Friday Night Lights’ Gaius Charles Is Back on TV and Taking Flight on Pan Am
Friday Night Lights alum Gaius Charles talks to Snakkle about his return to TV this Sunday on Pan Am, taking time off to get his master's in theological studies, and more! By Erin FoxYou loved him on Friday Night Lights as the commanding, intensely passionate and talented running back Smash Williams. Now, after appearing in several independent films and plays—including Public Theater’s production of Othello with (ahem!) Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman—and a three-year stint getting his master’s in theology, Gaius Charles is back on TV!
Charles will appear on ABC’s much-buzzed new series Pan Am this Sunday in a stunning episode about blossoming interracial love set in 1963. Charles spoke to Snakkle about his character’s groundbreaking appearance on Pan Am, his decision to go back to school, and so much more!
Snakkle: Since we haven’t seen your episode yet, tell us what the producers told you about your character before you took the part.
Gaius Charles: The character I’m playing is Joe, and he is a Navy submariner whose crew is coming back to the States, and he meets the ladies of Pan Am on the plane. Joe gets into a romantic, kind of flirty conversation with Margot Robbie’s character Laura. Sparks kind of fly, but given the political, historic context of race in America in the 1960s, there is a lot of tension and conflict that gets going.… I don’t want to give too much away!
Snakkle: Since the beginning of the show, we’ve seen Laura as kind of a hot mess with men. She’s left her fiancé at the altar basically, then had a little flirtation with Ted (Michael Mosley), but it’s clear she doesn’t know what she wants. So what do you think it is about Joe that catches her eye?
Charles: I’m kind of a nerd when it comes to acting, so I really dug into the political, historical background. You know, when you’re talking about America in ’63, you talk about MLK, the march on Washington, the Freedom Riders, people being thrown in jail. There was just a lot of hostility around race and racial equality. I think for some reason, at least from my understanding of the characters, I think that Laura is able to see beyond all those issues, and she’s one of the first people—or first white American people—that Joe encounters who judges him strictly on character. You know, it’s that MLK thing of “not by the color of your skin, but by the content of your character.” So that is really the whole initial connection for these people. As different as they are in terms of their social location, they’re actually really similar.
Snakkle: Do they both have really annoying mothers?
Charles: Right! They both have domineering moms, and they talk about that in the episode.
Snakkle: Oh, really? I was just kidding, but what a good guess!
Charles: No, you are spot-on! It’s actually the first conversation that they have, and then the connection grows from there.
Snakkle: So do you think there is potential for this relationship to blossom over time, even with the racial tensions surrounding them?
Charles: I definitely see the potential for it. I mean, it’s really up to the writers and the people in control of the story to see what they want to do with the character. But it really is a groundbreaking role for the show because there are not very many characters—if I’m correct, I can’t even name another character—who is a person of color. So for this character to be one of the first is exciting, and we’ll see where it goes.
Snakkle: So, we haven’t seen you as much lately because after you left Friday Night Lights, you decided to go back to school right?
Charles: Yeah, after FNL, I had completed four films, two of which ended up at Sundance. And I did a couple of plays, one of which was an international tour of Othello with Philip Seymour Hoffman. It was amazing.… It was like being in a master class acting every day with Phil.
Snakkle: Oh, you get to call him Phil?
Charles: Well, I mean, you know… We got close enough as a cast where I could do that. But after [Friday Night Lights], when you come off a series for three years, and sort of working and grinding—it was a really intense show. I think everybody on the show gave all of their hearts to it; I know I certainly—that was my goal. But yeah, then it was the right time to pursue my master’s, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. I ended up at Drew University getting my master’s in theological studies. I’m at the tail end of that program now, with about four weeks to go.
Snakkle: So you’re just doing the same thing as James Franco—you’re still an actor but you also wanted to explore and achieve academic goals outside of acting?
Charles: Yeah, it’s nothing different from James Franco going to NYU or Hill Harper going to Harvard Law. I think as an actor, it takes a particular kind of courage to do it, because there is so much pressure to maintain the status quo, even when you know you have so much more to contribute and you want to develop yourself fully in those aspects. So I had the chance to study domestically but also in India for a little bit, studying ecumenical relations and cross-cultural relations. I also did some international work in Uganda this summer with community development around community and faith relations and economic relations.
Snakkle: What drew you to study theology?
Charles: As a kid growing up, I’ve always had two main interests: One was acting, and one was in the faith world. I’ve always been very active in my church. So my challenge was, how do you bridge that? How do you bridge the acting world and all that it is, with the voice and the platform that it gives you, but also be courageous enough to honor who you are as a person of faith and to bring those two things together? I wanted to actually go beyond what I could read about in a book. I wanted to go and learn from the scholars and theologians that shaped the faith, and learn about interfaith dialogue; not just in a classroom but in a foreign country.
Snakkle: How does it feel now being back and on Pan Am?
Charles: I feel like now coming back and being on Pan Am and having other things in the works—there’s a sense that sometimes you feel like you have to hold it all together. Like, if you don’t do it, it won’t get done. You become almost neurotic about everything. But now, after coming back, I have such a peace about it, I have such trust about it. I can really want a role, but I’ll hold on to it with a soft grip as opposed to being a maniac.
To see Gaius Charles back in action, tune in to Pan Am Sunday on ABC at 10/9c. You can also follow him on Twitter @GaiusCharles.