HE MIGHT LOOK LIKE THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK, BUT BABY-FACED 22-YEAR-OLD ACTOR GRIFFIN GLUCK, HAS ALREADY STARRED IN HUGELY SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS INCLUDING NETFLIX’S TALL GIRL, LOCKE & KEY, MIDDLE SCHOOL: THE WORST YEARS OF YOUR LIFE, BIG TIME ADOLESCENCE, AND WAS NOMINATED FOR A YOUNG ARTIST AWARD FOR HIS ROLE IN THE COMEDY FILM JUST GO WITH IT.

GLUCK CONTINUES TO ASCEND TO NEW REALMS OF INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION, LANDING HIMSELF THE ROLE OF LUKE CHAMBERS IN THE MUCH-ANTICIPATED SECOND SEASON OF ANTHOLOGY DRAMA SERIES CRUEL SUMMER – AND THIS TIME AROUND, FANS HAVE BEEN TAKEN BACK TO THE SUMMER OF Y2K, WHERE LOVE TRIANGLES HAVE DEADLY CONSEQUENCES. AS WE CATCH UP WITH HIM ON ZOOM, GLUCK IS VIRTUALLY IMPOSED AGAINST A BACKGROUND OF A CHARMING OLD TOWN IN ITALY (HE LIKES TO TRAVEL), FOR A CHAT ABOUT PLAYING LEAD LOVE INTERESTS AND STEPPING UP HIS STYLE GAME.

Left Coat **Loewe**
Right Top, jacket and pants **Givenchy**, shoes **Dr. Martens**

So, let’s talk about Season 2 of Cruel Summer, with all its twists and turns, and your character Luke who’s entangled in a bit of a love triangle. You’ve also played the main love interest before in the Tall Girl movies. What do you think makes you the perfect leading man?

Oh, I’m the last person you should ask! Every time I get one of these jobs, I feel like I’m robbing the studios, because I’m actually just a regular guy. I think it’s just what’s most available at my age, for the demographic. Most of the roles I’m going out for are either a nerd or love interest, because that’s what I think most of the stories being written are about right now.

Which one do you prefer, the nerd or the love interest?

A solid mix of both!

Left Coat **Givenchy**
Right Sweater **Kidill**, Undershirt **Givenchy**, Pants **Good Fight**, Shoes **Dr. Martens**

Well, speaking of leading men, one fashion brand has their eye on you, as you’ve been collaborating with CELINE for a while now. How would describe your relationship with fashion since they took you under their wing?

I didn’t have the best fashion sense growing up, but that’s slowly started to evolve now. When I’m travelling with work, I really enjoy walking around and shopping and I care about how things fit, and how I present myself. I also think growing up in the public eye made me care about how people view me, and I wanted to look better, less nerdy! When Celine joined the picture years ago when they sent me some gifts and I went to one of their shows, it definitely helped me step up my fashion game – at least when it comes to events and red carpets. I thought, “oh ok, this is what I could be dressing and looking like.” Celine dressed me for the Cruel Summer premiere too, and I don’t think I ever want to go back to dressing myself!

Well fashion is an important element in this next season of Cruel Summer, as it’s full of Y2K trends. I bet you just loved that whole flip-flops and cargo shorts look, right? Does the costume / wardrobe aspect help when getting into character?

Oh, I’m not into flip flops and cargo shorts at all! I do wear Birkenstocks, but they’re a solid fashion choice. I think for any role, wardrobe can tell you a lot about how the character views themselves. That’s the fun thing about fashion, that you can get into the relative psychology of it all; it’s like if a person dresses a certain way, it says a certain thing about them. It’s not always a negative or positive thing, but it helps you figure out who that person is, it shows personality. So, for any character I take on, even if I don’t like how they dress, it immediately tells you that my character chose to wear this stuff today, in this world that this person exists in, they don’t have a wardrobe person choosing their clothes for them – they choose to wear these clothes every day. So, I didn’t like Luke’s clothes in Cruel Summer, but I had to wear them every single day and say, “Luke really likes how he looks!”

What about the music, does that also help with immersing yourself in Luke’s shoes? Did you make playlists of any iconic 90s tunes?

Music didn’t play as huge a role for Luke, weirdly enough, I just thought that Luke wasn’t a huge music guy, and it was never part of the script that he listened to music, other than at parties and stuff. So, it didn’t seem all that important to me. That being said, everyone in the cast had early to late 90s and 2000s playlists going, which we would use to get into the vibe and mindset of being in that era.

So maybe Luke isn’t into music, but are you?

I’m a big music fan! I have a speaker that I would bring to set every day and I would let anyone connect to it, and play anything from the 90s to the 2000s, but I had one rule that if I said, “skip”, they had to skip!

Left **Celine Homme**
Right Top, scarf and shorts **Good Fight**, shoes **Givenchy**

There’s obviously a lot of lovey-dovey songs as a backdrop soundtrack to this next season of Cruel Summer. Do you have your own go-to track that you listen to when you’re in love or break-up situ?

There’s one song, I love You So by The Walters. I listened to that a lot when we were filming, and in my own past breakups.

There’s a real nostalgic element with the show and its soundtrack, because they’re relatable to us all, in that sense of finding yourself as a teenager and belonging to something. Did you draw on any personal teen high school experiences to really get into the essence of Luke’s character?

Absolutely. That was what attracted me to the role in the first place. Luke’s just a silly teenage boy who’s making a lot of mistakes, and the best way to learn from something, is to make that mistake and let it teach you. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, like in romantic or personal relationships with people, and I like to think I’ve learned and become a better person because of them. So, it was really nice for me to be able to get on set and try to be that Luke character and draw from all those mistakes. It was almost cathartic in a way, it felt weirdly, badly good, to revisit those mistakes and see them in a different context.

Left Jacket **Kidill**, shorts **Goodfight**, shoes **Dr. Martens**
Right Full look **Acne Studios**

The show has a strong fanbase, and there is a pressure with every next season to live up to the last one. Did you feel that pressure at any point, coming in for S2, not wanting to disappoint the fans who likely have high expectations?

Obviously, the pressure was there, but I tried not to think about it too much. In my mind I knew we were going into a new season, that had a new cast, a new storyline and it had nothing to do with the first season at all. So, in my mind it was a new project entirely, with the same name and structure, but other than that, it was a new show. The pressure mostly came from me wanting to make a good season of TV, and what we’re doing is so wildly different, and I hope they take this show for what it is now. We’re not trying to do season one better than they did, or do the same thing, we’re trying to do something different, and I want people to enjoy it just as much.

Were you given any freedom to explore Luke’s character and maybe put your own stamp on him, and was the show in any way challenging for you at all?

I had no say in Luke’s direction and obviously I’m the one portraying him, but in terms of the things he did and said, I had zero control. Our show runner was very particular about the lines and wanted to make sure the lines were said exactly as they were written, which is a new thing for me. I’ve always done shows where I thrive best when I have that room to play and explore the character, and if I feel like maybe he would say something different, then I’ll say something different! That’s my background, that’s the space I feel most comfortable in, being able to improvise a little bit and get to sit with the character and not be so word perfect. I feel that’s when I lose the sense of being in the moment. It was a challenge for me personally, I would’ve liked to have had the freedom to let loose with Luke. That being said, the writing is fantastic!
I’m nervous as to whether people will like this season, as it’s a job that took me out of my comfort zone, which is good, as that’s how you grow as an actor.