Austin Nichols

Austin Nichols (born April 24, 1980) is an American film, television actor and director who is perhaps best known for his role as Julian Baker in The CW drama series One Tree Hill. He is also known for his roles in films such as The Day After Tomorrow and Wimbledon. He starred as the title character in the HBO series John from Cincinnati. Nichols is currently portraying Spencer Monroe in AMC's The Walking Dead.

Early life

Austin Nichols was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and moved to Austin, Texas before he was a year old.^[1] He was named after the Austin, Nichols distilling company, producers of Wild Turkey Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.^[2] His father, David Nichols, is a radiologist, and his mother, Kay (Vermeulen) Nichols, was a professional trick water skier.^[3] Kay was a national champion ten times and an international champion once.^[4] He has one older sister, Ashley.^[4]

Nichols was raised on Lake Austin and attended Casis Elementary School.^[1] Nichols began competitive water skiing from the age of two.^[5] He represented the US Junior Water Ski Team in the Pan-American Championships in 1997, and was also on the Junior US Olympic Water Skiing team.^[6] At age thirteen, he was ranked third in the world.^[7] Nichols had intended to become a professional water skier until he injured his shoulder in Florida, and was forced to give up the sport.^[2] While at McCallum High School in central Austin,^[1] he played basketball but was "absolutely awful".^[8] Nichols' interest in acting was sparked when he was fifteen years old and he began to take acting lessons.^[9] He moved to Los Angeles after high school, where he currently lives.^[2]

Acting career

Beginnings

His acting career began when he gate-crashed a party at the Sundance Film Festival and was signed by a manager.^[10] Nichols initially wished to attend the University of Texas, but moved to Los Angeles after his signing and enrolled instead at the University of Southern California, graduating in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English.^[8] Although Nichols had guest appearances in Sliders, Odd Man Out, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Family Law, Watching Ellie, and Wolf Lake before his graduation, his big break came in 2002 when he appeared as Brenda Chenowith's lover in two episodes of Six Feet Under.^[10] He had previously appeared in two films, Durango Kids in 1999 and Holiday in the Sun in 2001.

In his first critically successful film role, Nichols starred as a stereotypical, basketball-playing "frat boy" in The Utopian Society, a 2003 independent film directed by John P. Aguirre, which won several awards and some critical acclaim.^[11] One critic wrote that Nichols "transforms himself from a cardboard jock and frat boy caricature to a likeable vulnerable human being with surprising sensibilities."^[12] Aguirre commended Nichols as a "stellar talent" able to play his character "with total abandon to self ego".^[13] Following another guest spot in She Spies, Nichols then simultaneously co-starred in two box office successes, The Day After Tomorrow and Wimbledon.

Box office and critical success

In 2004, Nichols was cast as J.D., an intelligent rich kid and romantic rival to Jake Gyllenhaal's main character in the environmental blockbuster, The Day After Tomorrow. The science and script were generally panned by critics, and cast performances criticized.^[14][15] Also in 2004, he appeared in Wimbledon, opposite Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany. The film was well received by critics, though it only did reasonably well at the US box office.^[16][17] Nichols' acting as Jake Hammond, an arrogant tennis pro, was described as "effectively unlikeable".^[18] For the role, Nichols had to learn tennis from scratch; he was trained to look professional by Pat Cash, who was taken aback by Nichols' skill. Cash also observed: "It’s absolutely as good as anybody’s on the circuit. I swear to God. He hits it like a bullet. He’s our star pupil."^[19] By the end of their training, Nichols and Bettany were able to have rallies and play points, although some of their more intricate exchanges were computer generated.^[20]

After this success, Nichols co-starred in a pilot for 1/4 life, a TV series about 20 somethings living in New York which was not developed by a television network. He then had a minor role in an obscure and panned 2005 film, Thanks to Gravity.^[21] Nichols followed this with short guest spots on episodes of Pasadena and Surface, before being cast in a successful 2006 film, Glory Road.

