American actor and director, James Lafferty, recently opened up about how he was close to walking away from acting if he had not landed the role of Nathan Scott for the famous series, One Tree Hill. On June 7, 2024, James spoke to People magazine about his journey in the entertainment industry. Lafferty was 17 at the time of his audition for the drama.
Lafferty explained that he and his mom stayed in a hotel in Burbank during the “super nerve-wracking” selection process. He said:
"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."
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Before the WB series, James worked as a child actor as he appeared in various shows including Boston Public, Get Real, and First Monday.
James Lafferty shares his experience of auditioning for One Tree Hill
In the comedy teen drama One Tree Hill, James Lafferty portrayed Nathan, one of the two Scott brothers who played basketball. The series aired from September 23, 2003, to April 4, 2012, on WB. It consisted of 9 seasons with a total of 187 episodes.
On Friday, James Lafferty recalled that he began working when he was 10, and once he went to the Warner Bros. offices and saw photos of the cast of Dawson’s Creek displayed on their walls. He thought at the time, "Oh man, it'd be so cool to be up there someday." The actor talked about almost giving up on acting after thinking his journey as a child actor had ended.
"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," Lafferty added.
James Lafferty told People magazine that if he was not finalized for the show, he would have quit and attended college instead. The producer also explained that he initially considered Nathan to be a “villain” when he first read the script. However, he felt “completely comfortable with that because he was so well-written as a villain.”
Referring to his character’s father, Dan Scott (Paul Johansson), the actor stated:
"You could immediately recognize that he was the way that he was for a reason because of the way that 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."
James Lafferty continued:
"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.’"
For the unversed, Nathan and his dad, Dan, had a complicated relationship and had many fights and disagreements in the show.
James Lafferty is currently working on a series titled Everyone Is Doing Great, which he co-wrote with Stephen Colletti. For those who wish to see the actor in One Tree Hill, the first season is available for purchase on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.
