud because you were screaming so loud, and I was like, okay, so I did did you scream?

It was obviously we both experienced something.

We were screaming.

It was I going, what'd you what happened?

Yeah?

Yeah, yeah, Because if you looked at me and been like what is going on?

Like are you nuts. I would have felt nuts, but you were terrified and I was terrified, and for some reason that gave me some comfort.

Was this in an apartment?

It was aloft, one of those old buildings downtown.

Which one of you was, I mean whose apartment was?

Oh?

You guys both lived there.

We sublcted it from some friends.

From Alex and Stephanie. Did you just keep living there? Or were you like, we got it?

This is no good.

There's where were we going to go?

Yeah?

Well to another haunted apartment. Everything there is hot.

Everything in Wilmington was haunted.

It was like, yeah, that's true.

Okay, all right, Well give us something funny. What's the funniest memory you have from from set? If you have any days when you guys were just besides Brooke and but.

I have to and it's it's it's harmless. My favorite story is when Joe Manganila was sitting waiting for his van looking into the call sheet for the next day and Chad God bless him, walks up to him and goes, you know, how to read one of those? He was being helpful Austin there, I'll just leave that there. That's a good one.

Yeah, well, look it's great. It's a great story, it's helpful. It is also adorable. But what did Joe say? Was he nice about it?

He didn't tell me, but I don't know what he said. He just said yeah. But also, I remember the first time I saw a call sheet. It was confusing.

They're intimidating.

Yeah, but by the time you showed up on our show, he'd already been on our show for like a year.

So for you to with us pretty funny. Yeah, it's pretty funny.

This is incredible.

Listen, we were all kids.

We want from us.

I was real and stupid.

Yeah, who cares. What's your favorite place in Wilmington besides the Bestrow.

The ocean, Mason Burrough Island. I love going to Mason Burrow and the things that happened when the tide changes in the inner coastal and little little sand bars appear in beaches and people gap.

So cool, it's so special.

Did you do a lot of a lot of traveling, just jumping in the car and go and exploring when you were there on your days off, like to other cities other states?

Really? I mean, I guess maybe Charleston wants Baldhead Island a little bit, but not not as much as I think. Honestly, it was, you know, because we were all work in a lot. If I had more time off of maybe I would have, but no, not as much as I would have hoped. Like I never went to Kate Patteris, I never went to the Outer Banks, and I wish I would have done that.

Yeah, me too.

Rules.

Yeah.

It was always a little tricky though, because we even if you had a day off, you were always at risk of getting called in.

So you couldn't well, you're always a cover set, right, because.

That's right, So you couldn't really leave.

That was it.

Because if you asked permission, he would say no. But if you didn't ask permission and they happened to need you, you couldn't be like, I'm in Atlanta, sorry.

Have you guys?

This was pre iPhone. We could just dome me up and be like who. I never answered my phone.

My first couple episodes. I was out at the beach and I went surfing and I left, I didn't bring my I don't bring my phone to the beach, and I left it at home. And then I get this call later from Hartley saying like we needed you, We needed to call you in for a cover set, and I was like, I wasn't gone that sorry. I mean I I thought I had the day off, and he's like, you got to keep your phone on you. They sent a PA out to the beach to look for me.

Oh, for God's sake, did they find you?

No, go scour the beaches.

I think it was the other Scott pa and he was looking for me and he never found me because I was way up at the North end or something.

Oh God, I love it. It was Scott Hardwick.

My favorite thing about Austin is every time I would go out to La we'd go and like I'd be like pregnant with Gus or Nick would come out and visit me and we'd meet up at a diner or something, and Austin would show.

Up on like a vespa or like a truck.

But he always had like a surfboard and a like a spear with him.

What are you doing? He's like, well, I just tell myself how to spearfish.

You know.

I'm a water boy, all right, guy.

They're not wrong wrong. I love the water. I love the water.

Yeah, don't you come from like like championship water people?

My mom was a nineteen time national champion, and my dad was a great song skier and boat driver, and we competed since we were little, me and my sister.

And Wow, rock stars on the water, you guys.

Yeah, you have to force it out of him. Otherwise he's like, oh, no, water feels nice. He's like, when you find out they're coming from Royalty, you guys are like from Atlantis.

That's lovely.

Well, did you audition for Avatar? The second one?

I wish I was like practicing holding my breath and I remember like calling my James Cameron know that I can hold my breath for three minutes.

Yeah, I could have done that.

Someone should tell him how.

Do we get that memo out?

Actually, James Cameron came to the set of The Walking Dead and I freaked out because he his son. I guess his ex wife was a produce Galen Herd as a producer on them, and they have a child or I don't know. I don't know the whole situation with the kid. The kid loved The Walking Dead, so the kid came. James Cameron came, and I remember seeing and like standing outside of you know, getting into an suv to leave and I went over there, and I think

I wish you would have like The Little Boy and Dre MacGuire. You know how there is a pow head.

I could do it.

I could do it. I'm listen. That skill is going to pay off at some point.

Yes, it will.

You know, we're putting the word out there right now. Yeah, that you can hold your breath forever and ever and ever.

Is it giant water tank still in Wilmington? Remember when they built that for Was it for Iron Man or for surface Maybe?

Well he did it for that Dune the Rock Johnson movie. It was It was like supposed to be in Hawaii. Yeah, yep.

Do we have one last question?

We got one last question too, so we'll just really bring it home.

Okay, what about life lessons? Tell us any life lessons you learned while you're filming one trio?

Well, there is a quote that's very long, but I often shorten it when I sign things for fans, and its happiness is a mood, not a destination. It's a little cheesy, but I love it because it helped me and it helped me go, look, you can't always be happy, and you know there's gonna things are gonna happen that are sad and hard and they're going to break you. And knowing that helps, and knowing then and then when you are happy and things are great, you enjoy it

And I really like h good, good words, thank you.

We love it, Lourie. I forgot about the line about the printer, and I love it. It's so it's so it's cheesy, but it's great. It's like these forces you'd open it up and see what's wrong.

I loved that moment, the paper jam.

That was it.

Julian's and wise man.

He's so similar to Lucas, but he's got more of a sense of humor than Lucas. And so it's interesting how Brooke and Peyton are both drawn to this like very bright, well read, articulate boy, you know, like it's uh yeah, I get it. Listen, Austin. My favorite memory of you on One Tree Hill is you and I driving out to the beach and passing the party bus full of bridesmaids and a bride and you mooning them and them being so excited about that, and so forever when I see party buses, it's you, buddy.

I thought mooning was just like the funniest thing ever when I was in junior high, in high school. Your twenties, a lot of mooning in Texas, and I'm actually I can't believe that I was still mooning. You did it, your hill. Yeah, thank you, brilliance.

Hey, thanks for listening. Don't forget to leave us a review.

You can also followow us on Instagram at Drama Queens O t H.

Or email us at Drama Queens at iHeartRadio dot com. See you next time we.

All about that high school drama.

Girl Drama Girl, all about them.

High school queens. We'll take you for a ride at our comic Girl Cheering for the Right Teams. Drama Queenslease my girl, up girl fashion with your tough girl.

You could sit with us Girl Drama Queens, Drama, Queise Drama Queens, Drama Drama Queens, Drama Queens