When Nick Hargrove moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting, it was in an attempt to realise the dream he’s had since he was a kid. After a series of jobs that helped pay the rent, including modelling, the 29-year-old actor began to build a resume with a series of small TV parts, but his breakout role came in 2018 as Parker Caine in the reboot of hit show Charmed.
Fast forward a few years, and now he’s about to star in the upcoming epic Korean war drama, Devotion, alongside a high-flying cast which includes a certain Jonas brother called Joe.
I read that as a kid you liked to mimic different accents and dialects - that must serve quite invaluably as an acting tool? And also you’re bilingual as your Mum is German, so do you feel like you have different personalities when you speak?
I find it’s one of the most important aspects in finding a character. Finding their voice. It’s how they communicate with the world. A language, dialect, or accent, changes what part of myself comes to the surface, and changes the words that we use to navigate the world. Whether it’s because you have to get creative because a certain word doesn’t exist in a language, or if a character you’re playing just has a hard time pronouncing a certain word, it informs a huge part of you are. The musicality of different languages also changes the way others perceive the words that you are saying.
So who does the best fake accents in the movies?
Pretty much Daniel Day Lewis in any film! The way he’s able to manipulate and change his voice is crazy. The dialect / accent he does as Daniel Plainview in ‘There Will Be Blood’ is so fascinating, and one of my favourites. Also pretty entertaining to mimic. Every time I rewatch that movie I find myself running around screaming “I drink your milkshake” or “I’ve abandoned my boy!!!” in that voice. The amount of time and dedication he puts into finding the voice of his characters is definitely something I strive for.
Let’s go back to the beginning, where did you catch the acting bug from, and what were the first auditions or roles you got?
Going back to accents and dialect, I think that’s what got me started. I loved the Simpsons as a kid, and would try to imitate all the characters. I didn’t realise it at the time, but impersonating those characters and trying on different accents and performing them for my family to make them laugh was my first real introduction into acting. I grew up in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia, where M. Night Shyamalan casts and shoots a lot of his films. I’m pretty sure my first ever audition was for The Sixth Sense. I must have been about 6 or 7 years old. I remember I got a callback for it, and I think that little nugget of validation at that early age gave me some hope that acting was something that I might actually be able to do. It only took 15 more years to break out of the shyness that stopped me from fully pursuing it!
Do you still suffer from anxiety on set or stage fright?
Very much so. When I started, it was crippling. Sometimes it can still feel that way. A lot of the work I have been doing comes from trying to surrender to those feelings and use them as tools rather than a hindrance.
It must be difficult for you not to judge all of your performances then?
It’s a daily practice to get out of my own head and to not judge myself, but it’s one of the most important parts of acting. Getting time in front of the camera and slowly learning to be a little more objective about my performances and appearance has been helpful. The way things have shifted to mostly all auditions being self-tapes, has also been a great learning tool. Doing a scene and watching playback afterwards has helped tremendously. Sometimes you can think you are articulating something and it just doesn’t read on camera. Or other times you think something isn’t working but on camera it might actually be working. Being forced to evaluate and watch my own self tapes has helped me become a little more objective with my own work.
So what kind of roles are you after now then, and what about a biopic where you had to mimic an iconic performer?
It would be a cliché to say I just want to play interesting characters. But it’s true. I definitely have a list of people that I’d really like to work with as well. I love biopics. I always wanted to do an Elvis biopic, but I think I may have missed the boat on that one!
I was waiting for the ‘uh-huh-huh’ there…! Ok aside from work, how do you fill your spare time?
I have quite a few hobbies. I play guitar, hike, rock climb, draw, watch movies, hang with friends, play video games. I’ve been trying to read more, but I usually find myself listening to a ton of audiobooks and podcasts instead.
And adopting animals? I’ve been stalking you on Instagram and I see that you love them, especially cats, that’s so cute!
I do! I fostered some kittens during quarantine. That honestly got me through one of the roughest patches of the pandemic. Putting my focus and energy on something else, and off of myself was so helpful. I do love animals.
So what’s next for you?
I just worked on a film called Devotion that I’m really proud of. It’s based on a true story about the first African American Naval aviator, Jesse Brown, who flew in the Korean War. I play a character named Carol Mohring, also a real person. He was Jesse’s close friend and a fellow Naval aviator. The story is incredible, is very relevant, and it also has some incredible action flight sequences. It’s been one of the most exciting projects I’ve worked on so far.
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Interview by Kate Lawson
Photography by Hadar Pitchon
