Chace Crawford says his new movie Nighthawks 'breaks some rules'
Get ready to see Chace Crawford like you’ve never seen him before.
The former Gossip Girl star and current scene-stealer on Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys is taking the lead for the gritty and surreal feature film Nighthawks. The stylized drama is about an elitist secret society in New York City that tries to dissect a crime recently committed against one of its own. Crawford stars as wide-eyed Midwest transplant Stan, who agrees to play wingman to his calculating and privileged roommate Chad (Kevin Zegers). They embark upon an exploration of glittering New York nightlife, whose darkest secrets are held captive by a group of artistic and influencer-hopeful millennials known as Nighthawks. But the evening becomes increasingly surreal as it continues into an interrogation of mysterious past events, with Stan caught in the middle.
Crawford promises that Nighthawks, written, directed, and produced by Grant S. Johnson, is like nothing he’s ever done before in his career. “I’m interested to see the reaction to this movie,” the actor tells EW. “There’s definitely some twists and turns. It breaks some rules with how it’s narrated and with these dream sequences. There’s darker themes. The movie has got an Eyes Wide Shut feel where it takes you on this journey over one or two evenings.”
Not knowing where the story was going was a huge draw for Crawford. “There’s big twists and it’s intense from the opening scene,” he says. “Something happens and they don’t really show what went down at that party but it takes you into this nightclub world where Stan gets drugged and wakes up in this room. There’s heavy stuff but it was fun for me to play. You don’t know what’s real and what’s a trip.”
The actor first heard about this film when his friend Zegers, who appeared on Gossip Girl with Crawford, tipped him off about the project.
“I met with Grant and Kevin and we did a reading of the script and it all came together,” Crawford says. “And any time I can have an excuse to shoot in New York City, I hop on it! I loved the script, I love Kevin, and me and Grant got along right away. He’s a very smart guy and it was sort of a no-brainer for me. It’s original, interesting, weird. And it was a nice challenge, getting that lead main part. I’ve never really gotten to do that before.”
No stranger to playing someone caught up in the darker aspects of New York society, Crawford starred on all six seasons of Gossip Girl as Nate Archibald, one of the most privileged Upper East Siders. But aside from the same filming locations, Crawford promises that Stan is nothing like Nate.
“It’s such a different role,” he says with a laugh. “There’s room to do more. You can go to places in a film you can’t go in an episodic thing. You kind of are kept guessing where you don’t know exactly what happens. Stan is a writer and he moves to New York to live with his wealthy friend played by Kevin. He’s kind of an asshole and Stan comes from a different socioeconomic background and is living in this small side room in this massive New York townhouse. Outside the fact that I wasn’t a stranger to those five-story townhouses, it was a much different story and character, which was amazing.”
Nighthawks is now available on DVD and Blu-ray and for sale and rental on iTunes, Prime Video, and Google Play.
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