HART DENTON IS A JACK OF ALL TRADES WHO’S MASTERING THEM ALL. BORN IN LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS, AND RAISED IN CONWAY, ARKANSAS, THE ACTOR STANDS UPON HIS SMALL-TOWN BOY ROOTS, EMBRACING HIS ARTISTRY AND CRAFT WITH HUMILITY AND UTTER JOY. FROM GRACING OUR SCREENS IN RIVERDALE TO THIRTEEN REASONS WHY, AND NOW COMING FRONT AND CENTER IN AMERICAN CHERRY AND DELTOPIA, THE LITTLE ROCK-NATIVE IS SHOWING EVERYONE THAT HE WAS BORN TO PERFORM. TO SOME, HE’S AN ACTOR, TO OTHERS, HE’S A MUSICIAN—SIDE BY SIDE WITH KJ APA IN THE BAND, MOTHERLOVER. AND ONLINE, HE’S A PAINTER, LETTING US INTO HIS WORLD THROUGH CANVASSES. NONETHELESS, TO EVERYONE THAT COMES ACROSS DENTON, FROM ARKANSAS TO LOS ANGELES, FROM NEW FANS TO OLDER ONES; WE CAN ALL ACKNOWLEDGE THAT HE IS A TRUE ARTIST. DENTON’S OVERNIGHT RISE TO FAME—OR, THREE-DAY VENTURE IN HIS WORDS—IS A MEET-CUTE WITH SUCCESS AND A REMINDER THAT THE PURSUIT OF DREAMS WILL ALWAYS BE WORTH IT. SOON, THE ARTIST WILL BE ABLE TO ADD “DIRECTOR” TO HIS DECK OF CARDS. IN A CONVERSATION WITH DENTON, WE SPEAK ALL ABOUT HIS LOVE FOR CREATING, HIS APPRECIATION FOR SMALL TOWNS, AND THE BEHIND-THE-SCENES FUN THAT MADE HIS NEW FILM, THE DUEL.

Left Full look **Celine Homme**
Right Full look **Acne Studios**

In a Teen Vogue interview, you said your life after getting the part in Riverdale changed in a matter of three days. Can you describe what those three days were like and how it happened?

A lot was going on at that time, I was couch surfing and primarily living out of a car. And I had less than one dollar in my account. I didn't own a printer, because I didn't have a place to live. So I would go and print out my audition sides from the FedEx print places. I was getting ready for the audition two days before, I went to FedEx and tried to print out my sides. But I didn't have enough money to cover the dollar and thirteen cents that it was to print the sides out. And so I thought, “Well, I'm just gonna have to memorize this thing completely and not be able to glance down at my sides at all.” I memorized every bit of it. I remember sitting in the waiting room for the audition, and everybody reading their sides and looking at them. And I’m just sitting there with nothing to look at. I also didn't have a phone at that time, I was primarily communicating with my managers and agents through email. So, I didn't have a phone to look at them either and did the audition. And it's the taled story of thinking, “I screwed it up. It was awful. I did bad.” And I thought, “I definitely didn't get that.” A couple of days later, my manager called me and said, “Hey, you got it.” And I went, “Oh, no way!” But I had flown home to Arkansas because that's where my family is from. I just needed a break from LA and my aunt had gotten me a flight home, she got me a ticket because she knew I was just really in a tough place. And then, I didn't have any money to fly back. So she got me another ticket, thank God. I flew back to LA and then went to shoot the show in Vancouver, and finally had more than a couple of dollars in my account. So yeah, everything was completely different for me after that.

When it comes to red carpets, how did it feel to be immersed in that kind of spotlight so quickly?

I have used a little bit of training because I was all over the place. Some of them made me so anxious and nervous that I would have a couple of drinks prior. And then I would watch it back later and I was just like, “Oh my, what a mess.” Because I could tell that I was so uncomfortable. I wasn't used to any of that. I mean, I grew up in a really small town. But I have a very supportive family and they were always encouraging me to sing and dance and do all sorts of things in front of them. So, I got comfortable performing. But whenever I would do carpets, that wasn't performing—that was just me. So, that is a weird thing to embrace and to this day, I still don't know how to really operate them.

Left Shirt and pants **Tod’s**, sunglasses **Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello**
Right Top **Celine Homme**

When was the last time you visited Little Rock? And what are the memories that are so potent when you think about it?

