James Lafferty talked about his audition for 2003’s ‘One Tree Hill’ during an interview with People. He recalled thinking that his days as a child actor were ending at the time:
“When I got the audition for ‘One Tree Hill’ — when I got the script it was originally called ‘Ravens’ — and the role was a basketball player and he had an edge to him. And it was just an opportunity to do all these things that I would’ve just absolutely loved to do at that time in my life.”
The actor was 17 and staying in a Burbank hotel with his mother during the ‘super nerve-wracking’ process. He was planning to give up if he failed:
“It was my last shot at it. I was just going to go to college if I didn’t get this role, and I was going to go to Long Beach State and just do that for a while, and it ended up being the one that actually caught. It felt like fate.”
He Says Appearing On The Show Was ‘Fun’
James Lafferty played Nathan Scott for the entire nine-season run of ‘One Tree Hill.’ His character started as a villain, but Lafferty was ‘completely comfortable with that’ as he was ‘well-written’:
“You could immediately recognize that he was the way that he was for a reason because of the way his father is. And so for me, it was just an opportunity to play a really complex character that was going through a lot, and it was manifesting itself in negative ways.”
The actor shared:
“But I remember very early on the writers telling me, ‘He’s not always going to be a villain. He’s going to make a turn.’ And I was like, ‘I’m fine, either way. This is fun.’”
Lafferty Has A New Project
‘One Tree Hill’ ended more than ten years ago. Lafferty is now trying to find a streaming platform for a new show he co-wrote with Stephen Colletti.
‘Everyone Is Doing Great’ Season 1 is currently available on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video. But the actor and his team want to make the show’s first and newly-finished second seasons more accessible to the viewer. They hope to secure a streaming service by the end of summer.