Exclusive Interview
Calahan Skogman Talks Debut Novel ‘Blue Graffiti’ & Those Emily Henry Adaptations (VIDEO)
Calahan Skogman burst onto the scene as the beloved (and brooding) Matthias Helvar in Netflix’s Shadow & Bone. Fans rallied behind the slow burn romance between Mattias and Grisha soldier Nina Zenik (Danielle Galligan). After filming the first season and the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, Skogman turned to the written word, which led to his debut novel Blue Graffiti.
“I left Los Angeles at that time, and I wanted to spend time with my family kind of in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin Midwest. It was just a time of peace and family and togetherness and just time. It afforded me to be able to get back into literature in a real way that I hadn’t in a long time,” Skogman told Swooon at New York Comic Con.
In Blue Graffiti, Skogman lushly describes small-town living in Johnston, Wisconsin, as Cash navigates love and loss. “The details [of small towns] I think can sometimes be skipped over, unappreciated, but I think that’s where a lot of the romance is found, especially in a place where things don’t move so fast and things don’t seem to change so much, but they do,” he explained.
While the author’s debut novel doesn’t fully fit into the romance genre, there is a powerful love story between Cash and Rose, a woman who walks right into Cash’s life in Johnston. Skogman admitted that he thought about making the story about just Cash and Rose, but he ultimately decided against it. “I think I’ll write a romance at some point, just a strict romance between two people,” he said.
One of “major themes” of Blue Graffiti is grief and how we mourn the people we love, something Skogman’s “battled with and thought about a lot in my life. Even when I was younger, I was very un-okay with the fact that people were here one day and then they were not.”
For Skogman, Blue Graffiti is just the beginning of his literary career. “I’ve written a second and a third [book] actually,” he revealed, one of which is a prequel.
But Skogman’s not leaving acting behind. He’ll next be seen in the romantic drama A Big Bold Beautiful Journey with Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell.
Could an Emily Henry adaptation be on the horizon? The actor has popped up in more than a few (okay, a lot) of the fancasts. “I would kill to be in one of her films,” Skogman told Swooon. “It would be a great honor to be one of her romantic leads.”
He revealed that he did audition for Netflix’s adaptation of People We Meet on Vacation but not for the role of Alex, who is being played by Tom Blyth. However, he’s hopeful about having a place in the Emily Henry Cinematic Universe. “I think it will happen,” he said with a smile.
Watch the full video interview above.
