Interview: Chace Crawford Talks Peace, Love & Misunderstanding

Interview: Chace Crawford Talks 'Peace, Love & Misunderstanding,' Written by: Karen Benardello Even as teens and adults, people tend to be all too eager to fight with their parents over their differences in lifestyles and opinions. But the new comedy-drama ‘Peace, Love & Misunderstanding,’ which hits select theaters on Friday, shows that once people are pushed outside their comfort zones, they’re more willing to accept their family’s diverse views. A seemingly mismatched family unpredictably comes together after unforeseen circumstances bring them together in the Bruce Beresford-directed film. ‘Peace, Love & Misunderstanding’ follows uptight Manhattan lawyer Diane (Catherine Keener), who decides to visit her hippie mother Grace (Jane Fonda) in Woodstock for the first time in 20 years, after her husband Mark (Kyle MacLachlan) asks for a divorce. Diane brings her two teenage children, Jake (Nat Wolff) and Zoe (Elizabeth Olsen), who have never met their grandmother before. What’s meant to be a weekend getaway turns into a summer adventure of romance, music, family secrets and self-discovery, as Diane and the kids learn to adapt to Grace’s hippie lifestyle. Along the way, the family finds love in Woodstock-Diane with carpenter-songwriter Jude (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), whose impulsive ways contradict Diane’s demeanor; Jake connects with local teen Tara (Marissa O’Donnelll) as he shoots a movie and Zoe falls for butcher Cole (Chace Crawford), even though his job goes against her vegetarian beliefs. Crawford generously took the time to sit down with us recently during a roundtable interview at New York City’s Regency Hotel. The actor discussed, among other things, what it was like working with Beresord and his co-stars Fonda and Olsen on the set of ‘Peace, Love & Misunderstanding;’ what it was like shooting in on location in Upstate New York and the ending of his hit CW teen drama series ‘Gossip Girl.’ Question (Q): You’re probably too young to remember the hippie days. Chace Crawford (CC): Oh, I remember Jane Fonda. (laughs) Q: Inside, do you have any kind of hippiness? CC: I like Tom Petty, and I think my music tastes might be of that era, partly. But other than that, not really, no. (laughs) My grandfather and my grandma have some good stories. Q: What was it like working with Bruce Beresford? He always seems to get great performances. CC: He was great, he was phenomenal. It was a real smooth process. I remember I was in L.A., and they sent me the script, and I just finished it when they said, you need to go in today. It was really a quick thing. I got it right away, and I was growing a beard and hadn’t really shaved, so it worked. I went in there, and he made you real comfortable. We played around with it. They liked me, and the next thing you know, we got the schedule. It worked out, because I was shooting ‘Gossip Girl’ here. I got a rental car, and would drive upstate every weekend for like six weekends. It was cool, when we were working, he was just good with actors. He let us improv, too, and let us throw some things away. He let us do our own thing, which was a blessing. Q: How would you describe Jane? What was the process like, working with her? CC: You know, I didn’t have any scenes with her, actually. I think we had a scene where it was overlapping. But in the overlapping scenes, yeah, I would use playful to describe Jane. She’s awesome. She came to the crew parties, and would dance and have a good time. She’s just really engaging, you know what I mean? She’s very charismatic. Even though we didn’t work together, she would pull me aside, and asked me where I’m from. She was really interested in Texas and Dallas, where I’m from. That just thrilled my mother and grandmother. I was a little awestruck. She just has this aura around her. She has a really good energy. Q: Do you share the same philosophy with your character about meat? CC: (laughs) I guess so, yeah. Is Jane’s character a vegetarian? I remember we discussed it a little bit. But being from Texas (laughs), I’m not too picky about my meat. Actually, I learned a lot, to be honest. Like the place we shot at, and there a couple places in the city that I’ve been to, that has had their name up on the list where they get their meat from organically grown farms. But as far as actually butchering and cutting the meat, I learned nothing. To continue reading this interview, please click here.