You aren't from South Carolina. How did you pick the College of Charleston?
My family and I used to go to Charleston on vacation. I just fell in love with the city and the people.
You were the captain of the varsity tennis team. Were you also recruited?
Yeah, I was recruited to come play there.
How was Charleston different from high school?
The college experience--it's that first step into life on your own. Not just being away from family and parents, but the whole college environment. It opens you up to people from all around the world, and opportunities and choices about the things you want to pursue. It's that first jump into really making choices for yourself.
One choice you made was to pursue acting--something entirely different from your first plan.
I did. That was late into my junior and senior year in college. I majored in history and political science, but I took some acting classes outside of school [during] my junior and senior year in college.
There weren't acting classes at Charleston?
There was a theater program at the school, but playing on the tennis team was a year-round sport. And with a double major, I couldn't fit any theater curriculum into my program. So I kind of just added another thing on top of it all and took acting classes outside of school. So I would finish [tennis] practice and drive 45 minutes down the road in Charleston, and then come back and go to class. It was a really busy time. But being so active and so busy was really rewarding.
Would you recommend doing athletics in college?
For me, it was fundamental to my entire experience. My friend from Israel visited me last week. We played on the tennis team together and were roommates together. My friends I have for life [as a result of] college are from athletics, and my growth as a person in different ways all stems from athletics.
It's important to have something other than school, whatever it is. If it's any kind of sport or athletic activity, or it's theater, or if it's singing or painting--anything that is separate from the work that you do at school is important to making those choices … trying to decide what you want to do and how you want to lead your life.
How about your academic life? Has that helped you at all today, as an actor?
With history and political science, there's a lot of writing papers and analytical work. There is a piece of that that applies to acting, when reading a script and breaking down a script and trying to analyze some of those pieces. It's definitely a piece of what I do now.
Your character Logan is not the hardest worker or the most serious student. Sounds like you were pretty different in college.
Logan and I are completely dissimilar, as far as just the academics aspect. I enjoy the process of learning, so that was why I worked hard in school and did well in school. I think things come a little bit easier for Logan. He's kind of naturally talented. For me, it was something I always had to work hard at, to do well at school.
You can't have been working all the time. Did you have a favorite hangout spot?
One of the things I love about Charleston is the city. There are so many great spots in Charleston. There's a bar called the Griffin, and I spent a lot of time there with my friends.
What do you miss the most about college?
My friend Gill, who came back to visit me from Israel--I don't get to see those friends as much as I would like to. I lived with four other guys, so every day we'd have time together, and now I'm lucky if I see them once a year. The other thing is just the stories--the times playing tennis, and the traveling with tennis, and the stories that we have involved with that.
Logan goes to Yale, so now you've sort of experienced two colleges. In retrospect, where would you rather go?
I look back on my experience in college at Charleston--it was just so right for me. Everything that it had--with the tennis, with the city, and the people and the academics--everything for me was perfect. There was no place I would rather go.
What I would say to others that are applying is to look at all those different pieces within yourself and see how they all line up. Find the school that matches up with those pieces that resonate in you.
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