Chad Michael Murray fell in love with dance in ‘The Merry Gentlemen’

New York – Chad Michael Murray is at present deep in thought. With his index finger pressed firmly in opposition to his chiseled jaw, he is attempting to find out precisely what number of instances he is been shirtless in “The merry gentlemen.” He cannot determine it out – there are no less than 9 by my depend – however he is certain it should be a sport.

“Every time Chad loses his shirt, take a sip of wine, beer, or eat a cookie,” he laughs over Zoom, a hand brushing the golden locks behind his ear.

Relaxing behind a desk on the Plaza Hotel in New York City, Murray — now sporting a little bit of scruff and a touch of grey — remains to be almost an identical to his previous alter egos, comparable to dashing protagonist Lucas Scott in “One Tree Hill”. ” and Chilton’s unhealthy boy Tristan Dugray in “Gilmore Girls.” Now, at 43, he has a considerably tough exterior, one thing that’s coming in useful in his newest function within the film “Magic Mike” and the mistletoe “The Merry Gentlemen.”

In the Netflix movie, which premieres Wednesday, a dancer named Ashley (Britt Robertson) returns to her hometown and tries to avoid wasting her mother and father’ nightclub by beginning a Christmas-themed males’s revue. Murray takes on the function of Luke, an entrepreneur turned entertainer who serves as Ashley’s romantic curiosity.

“When you say Christmas, the very first thing that involves thoughts is often not strippers,” he jokes.

Murray wasn’t nervous about baring his abs for the movie: it was the dancing that terrified him. He admits he could have even “peeped” “Magic Mike” to organize for the function. “It’s not that I do not dance,” he clarifies, “I do, however at dwelling and at weddings.”

But for the function of Luke, he obtained a fast schooling. For six hours a day, as much as 4 days per week, Murray labored his manner by nation western, hip-hop and jazz. Dancing 12 hours a day, half-naked in entrance of a troupe, was an sudden “dopamine rush” for him. But nobody is extra shocked than Murray that he has fallen in love with dance.

When it got here to “The Merry Gentlemen,” it was no coincidence that Murray’s character was named Luke, a reputation shared by lots of his earlier characters, together with in “Mother of the Bride” earlier this 12 months . “When we got here to the desk on this, I feel his identify was Bob or one thing, and he did not really feel like a Bob,” he says. He supplied three names: one was Luke. Along the way in which, Murray, who’s a working towards Christian, found that the identify Luke means “mild.”

“It simply appeared good,” he says in a husky cadence. “This is considered one of my most important objectives as an actor, to carry mild into folks’s lives, enjoyable and leisure, a departure, an escape from the mundane actuality of on a regular basis life.”

“That’s considered one of my most important objectives as an actor, to carry mild into folks’s lives, enjoyable and leisure, a departure, an escape from the mundane actuality of on a regular basis life,” Murray says.

(Justin Jun Lee/For The Times)

This need for escape has been Murray’s driving power since childhood. The actor grew up in Buffalo, New York, with 5 siblings and was largely raised by his father. He says the household lived paycheck to paycheck or “typically worse.” For Murray and his brothers, TV grew to become an escape.

“When I used to be 6, 7, 8, I dressed up as Jim Kelly of the Buffalo Bills at halftime exhibits,” he remembers. “I might gown up in my outdated Buff helmet and Jim Kelly jersey, and commentate like I used to be doing a mid-game interview.” This sparked his curiosity in tv and movie.

At age 15, Murray was hospitalized for greater than two months on account of a twisted bowel that required emergency resection that resulted in postoperative inside bleeding. While recovering, he realized what he needed to do along with his life. His nurse, who was a mannequin, steered he take up modeling. Murray, nonetheless, needed to be an actor.

“He mentioned, ‘Well, you may go into appearing (beginning as) a mannequin. You can do it. You’re getting out of this mattress. I’ll repair you up as quickly as you get out of right here,’” he says, pausing for a second. “And he stored his phrase.”

Murray says that second modified every part. When he was 18, he attended a modeling conference, met an agent who inspired him to maneuver to Los Angeles, and started modeling for manufacturers like Skechers, Tommy Hilfiger, and Gucci.

By 2000, he had landed a recurring function on “Gilmore Girls” as Tristan – till his character was shipped off to army faculty in North Carolina in the course of the second season. “They requested me to remain and turn into an everyday on the finish of the season. 1, and I used to be younger and I needed the chance to have my very own factor,” Murray says. Soon after, he landed a recurring half on “Dawson’s Creek” because the womanizer Charlie Todd, who dates Jen Lindley (Michelle Williams) .

