Chad Michael Murray Has a Pitch for a 'Cinderella Story' Sequel

The security had to pick us up and throw us into the car

They followed the car. And then we'd reach out the sunroof, sign a couple autographs

and then boom, it'd go again. For like 20 blocks, some people kept up, which was pretty crazy

I want to start by talking about Freakier Friday. What was it like reuniting with the cast more than 20 years later

And what was the energy on set like? It's so trippy, for lack of a better word

And, you know, it's it's there's like this Twilight Zone aspect that you left that dimension and you came back 23 years later

Right. Honestly, parts of it felt like no time had passed at all

You get back in and there's nerves and all those things because you don't know what to expect

But everybody's lovely. You get there and the camaraderie is still right there

And you're seeing the producers and people that you worked with 23 years ago and your cast and everybody

And you've had entire lives in between. A lot of us have kids now and just so many differences

But yet here we are and everything just still feels the same

And the chemistry is still the way it was. And it's pretty incredible

It really is. You catch up. You sit there. You talk. You hug it out. And every day when you leave, there's this moment of you just want to hug them a little bit longer because you don't know when the next time you're going to see them is

Did you ever think that like a sequel would be made? You know, you never know

right? You always hear ramblings about anything, right? You hear ramblings about

there's so many different projects that you've worked on over the course of a 26-year career

for me. And you never know what's going to actually come to fruition or not

15 years ago, I never would have assumed it. That's for sure. If you were to switch bodies, let's say like your teen self, or I feel like your son

you know, years from now, and he's a teenager, what would be the first thing that you do

And like, what would your day look like? Oh my gosh. I mean, for sure, there would be ice cream in there

There's no question. Do you know those like American Ninja courses, American Ninja Warrior things

I know now if I go do that, I'm probably going to walk out with some type of like soft tissue

injury and go, oh, why did I do that? There's a part of me that would want to like have the age, but still have the kids so that

I could roughhouse with my kids, right? So that would be fun to be able to roughhouse to a degree where I know that there no risk tossing them in the pool without getting a shoulder impingement and all that good stuff There a part of me that like you know if you had kids younger you could have done A B C and D

But at the same time, it's this part. Right. But if you can take this part with a younger body

Oh, gosh, the things that you could do things I would do a pick up ball game

No question. Right away. You and your daughter and your wife watched the sequel

What did she think of it? What did your daughter think of it? oh my gosh my daughter loved it so much she loved it so much she wants to go to the premiere

so we might make that happen and they've never been to anything like that with me so

this might be their first kind of foray into that world they love it the kids really adapt i remember

we sat down we watched the first one right before i started filming so i could say hey guys so this

is what daddy's going to do this is the story that i'm going to go tell and i just remember them

laughing so hard to the movie and saying daddy what are you doing this why are you doing that

Why are you doing this? And it's funny because as a grown up now, like, I think we see things differently

So you're watching the movie through the older people's eyes and more adults. And then when you were younger, you watch it through the kids lens

Like, it's really interesting. You've opened up about being raised by a single dad and, you know, some of the hardships that, you know, your family endured along the way

What is the greatest lesson that, you know, your dad taught you and how has he influenced you as a father

There's so many things about my dad that just makes him a superhero. I'm so grateful because I wouldn't be here

I wouldn't have the life that I have right now. And I wouldn't have the kids I have right now for my dad

He gave us the opportunity to have a chance in life to go to go get a job, to live out your dreams

I'm so grateful that I mean, my dad raising five kids on his own. We have three and it's Sarah and I

And that's hard enough. I can't imagine the amount of stress and emotional battles that he had to keep inside

and he's doing that on his own. Do your children want to follow in your and Sarah's footsteps

in the acting business at all? My boy, probably not. I don't foresee it, but I could be way off

