Actor Chace Crawford wants his new work to be "grounded in reality" after years of playing handsome teen Nate Archibald in Gossip Girl.
The 30-year-old found fame on the popular TV drama about a group of mega-rich high school students. Since the show wrapped in 2012, he's moved on to Blood & Oil, a grittier series about the modern-day oil boom in North Dakota.
Embracing a more mature role sits well with the star.
"It's so different, playing this character compared to what I was doing. It's still television - it's a medium where you're a little bit, not a slave to the writing, but you've got to see what kind of curve balls they throw at you," he explained to Interview magazine.
"With the other one, we started off so young; I was 20 years old playing 18. We got to be older, but it never really moved out of that genre. With this [show], having a wife, being married and having that relationship, I always thought it was very important to keep it grounded in some form of reality. I really hope they try and maintain that. They gave us a lot of freedom."
Chace was interviewed by Taylor Kitsch for the publication, an actor he worked with back in 2006 on small teen movie The Covenant.
When Taylor enquired about Blood & Oil director Jonas Pate, someone they have both worked with, Chace joked it was almost going too well.
"Yeah, we're dating, basically. His wife's not too happy, but we've really come a long way in three months," he laughed.
"We couldn't have lucked out more with a guy who understands that world - his twin brother [Josh Pate] wrote the script and actually went up to North Dakota and saw how they really live. And with creating a scope and creating this world - it's got to be entertaining and it's got to have the drama there and all that jazz, but with some of the nuances of the backdrop I thought they did a really good job. Even with directing the extras, it was really cool."
Blood & Oil's pilot episode will screen on US channel ABC on September 27 (15).
