Austin Nichols has mixed feelings about one of his earliest roles.
The actor recalled being reluctant to share an onscreen kiss with Mary-Kate Olsen in the 2001 film Holiday in the Sun given the six-year age difference between the two.
“I was definitely nervous because Mary-Kate was 15, and I was, I think, 18 or 19, or maybe even 20,” he said on the April 15 episode of the Drama Queens podcast. “I don’t remember, but I was too old, and it felt weird, and it felt wrong.”
While Austin, now 44, noted that audiences may not “notice” the age gap in the film—which also starred Mary-Kate’s twin sister Ashley Olsen—because he “looked very young” at the time, he couldn’t get past his own discomfort around kissing his much younger costar.
“I’m real tall and skinny and nerdy, but I don’t think you can tell there’s a big age difference,” he continued. “But my brain was like, ‘She’s 15, this is weird.’”
But when the One Tree Hill alum raised the issue on set of the family film—which also featured Megan Fox in her acting debut—no one seemed to share his concerns.
“I remember talking to producers and I remember talking to even her dad,” he explained. “I was like, ‘Is this OK with you guys?’ And they were all like, ‘Oh, don’t worry about it.’ Nobody seemed concerned, and I was very concerned, but it turned out fine. It was all very G-rated.”
Although Austin admitted to finding the movie “a little silly” in retrospect, its resonance with fans ultimately made him change his tune.
“I had to give that up years ago because people love it,” he said. “Sometimes those things that you think maybe aren’t super cool or hip, a lot of people love them.”
To see photos of Mary-Kate and Ashley through the years, keep scrolling.
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