Oh, I go back all the time. There's a stretch every year from January to March that I'm not there. And then the rest of the year, I'm there every other month—I go back so much. I love being in Arkansas, it's home to me, and my family's there. It's such a familiar place. And it's such a slow pace of life that it allows me to just take a breath and not be sucked into this monster that is Los Angeles. I appreciate LA for the opportunities that it can provide. I'm not ignorant about it. And some of my best friends are here, who are like family to me. But being in Arkansas gives me such a calm feeling and a sense of being grounded and safe. Los Angeles has never felt like home to me. It's always felt like this temporary place. Whereas, Arkansas feels like home. It feels right. And it feels secure. I'm going back in a couple of days. I can't wait.

Do you have any recommendations? If someone visited Arkansas, where should they go?

Well, northwest Arkansas is growing a lot right now. Because you have families like the Waltons who made Walmart and you have Tyson Chicken, they're putting so much money back into Arkansas. There's an incredible museum called Crystal Bridges - it's getting a lot of notoriety for how great it is. And I feel like the film industry is starting to boom there. I just finished writing a movie, it's set in Arkansas, and I'd love to shoot it this fall. That would be quick, but I'd be excited [to do it]. I want to build a production studio there. I want to shoot movies and TV shows there and use a lot of local people. Because there are so many talented people. I did a movie in Arkansas a couple of years ago, and it was mostly local crew members - they were incredible. I want to make Arkansas this hub of film because it's so untapped. There's hardly any sort of infiltration of anything there. It's just so natural and beautiful. And there's so much you can do, so much you can shoot there. That’s my dream.

Speaking of smaller towns, most coming-of-age films and shows take place there. As Deltopia, American Cherry and Riverdale follow the coming-of-age genre, what about those stories do you like or relate to so much?

Well, the throughline with all three of those is that I've been fortunate enough to experience and get to play characters that are so far from who I am, that I've enjoyed each one of them differently, but it's been so fun to explore a side of life that I've never experienced in my reality. And it's been really fun to not just go in and be like, “Oh, well, I'm just playing me.” They've been big leaps away from who I am as a human, which I've enjoyed a lot. It's exciting, it feels like I'm getting to actually be a character. I'm getting to make up a character and live truthfully inside it. And I've been very fortunate to do that. Yeah, the towns I’ve shot in within the film or show were pretty much rural towns. And I like that, because it doesn't become based on what's going on around it, instead, the story centers around the characters and the relationships between them. All three projects were not really about being in a city. You're in the middle of nowhere. And I think that brings out different types of people and shows you what different types of people are out there. And more people - I would say - connect with that in the world more than they connect with big cities. Because the majority of people that are in big cities know what it’s like, so they want to see something that's outside of that. And people that are in those small towns, I would say for the most part don't necessarily want to see big city stuff. That's why they don't live in big cities. They don't really like them all that much. They want to see something familiar.

Could you see yourself doing other genres, either as an actor or as a director?

I would love to touch into some action. I did a small short film with Joe Matthews, who is a director and a writer, that was fun to do. It was the first fight sequence that I'd ever done. And I really enjoyed that. I would love to do that in a long format. Also, I desperately want to do a music film because it combines two of my loves into one thing. And I'd love to do a comedy—I've done so many heavy things. It'd be nice to do some lighter things too, and I love watching comedies. I mean, I have a film coming out this summer called The Duel, where there's definitely a comedic element to my character that mixes with a lot of drama and seriousness, but it's the first time that I got to touch into some comedic beats and some comedic elements that opened me up to be like, “This was a lot of fun.” I was given a lot of free rein to go back and forth with my friend, Denny Love who is also in it, and he's a great comic. We would go off the script and play around. And it was so challenging, but also so much fun, I would love to do a whole film with Danny.

Left Full look **Acne Studios**
Right Full look **Bottega Veneta**

What are the films that inspire you?

Number one for me is The Shining, I’m obsessed with it. I just love that descent into madness in the middle of nowhere. And I love that it's only a couple of characters but it's such a story. That's another thing I would also love to do, something in a thriller sense, something in a way that brushes right up against horror but mostly stays in the lane of thriller. And that's a film that has been a huge part of my life along with The Wizard of Oz. That's huge for me. And I've recently watched it where—if you start the Pink Floyd album, Dark Side of the Moon, at the third roar of the MGM lion, it syncs up with the film in such an incredibly beautiful way. It’s like a 45-minute music video. It’s amazing. I was heavily influenced by that film as a kid. I was The Tin Man for several Halloweens growing up - my mom made me the costume. I was obsessed with The Tin Man because he had his heart on the outside of his chest and it just resonated with me, being named Hart—I was just obsessed with that film. And then on the comedic side, from a young age, I was obsessed with Beetlejuice. I was also a huge fan of the Austin Powers trilogy. As a kid, I would watch those all the time, and just quote them constantly – they heavily shaped my humor. Wayne's World was huge for me too. And Spinal Tap. And Big Lebowski.

