Chad Michael Murray: "I wanted the opportunity to challenge myself… and do it half-naked!"
The One Tree Hill and Dawson's Creek star takes on a key role in Netflix Christmas movie The Merry Gentlemen.
We're more than halfway through November – which means Netflix has started releasing a whole bunch of new Hallmark-inspired Christmas movies onto the platform.
One of the biggest new additions to the streamer's ever-expanding festive film library this year is The Merry Gentlemen, which stars Britt Robertson as a recently-fired big-city dancer who finds herself staging an all-male Christmas-themed revue to save her parents' struggling performing arts venue.
Chad Michael Murray plays one of the dancers who has a central role in the troupe – and who finds himself falling for Robertson's character – and speaking to RadioTimes.com ahead of the film's release, he explained that he loved testing himself in the role.
"It was a bit of work, as you can imagine," he said when asked about the challenge of learning some of the dance routines.
"Honestly, it was something that I was excited about because I was terrified. And any time you can learn a new skill, it means you're challenging yourself."
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He added: "And that's what I really wanted. I wanted the opportunity to challenge myself, do something that frightened me as an actor. I think we always want to push ourselves just a little bit every time you do something.
"Sometimes it's not always easy. You know, the text doesn't always provide that for you.
"But this one, I had the opportunity. I had the opportunity to go and push myself and do something I've never done before, and do it half-naked!"
He added that an unexpected aspect of taking on the role is that he's become a major convert to the art of dance.
"To be honest, the byproduct that I never expected is how much I'd fall in love with dance," he said. "Like, what a great, great, enjoyable sport!"
Although Robertson didn't have the chance to get too involved with the dancing herself, she said that she was tempted to take on the role – her first in a Christmas film – as soon as she read the script.
"I was very excited about the holiday element, especially since there was stripping involved," she said.
"Because ever since I've been an adult, I've loved being just, like, around sort of like-minded people being merry, excited to participate in a little burlesque!
"I love going to a little burlesque bar on Christmas. I just think that's for me... it spoke to me, and I was like... time to get just set up with my holiday film career."
The Merry Gentlemen is released on Netflix on Wednesday 20th November 2024 – sign up from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
