Photo credit: JJ Geiger
Photo courtesy of JJ Geiger
Nick Pugliese returns to his role as Charley in School Spirits, the AwesomenessTV breakout hit streaming on Paramount+. In the show’s first season, Charley serves as protagonist and newly dead Maddie’s guide through the ins and outs of life as a ghost at Split River High. Charley died in the ’90s of anaphylactic shock from a peanut allergy, leaving him with unfinished business with his secret boyfriend at the time. In this new season, Charley develops feelings for a new character.
Writer Bri Ng Schwartz sat down with Pugliese days after the show released the first three episodes of season two to discuss returning to his role, his artistic background, and being a queer, mixed-identifying actor and writer.
*THIS INTERVIEW HAS BEEN EDITED FOR CLARITY AND LENGTH, AND contains spoilers for Season 2 of School Spirits.
Interview
How does it feel to be returning to Split River High as Charley in Season 2 of School Spirits?
It was so much fun. We had to wait almost two years with the strikes going on, so it’s great to be back. I love this group of people so much. From top to bottom — crew, producers, cast — everybody is just great. It just felt like returning to your sophomore year of high school.
With each episode, this season gets bigger and crazier. I love Charley. He wears this bracelet, and that's how I get into him. I hold it, and I'm him.
What are the parallels and opposites between you and Charley?
We have very different upbringings. He’s from the Midwest in the ‘90s, from a conservative family. I'm from the East Bay Area in the 21st Century with a liberal family.
What's funny is in this season, Charley begins a romantic relationship with this character, Yuri, who gets introduced in Episode 2. Throughout the season, there are things that Charley has to learn about himself and deal with in order to even be open to receiving love.
I'm in my first relationship right now, and we're actually two years in, so it's not fresh or anything, but in this relationship, I've had to ask, “Okay, who am I when somebody else is giving me love? How do I receive this love? How do I give this love back?” And so I've been doing a lot of that learning over the last two years, and in this season, I really felt for Charley.
Photo credit: Ed Araquel/Paramount+
Photo courtesy of Ed Araquel/Paramount+
In so many of your scenes, you’re acting with characters who can’t see you since you’re technically a ghost. How do you navigate that as an actor?
Logistically, it can be difficult. If we're doing a walking scene, there will be hallways filled with students, and I have to walk down the hall and not look like I’m trying to avoid running into people. Similarly, they have to look like they are not trying to run into me.
In Season 1, we had a whole scene where there are basketball players playing around us, throwing hoops. I remember we had to walk through it and not flinch.
How did acting find you?
I've been told from my family that apparently at the age of 2 or 3, I started telling people that I wanted to be a “singer man.” I wanted to perform. I wanted to entertain.
There's this children's park in Oakland called Fairyland. They have a children's repertory theater there. I auditioned and sang “Frosty the Snowman.” I was like, “This song really shows off my vocals.”
I was performing every weekend at Fairyland for eight months, then I went into community theater. When I went to college, I studied theater, and then it was the auditioning process after that. Now, we're here at School Spirits.
You're also a writer. What types of stories and worlds are you drawn to?
During COVID-19, I couldn’t get an audition, I was not on a show, I was not working. I asked myself, “What would you want to act in?” I then sat down with my friend Danielle Kay, and we wrote Thank You For Being Here. That was the first thing I've ever written.
We improvised these scenes. We came up with the idea of these two characters and their relationship, and that she was waiting for pregnancy test results.
I also like to focus on queer stories, and I think my biracial identity also has a big part in that. I feel like I exist on multiple planes.
The whole “we contain multitudes” thing is true. I think Charley is a good example of that. He's the happy friend, but he has this devastating backstory, and both can exist and be true. And so I like focusing on queer characters that are living through real experiences.
What did your mixed identity look like for you and your family growing up?
I'm really close with the Japanese side of my family — my mom’s side — and I always have been.
As I got older, I noticed there were moments where I started internalizing some anti-Japanese racism in myself. I wanted people to just think that I was white. I had a potential manager once who said, “You're never going to get called in for Japanese roles because you're too white. You need to change your last name to Katani” — my mom’s maiden name — “so that you get called in for Japanese roles, because you're not going to get called in based on the way you look.”
That really stuck with me, but it's something I love about myself now — being able to exist in these two worlds. I try to bring that to every character.
Photo credit: Ed Araquel/Paramount+
Photo courtesy of Ed Araquel/Paramount+
What advice would you give to other mixed kids in the industry or trying to break into the industry while grappling with their identity?
Being mixed is a superpower. It gives you multiple perspectives and makes you multifaceted. You get to be a mosaic and a mirage of a multitude of different identities or types of people — which is, as actors and as creatives, what we hope and strive to be able to do. Flaunt it. Don't push against it, because it's so easy to try to silence one of them.
What can we expect from both Charley in Season 2, and what can we expect from you as an artist?
You can expect some soul searching and some romance from Charley.
I just did a web series with some of my friends called Barden and Sarah Start A Pandemic. It’s about two Zillennial corporate employees who decide they don't want to go to work anymore, so they try to start another pandemic to get out of it.
I've also got a couple of things with the cast of School Spirits that I'm planning to release on YouTube.
And hopefully, we do a third season of School Spirits.
I binged the whole first season and the first three episodes of Season 2 in two days. Congratulations to all of you for creating such a gripping show. It's so addicting.
It gets even crazier. I promise.
End of Interview
Catch Nick on Season 2 of School Spirits now streaming on Paramount+. His series Barden and Sarah Start a Pandemic can be streamed on Youtube.
Bri Ng Schwartz (she/her/hers) is an artist and administrator based in Brooklyn, New York. She is committed to the dismantling of gatekeeping in arts and culture, and uses her experience in community engagement and education to develop meaningful partnerships. She is the Education & Community Outreach Manager at Primary Stages. Her early credits come from her time in Chicago, notably at Free Street Theater in various titles. Since relocating to New York, she has served in various administrative capacities. She has also written for publications such as HowlRound and American Theater Magazine.
JoySauce is a multimedia network dedicated to celebrating the full spectrum of Asian American and Pacific Islander narratives. The site boasts a vibrant library of content around entertainment, lifestyle, food, travel, culture, relationships, art, and education in the form of exciting new streaming shows, movies, standup comedy, provocative podcasts, and a suite of editorial updated daily.