Three years after his first stint at WB, he landed the lead function of Lucas Scott within the teen drama “One Tree Hill.” During his time on the present, he married co-star Sophia Bush, however the couple divorced after simply 5 months in 2006. While starring in “One Tree Hill,” he landed two extra pivotal roles: one in “Freaky Friday” , as Jake, the biker, Britney Spears’ singer who has a crush on Lindsay Lohan’s Anna, and as star quarterback Austin Ames in “A Cinderella Story,” alongside Hilary Duff.

Murray landed his first main TV function within the WB sequence “One Tree Hill,” enjoying Lucas Scott within the teen drama.

(Fred Norris/The CW)

As Murray remembers, he was liable for a key change within the plot of “A Cinderella Story” involving Austin’s soccer staff, the North Valley Frogs. “They had been going to lose, and I wasn’t going to take it, so I mentioned, ‘Guys, look, he is a superb human being. And I perceive he is in love, (however) he’d give the ball to his greatest buddy, Jake,'” she says .

With these roles, Murray catapulted himself right into a star, a heartthrob with a capital H. He grew to become a fixture of the tabloids and each teenager’s crush, along with his profitable smile, unhealthy boy allure and tattoos. But Murray admits he hasn’t dealt with the highlight nicely.

“There is not any program,” he says, “or no less than there wasn’t then.” Murray provides that he did not know learn how to say “no” in a wholesome manner and that he was burning the candle at each ends. Biggest lesson he realized: “What does Chad need to do?” he chuckles dryly, earlier than pausing. “Yes, I simply spoke within the third individual about my previous self.”

Today he does not essentially need the highlight. Murray, who has three kids – a son and two daughters – with spouse Sarah Roemer, now has completely different priorities. “I need to be a dad however nonetheless work and serve everybody else and assist folks placed on a terrific present so everybody else could be blissful,” he says.

That’s partly what drew him to Christmas motion pictures like Hallmark’s “The Merry Gentlemen” and “Write Before Christmas,” “Love in Winterland” and “Road to Christmas.” Murray is extraordinarily conscious of the roles he chooses and the way they could have an effect on his household.

“You have to consider what would occur in the event you made film A versus film B and what your youngsters must undergo and the torment they could undergo,” he says, including that it is one thing he and his spouse all the time talk about intimately. Wherever he or his spouse are wandering, they journey in packs. (“They’re right here in New York with me proper now,” he says.)

His present function within the tv drama “Sullivan’s Crossing” has been, fairly actually, the reply to 2 years of prayers. “I needed a present the place I wasn’t No. 1 on the decision checklist,” he says. Now he can coach his son’s soccer staff, take his daughter to bop and take his kids to high school. And for 5 months of the 12 months, his household is fortunately settled in Halifax, Canada, the place the films are made.

Murray does not crave the highlight whereas juggling fatherhood and work, which is why he accepted a job on the CW sequence “Sullivan’s Crossing.” “I needed a present the place I wasn’t No. 1 on the decision checklist,” he says.

(Justin Jun Lee/For The Times)

Next 12 months, we’ll see Murray reprise his “Freaky Friday” character within the movie’s sequel, “Freakier Friday.” Returning to the function, Murray requested, “Where the hell would Jake be?” Despite some rumors, he is coy about his character’s place within the narrative and as an alternative emphasizes how a lot time has handed between movies. “We had whole lifetimes in between,” he says. “We have kids and grandchildren. Jamie (Lee Curtis) obtained an Oscar.”

But will she mud off her vocal abilities for one more pop cowl like within the first movie? He does not rule it out. “We’ll see,” he says. That second when Jake sings a off-key version of “…Baby One More Time” it is “burned into my frontal cortex,” he says. The scene was the thought of ​​director Mark Waters, who needed Murray to create his personal model of John Cusack’s boombox scene in “Say Anything.”

Another mission from his previous is within the air. A reboot of “One Tree Hill” it’s reportedly in the works from Bush sequence alumni Hilarie Burton and Danneel Ackles. When Murray heard the information, he spoke to James Lafferty, who performed his on-screen half-brother, Nathan Scott, on the present. “We’re not doing it as a result of no person’s ever picked up the cellphone and mentioned, ‘Hey, we’re doing this,’ so we’re not doing it,” he says.

But he says they each agreed that bringing “One Tree Hill” again to life was good. “I would like it for the followers,” he says. As if on cue, Lafferty texts Murray as we talk about the subject. “Speak of the satan,” he laughs, pointing his iPhone display screen on the pc digital camera for me to see.

But Murray is not too nervous about what initiatives he could or could not do subsequent. He considers himself a laissez-faire man who believes within the butterfly impact, and with the profession path he is taken, he is been in a position to play his most fulfilling function: dad. And as soon as her youngsters are older, she may begin taking up completely different components, perhaps a psychological thriller or an indie movie. But if somebody approached him to star alongside Meryl Streep proper now, he’d leap on the likelihood. “I might probably pee on my leg,” he laughs.

For now, his future is complicated – and that is superb with him.

“I actually really feel like I’m simply getting began,” Murray says.