Who knows? I could be totally off base. Our middle daughter, yes

No question. She's already done. She did a play here in LA for Encanto

They did it in Studio City. They did Encanto. And then she did a run of Cats

And she loved it. oh my god she's just a natural she's got more talent in her pinky than i do in my entire being

she unreal she next level and i super proud of her and she gonna she gonna crush it so uh i think she will definitely and the youngest she one she currently keeping us on our toes that what i know you talked about taking your kids on set and traveling like with your

whole family as not like break up the pack what are some of the positives that you see in your

relationship and family dynamics like by doing that so that's everything to us when when sarah

and i got together we made like a little pact we would keep the pack together no matter what like

That's what we're going to do. Like if she wants to go to work, great. I'll take off and I'll travel and I'll watch the kids and vice versa

My son and daughter are best friends in the whole wide world. They're so unbelievable with the baby

Like I can't even tell you. They're so nurturing and caring. Their responsibilities are off the chart

Like they're so capable that we took a family vote actually. Like we weren't going to have a third child unless everyone was on board, including the kids

Our son wasn't on board for pretty much the entire time until then finally one day goes, you know, I'd like to have a baby in the family

And we're like, wow, look at that. And he's the best with her. He's so good all the time with her

And they love each other so much. We homeschooled for the first eight years

So Sarah was unreal. So good. She had those kids, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom

which is fantastic because it's like an hour and a half of your day and then you're free to be a kid

Then we started school in Halifax when we're up shooting Sullivan's Crossing

You first kind of started out in this business as a teen heartthrob in some of the most iconic shows and movies

We've got Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill, A Cinderella Story, Freaky Friday

Do you have any memorable, crazed fan moments from the early days

Plenty of off the wall. Fan encounter, for sure. Most are probably not appropriate to talk about

I remember we had this crazy experience when we were in like the Tree Hill Peak

And it was like the first and only Beatles moment, kind of. That's what it felt like

We were coming out of TRL and it was the streets were just just packed

There's so many people and they there was an influx and they all pushed through getting banged around

We had cast members pushed into phone booths. Security had to pick us up over their shoulders and throw us into the car to get us out of there

It got it got pretty here. It got pretty touch and go. And I'll never forget that

That was definitely one of those core memories of like, OK, what just happened

And then as we drove off they followed the car And every time you do the stoplight because you in New York you get a stoplight like every block They catch up And then we reach out the sunroof sign a couple autographs and then boom it go again For like 20 blocks some people kept up

which was pretty crazy. What are your thoughts on the One Tree Hill reboot that was announced

last year? Would you be up for it? If they do the show, it needs to be something that pays

respect and service to what it was. One tree, it was fine. But if you're going to make the show

it can't really be about these main characters anymore. They can be there as kind of pin holders

right? Placeholders. But I think it's about the kids because that show was always about

the identity of teens going through high school and the trials and tribulations of what it's like

And there's so many issues now that we could deal with that could be really grounded and put out

there that I feel like if you were going to do a show, it'd be like three little generations

right? And it'd be this new generation and you could have the kids, you could have, you know, Lucas and Payne's kids, have everyone's kids in the show where they're dealing with life

and the struggles and social media, trying to overcome all that stuff. I mean, you got to step

it up every time, right? You got to, you got to make it a little bit bigger. You got to elevate. So to me, I can't help that. I lay in bed and things just, my mind just runs and then it sits

in my brain for a while. And that's what probably every project I've ever done. This is how my brain

functions. So yeah, I probably have a plot for almost everything. I have a plot for a tree hill

reboot, Cinderella story, you name it. It's there just because that's the way the head works

Are there any other reboots or sequels that you would be open to doing? But I'd mentioned a Cinderella story reboot. And I think the way that I would do it would be

as love does in high school, it doesn't work out most of the time. You know, they've gone

separate ways. They've had their lives. You know, maybe my character would be a teacher at this

point, an English teacher back at the school. And maybe Hillary's tough character got married

had kids, it didn't work out. And now her daughter happens to be in my class. And you do like a dual

Cinderella story where she's going to go and she's a little shy and she doesn't fit in. And he

nurtures that and then comes across with her and blah, blah, blah. There's an audience for a lot

of those movies that were out there. And Cinderella story is the test of time. Still today, young

girls are watching it all the time and every time it's on i'm sitting there going you know what

they did a great job with this film hats off to everybody