Glory Road, directed by James Gartner and starring Josh Lucas, is a film based on the true story of the 1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, in which Coach Don Haskins led a team with an all-black starting lineup, a first in NCAA history. Nichols played one of the few white players on the team; he trained heavily for the role and had to master basketball as it was played in the 1960s, saying "I'd never been so sore in my life".^[6] The film was not a box office hit; it made $46,000,000 and received mixed reviews.^[22]

After Glory Road, Nichols appeared in an episode of CSI: Miami and starred in Lenexa, 1 mile, a film about the disturbing secrets of five childhood friends, set during their last summer together before college. As of 2007, the creators have not announced plans to release the film.

The House of Usher and Beyond

Nichols' next film was a 2006 thriller, The House of Usher, directed by Hayley Cloake and based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe. He plays the disturbed Roderick Usher, who has been described by Nichols as a "twisted, terminally ill, fucked-up guy".^[2] The House of Usher was released in September 2007. Nichols also portrayed Neal Cassady, with Will Estes as Jack Kerouac, in the short film Luz Del Mundo.

In April 2006, Nichols guest starred in Deadwood, an HBO Western series. Shortly afterward, Nichols signed a rare holding deal with the HBO Network.^[23] In August of that year, Nichols was cast as the lead in a new series, John From Cincinnati, a surfing drama created by David Milch, who also produced Deadwood. The series began airing in June 2007, but was cancelled after one season due to poor ratings and mixed critical reviews. Nichols played John Monad, a stranger who suddenly appears in a quiet surfing town. Nichols took up surfing and practiced every day for three months for this role.^[24]

In 2007, Nichols appeared as a teacher for a few episodes of Friday Night Lights, before being cast in a recurring role on The CW's One Tree Hill. He was upgraded to series regular for the seventh season.^[25] He directed two episodes of the series including the seventh episode of the ninth and last season.^[26]

In 2013, Austin landed the role of Tommy Wheeler, action superstar, in the Showtime TV series Ray Donovan. Nichols has a recurring role on The Walking Dead as Spencer Monroe.^[27]

Personal life

Alongside his acting career, Nichols maintains a strong interest in cinema. He keeps a log of every film he sees: "I take it to the movies and write down who does the music, edits, directs, and how long the film is."^[28] Claire Oswalt, an ex-girlfriend, said in a 2003 interview that Nichols watches an average of 20 movies a week.^[29] Nichols himself has stated: "If I'm not working, I spend almost half my day at theaters or watching DVDs at my house." He especially admires Hal Ashby, Sam Fuller, and John Ford.^[30] In addition to his interest in film, Nichols enjoys waterskiing (in which he competed at the national level as a child), golf, tennis, and horseback riding.^[30] Since beginning filming John from Cincinnati, he has also taken up surfing, which he finds "very therapeutic and healing".^[31] Q&A

He was in a relationship with One Tree Hill Co-Star Sophia Bush. He took the role to be closer to her.

He mentioned in an interview he was living out of his car and sleeping on friends' couches.^[8] Nichols has been friends with fellow actor Jake Gyllenhaal since the two met on the set of The Day After Tomorrow in 2004. Nichols said in one interview, "I've learned a ton from Jake. He's a really sharp guy. He told me everything about acting, the business, girls, life."^[2] His sister, Ashley, is married to director Rowdy Stovall, making him Nichols' brother-in-law.

Shortly after John from Cincinnati was cancelled, Nichols was pulled over at 3 A.M. on August 24, 2007 in Jackson, Michigan after driving the wrong way down a one-way street in his silver Mercury Mountaineer. His blood alcohol level was a reported .10 and he was arrested for driving while intoxicated.^[32]

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Austin Nichols.

• Austin Nichols at the Internet Movie Database
• Austin Nichols at AllMovie
• Austin Nichols on Twitter
  
• Interview with Austin Nichols on LAist