How long did it take to shoot The Duel? What was that process like?

Well, that was a strange process, because it was right in the middle of COVID, so everything was shut down. Nothing was running, we were one of the only films that was up and going during that time. It was in the middle of nowhere in Indiana. And there, I lived on a ranch-like farm home with three of the other guys that are in this movie with me. We would have a driver pick us up and take us to set where we would shoot and then we would have to go right back home. So, it enabled me to get very close with the other leads in the film: Dylan Sprouse, Denny Love, and Callan McAuliffe. The four of us are still very close.

That was such a bonding experience and a thing to go through together and it was the most fun I've ever had doing a film, it was a blast. The house we were in was so cool, it was this barn or farmhouse that had a movie room and basketball court outside. Denny and I played basketball constantly. I grew up playing basketball, but he would beat me every single night. And I would stay out til 2 am just putting up shots. Denny is a prolific trash talker. He’ll get inside your head. We almost got in a fight— like day two, it was a full-on thing. And now he's one of my best friends.

Left Full look **Valentino**
Right Full look **Bottega Veneta**

What's your favorite part of shooting? What makes the acting experience so special?

You know, you're given a scene. And you, for the most part, didn't write it unless it is something that you created. It's someone else's vision of the person that they want you to be. And it's never going to be exactly what they envisioned. But to bring your life circumstances into this character, that bubbles out from this thing that you're trying to be and become, I think it's super rewarding. On an emotional level for me as a human outside of shooting that makes me understand different areas of life that I've, maybe, been ignoring before without even meaning to. But then once doing it, there's almost a therapeutic element to it, especially after doing something for a month or longer where you live with this thing for so long because you prep it, and then you live it. And then there's this thing where, when you're done, you separate away from it back into who you are. But there's still a part of that thing that's there with you. Hopefully, it's the good parts and not the bad, but it definitely still lives with you, where you're aware that this type of person does exist somewhere out there, or has existed before in some capacity, and it just connects you with the world a little bit more. It's so fun to go and play make-believe, it's the greatest job on earth because you're creating something. I feel very fortunate and grateful to have the job I have. Doing what you love is fantastic. I really love acting. I love playing music. I love painting. I just love creating things. I love everything that doesn’t suck away at your soul. I like the stuff that opens me up and makes me feel things. And I’m lucky enough to do them as a career.

How does your identity as a musician differ as an actor?

Well, to a degree, they're both characters. For the most part, I would say because I don't necessarily try to write lyrics about my own life—I mean, little things come out in them. But I try to think in the mindset of a character, of another person I actually know. That allows me to sort of dissociate some of my problems and traumas in this way. There's a familiarity of, “Oh, someone else is going through this.” Even if it's a person I've made up in my head, there's something that allows me to connect with that a little bit. That makes me feel less alone, I guess. And, yeah, little parts come out, just as it does with acting, I'd say they're very similar in that regard, where some real things come up, but for the most part, I'm being someone else, something else.

Left Full look **Valentino**
Right Full look **Celine Homme**

So you're known as an actor, designer, model, car collector - which of these feel closest to you?

If you look at time spent doing things out of desire, I would say, across the board, the most I've done is music. Because growing up I did music so much as a kid, I had a band in middle school, a band in high school, and a band in college, and then I moved out here to Los Angeles and I was doing music and writing for other people before I did any of the acting. Also, I did some musical theatre growing up so there was still an essence of music there. Acting would be a close second, if not tied. And then art, in regards to painting and drawing, would be number three. I just love doing stuff with my hands. My buddy KJ [Apa] really got me into painting about a year ago. We started painting together a lot. And now, it's become something that I want to do every day. I love listening to music and watching concerts while I paint. I love it because I can glance over and watch them, and I can see the crowd and feel the crowd. And it’s just—it's so raw. And yeah, I also collect cars here and there. I knew nothing about cars about two years ago, and then really got into it during the pandemic. Now, I have an old Ford truck. I have an old ‘80s Mercedes. I have a 1972 Honda CB 350 motorcycle. I have a 66 Mustang. And then sometimes, I'll sell one and get another one. There's nothing that feels better than cruising down the highway in one of those machines that's 50 years old. It just feels great.