Exclusive Interview
Why ‘The Merry Gentlemen’ Was Chad Michael Murray’s Sexiest & Most Challenging Role Yet (VIDEO)
Forget a One Tree Hill reboot. Let’s get a show for Chad Michael Murray‘s six-pack abs!
Like a gift that keeps on giving, the finely aging actor is stepping up and stripping down once again (if you’ve seen his 2025 calendar, you know) in The Merry Gentlemen, Netflix’s Magic Mike meets balls, er, boughs of holly. In the holiday original, the Sullivan’s Crossing star plays a big-hearted but guarded handyman who teams with a former dancer (Britt Robertson) to create an all-male revue that could bring in enough business to save her parents’ failing watering hole.
It’s got everything. Quirky small-town folks. Excessive Christmas decor. Meet-cute clashes. Grease 2‘s Maxwell Caulfield. And, of course, the kind of bumping and grinding that gives new meaning to The Nutcracker. It was that part, not the frequent flesh-flashing, that actually had Murray feeling less than merry and bright.
“It gets harder,” he says with a laugh when asked about nailing the acrobatic dance numbers, which were crafted by actress-turned-choreographer Christine Lakin (Step by Step) and included jazz, hip-hop, and country moves.
“I’m 43 now, and there was a lot of work. It was one of those things that, when I sat down and spoke with my friends over at Netflix, it scared the crap out of me. But it excited me just as much.” Adding that “I think terror crossed my face,” Murray nevertheless jumped right in because it posed a challenge he’d yet to encounter in his career.
“It’s something that you want to attack and say, ‘Yeah, let’s go!’ I hadn’t had that feeling in quite some time of going, ‘I might fall flat on my face, literally, so let’s go.’ I’d never danced professionally by any means, and so it was one of those things where I said, ‘Okay, well let’s do the work,'” he said.
And the twerk. Sorry, Santa…might as well just add us to the naughty list already!
The Merry Gentleman, Streaming Now, Netflix
