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Nichols plays a film producer on 'One Tree Hill'(CW TV Photo)
2009 has been quite a year for Austin Nichols. He became a series regular on the popular long-time drama 'One Tree Hill', began work on a new film, and even developed some additional career aspirations for himself outside of the entertainment industry. He discussed that and much more with me including what he would like to see happen with his role of Julian on 'One Tree Hill'.
Q-How has filming been for you lately?
A-Fun, it's been busy. I'm shooting a movie as well right now so I've been in between LA and Wilmington a lot. The movie is called 'Beautiful Boy', it's with Michael Sheen. It's just an incredible piece of writing about a husband and wife who find out their son was involved in a campus shooting. I play a writer who writes about the tragedy. I'm really happy about it.
Q-This is your first full season on 'One Tree Hill', how has that been like for you?
A-It's great. It's exciting. It's different from being a guest. You feel more responsible for the show as a whole, for the final in product, as a regular. But it's been fun. As far as I can tell, this season there has been really great material and better than any season before it so it's been really cool.
Q-Had you ever seen the show before joining it?
A-No I hadn't. I really didn't watch that much television and I think the show had a certain audience, younger. But I think the audience is actually growing now. The show is kind of older and more mature and not just limited to a young audience anymore. My parents and all my friends now are watching the show and they are in love with it, and telling all their friends to watch it. So that's been cool. It's been cool to see that sort of a reaction to a show that's been on for that long. And to see that kind of an audience grow and branch out. And people love to see stuff they can relate to. There's heart in it. It's real stuff.
Q-Why do you think the Julian and Brooke relationship and storyline has stood out so much?
A-For some reason there's this it factor. When Brooke and Julian, and Sophia and I get together there's just a great chemistry that happens. There's just this really great energy there when we work together.
Q-In the most recent episode, Julian said he's not sure if he will ever be ready for kids, what do you think about that? Would you like to see Julian as a dad?
A-Yeah I absolutely would. I think it would be fun to explore as an actor and go through sort of what that's like. I think any guy at Julian's age is grappling with the same thing because when you get out of college having a few years of what you're going to with your life and ....then all of a sudden you get to a certain age and you're like, wow, I can't party like I used to, and I need to exercise and I need to get my professional life going or wow, she's a great woman, maybe I should marry her. You know all these questions start coming up at that age. It's been really cool to explore that. But yeah I think Julian wants to have children, I think he's just scared because as a man you want to be ready for those things. You want to have enough money, and you want to have a place for them to grow up healthy and you want to be able to support them and put them through college and so you don't want to dive into having kids being unprepared.
Q-Julian has been working with more of the other cast members lately. How was it to shoot the camping scene with the James, Antwon and Lee?
A-It was great. I remember having a talk with the writers and Mark Schwahn, and saying look I mean Julian isn't really interacting with anybody but Brooke and now he's a big part of the One Tree Hill world and let's get him out there and involved with everybody. And so it was nice. I got a lot of emails and text messages from family and friends saying it was so cool to see you working with other people. It was like a new view point.
A-I don't know, it's weird. Working on 'One Tree Hill' has been very different from anything else I've ever worked on. I feel like in the past I was used to building up a character from scratch who's nothing like me, where now for the first time in my life I feel like I'm playing someone who's a lot like me. It's fun and interesting and when serious stuff comes up, I just sort of stick to personal things and there's somethings I have, little triggers, you know every actor has their triggers and I'll go use those things.
Q-Where would you like to see Julian and Brooke end up when 'One Tree Hill' is over?
A-You know it's interesting because on a TV show you don't know 
what's happening next, as opposed to a film. When Mark asked me to come back as a series regular I told him I only would if we could make a really powerful love story for Brooke and Julian. I wanted him to give them the greatest love story. I mentioned 'The Notebook' to him. I wanted him to give them that kind of love and story, a fountainhead love. And in 'The Notebook' even when they fight, it's how it is now for Brooke and Julian, it's fun to watch them fight. It's sexy. It's inspiring. That's what I told him I wanted. And he agreed. Even when they're apart, it's still interesting. So definitely in the end I want them to have the greatest happy ending ever.
Q-Was he leaning towards something else for them initially?
A-If he was, he didn't tell me. He just asked me what I thought and then he just agreed with everything I said about them. He was very happy to write to them that kind of a love story. I think because it worked in season six, he knew it could continue. When something works, it's great. It's been fun.
Q-Some of your co-stars have gone in the direction of directing? Is that something you would like to do someday or are you just content in front of the camera?
A-I absolutely do. Lately I've been shadowing directors and going to production meetings. I've done everything as a shadow in that area. I wanted to let them know that I wanted to direct. I was just sneaky about it. I just don't want to leave North Carolina and not have it happen. So hopefully it will happen soon.
Q-If you weren't acting what do you think you'd be doing?
A-Oh that would change every week for me. Sometimes I get into different things. At one point in my life I wanted to be a golfer. I used to golf when I was young. Also I wanted to be a professional water skier. Then I wanted to be a sports announcer.
Also I've really been interested in architecture lately. I really want to buy a house and fix it up. There's this incredible artist out there that inspires me, Donald Judd. All of his work is in Marfa, TX. It's a really small town that has kept his work and the buildings that he owned all around it. The town now is really influenced by his style and it's great. I was there to check out recently with some friends and it was amazing.
Q-If you could go back in time and spend a day in the life of one person who would it be?
A-It would be Donald Judd I have to say. Just to see what his head was like, by his ideas and uncompromising. When I saw his old space in Marfa, everything was left perfectly the same. Nothing was moved and I can imagine it would have been difficult to live with him. I just would like to see what that was like.
Q-Are there any updates concerning your work with Southern Gothic Productions?
A-Yeah absolutely. There's an incredible script called The Pedestrian. We're trying to make it into a movie. It's one of the best scripts I've ever read so I'm definitely gonna do everything I can to make it happen.
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