Chad Michael Murray in ‘One Tree Hill’ in 2003.Photo:Alamy
Alamy
Chad Michael Murraysays he nearly quit acting after leavingOne Tree Hill.
In a Q&A withInterview, published Wednesday, Dec. 11, theMerry Gentlemenstar talked about the weirder aspects of fame in the early 2000s after he became a teen heartthrob thanks to roles inGilmore Girls,Dawson’s Creekand, of course,One Tree Hill.
“I remember we’d just finished shootingTree Hilland Craig Sheffer and I had gone down to a place called Hell’s Kitchen and we’re having a drink at this bar,” Murray recalled. “This girl comes up — she was a super big fan. She came over, and she pulled her chest out on the bar, and said, ‘Could you sign these?’ ”
Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton in ‘One Tree Hill’ in 2009.Everett
Everett
Murray said Sheffer, who played his character’s Uncle Keith in the series, “peer pressured” him into obliging the request. “It was terrible. I’m talking like, the worst autograph you could ever autograph,” he recalled. “Anyway, I’m like, ‘Okay, all right, great, done. Thank you so much.’ Then two, two-and-a-half hours later, she comes back and she now has the autograph tattooed right there.”
“That was one of those moments where I said, ‘I don’t ever want to write on any skin ever again, because that’s on her body forever,’ ” he continued. “And I was like, ‘Oh, gosh. Now some boyfriend’s going to come beat me up 20 years down the road.”
But according to Murray, it wasn’t outlandish fan request that made him consider giving up showbiz after he leftOne Tree Hillin 2009.
“There was a moment where I was quitting. I was done. I just couldn’t do it anymore,” he said. “It was because, when you’re 18 to 25, these formidable years where you’re really cutting your teeth on life experiences and your brain isn’t fully developed, you make mistakes. I mean, gosh, we still screw up when we’re grown-ups. But I think it’s hard for me to see past those moments when you’re not adult enough to understand the scenarios that you’re in.”
Chad Michael Murray in 2009.Denise Truscello/WireImage
Denise Truscello/WireImage
“That was hard for me because there are so many eyeballs on you,” Murray, 43, explained. “And you go to the grocery store and someone points at you, ‘Oh, that’s the guy that’s on the tabloid, or that’s the guy that did this.’ Even if they’re not talking about that, sometimes your head goes to a negative place, and I know mine really did. And so I just made a big pivot at that point in my life and said, ‘You know what? This is not what I want.’ ”
Murray went on to say that after finding initial success in Hollywood at a young age, he “didn’t understand the power that the industry can have, the respect that you must give it and give everyone and every moment.”
Chad Michael Murray in May 2024.Alberto Rodriguez/Variety via Getty
Alberto Rodriguez/Variety via Getty
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“So I took a lot of time to reassess it all,” he said. “It took years of talking to people much smarter than me to get where I wanted to go.”
More recently, Murray has had roles two 2024 Netflix films:Mother of the Brideand the recently released Christmas movieThe Merry Gentlemen. He’s also set to reprise hisFreaky Fridayrole opposite Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohanin next year’s sequel,Freakier Friday.
source: people.com
