Pop-Culturalist.com

Chase Liefeld is an exciting new face in the industry who is quickly making his mark. This year, he stars in not one, but two of the most talked-about projects of 2023: Wolf Pack and Chang Can Dunk.

Based on the book series by Edo Van Belkom, Wolf Pack follows a teenage boy and girl whose lives are changed forever when a California wildfire awakens a terrifying supernatural creature and drives it to attack a highway traffic jam beneath the burning hills. Wounded in the chaos, the boy and girl are inexplicably drawn to each other and to two other teenagers who were adopted sixteen years earlier by a park ranger after another mysterious wildfire. As the full moon rises, all four teens come together to unravel the secret that connects them – the bite and blood of a werewolf. Chase shines as Baron, a mysterious young man who has ties to the pack.

In Chang Can Dunk, Chase plays Matt, the popular basketball star who bets Chang, a 16-year-old, Asian American high school student in the marching band, that he can’t dunk by homecoming. The bet leads the 5’ 8″ Chang on a quest to find the hops he needs to dunk in order to impress his crush, Kristy, and finally gain the attention and respect of his high school peers. But before he can rise up and truly throw one down, he’ll have to reexamine everything he knows about himself, his friendships, and his family.

Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of speaking with Chase about Wolf Pack, Chang Can Dunk, trusting his instincts, and his creative process.

PC: How did you discover your passion for storytelling and the arts?
Chase: Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been super into stories. You can’t see my entire room, but I have poster scrolls everywhere and a lot of nerdy stuff. But I’ve always been into it. I like comics, manga, and all that stuff. I like to draw. I have a crazy respect for artists, especially illustrators. It’s a really brutal job to draw day in, day out, for hours and hours a day. I was like, “Well, I’m not that good at drawing.”

My mom always wanted me to try theater and I was always against it. Growing up, I was part of the sports crowd. They were two different paradigms entirely. Getting into theater was the best thing that ever happened. I was a freshman in high school, and I quit sports. I didn’t know what to do so I got into theater. That was the start of my acting journey. I took an improv class, and I loved it. The rest is history.

PC: Your 2023 is off to an incredible start with Wolf Pack and Chang Can Dunk. How did you celebrate the news that you landed both of these roles?
Chase: With Chang, I booked it and I had to fly out to Connecticut 48 hours later. There wasn’t a celebration per se. [laughs] There was immense excitement, for sure. I was so stoked. I was in community college for two weeks because I had just graduated high school. I was trying to pursue acting as a career, so I was going to community college and taking all these acting classes, which I almost think you have to do. Two weeks later, I tested for a couple of things. I lost a couple. Then, I booked Chang, which ended up being a stinking awesome project. Wolf Pack was the same thing, but I had more time there—instead of two days, I had one month.

It was super intense because Jeff [Davis] told me not to get any sun. He was like, “Look as pale as possible.” Then, he was like, “Get as jacked as possible.” He wanted me to gain ten pounds of muscle. I was like, “Okay, I’ve got a month. That seems like a difficult task, but I will give it my best.”

That’s why I really hope we get Season 2. It’s very superficial, but we’ve all been in the gym so much. I had a month and a half to prepare for Baron, but now it’s been like six to eight months. I want Season 2 because everyone is going to have these crazy transformations. I lift with Tyler, Armani, Zack, and Rainer all the time.

Once you figure out that you have to be shirtless in a show that’s going to be immortalized, you’re like, “Well, I might as well throw the entire kitchen sink at it.” When you’re in your hotel room and you got some free time, you’re like, “Well, I can sit around or go pump some iron.” It’s very bro-y. [laughs] The Wolf Pack set is very bro-y, for sure. I was just thinking about that this morning. [laughs]

PC: Both of these characters live in these morally gray areas. Are those the types of roles that you’re attracted to? How do you decide what you go out for?
Chase: I didn’t know this when I went out for these roles. You don’t really get to pick these things, but I really enjoy playing the antagonist, the villain, or the opposition in the story. Whereas in Wolf Pack and in Chang Can Dunk, as you said, they’re a little more nuanced. They’re not cookie cutter, cut and dry. They’re not like this big, bad guy. I do like these roles because there’s more complexity there. Sometimes when you’re the protagonist, you’re pushing the plot forward which is amazing, too.

But as you said, especially when they’re at this moral crossroads, it’s a lot of fun to play. That’s why people like villains. I love a villain origin story and discovering how they got like this. What happened to this person that led to this? That’s what makes a compelling villain, too.

With Matt, he thinks he’s right the entire movie. I mean, he kind of is. With Baron, there’s a lot more complexity to him. I am definitely attached to those roles.

PC: One of the major themes of the series is finding your pack. Who are the people in your own life who you’ve turned to as you’ve navigated a career in this industry?
Chase: My family. In Hollywood, there are new people entering your world. You can say that for any industry, but especially in Hollywood, there are so many people trying to pull you in different directions and trying to get certain messages across and certain agendas. You gravitate towards the people that are closest to you. That’s your family and close friends. Armani [Jackson] is one of my closest friends. We just happened to book the same show, which feels like it was ripped out of a frigging fairytale. People say that the circle gets smaller, and that’s true.

PC: Did you feel any pressure heading into Wolf Pack? It’s rare that a television show has a preexisting fanbase heading into a project.
Chase: Not really. There is always going to be pressure, but it wasn’t from the fan base because this is a completely new world entirely separate from Teen Wolf. Secondly, I’d never seen Teen Wolf. A couple of the other castmates and I just watched the highest-rated episode, and we thought it was a cool show. I know it launched a couple of careers, too. I’m a huge Dylan O’Brien fan. We watched the episode, and it was so good. Armani actually looked it up—I mean, it was one of the best-rated episodes. [laughs] I was like, “Holy crap. No wonder this show was big.”

Wolf Pack smelled like a hit show. I was like, “If this is what they’re expecting, then we’ve got to bring it.” Luckily, I think we did. The crazy part about this project is that everyone is so amped to be there. We all want to get better and learn. It’s a cool set to be a part of. We also had Rodrigo [Santoro] and Sarah [Michelle Gellar], who are veterans and so eager to teach us. It’s such a great situation. We have a lot of new actors, which feels like a huge strength. Jeff and John Clay Harris did a freaking genius job of casting. I don’t even know how they cast this show so well. We love hanging out with each other. Everyone is just a good person. That makes everything so easy.

PC: How much of Baron’s storyline did you know heading into this project since there’s so much mystery surrounding him?
Chase: This is why Jeff Davis is such a G. He gave me a lot of background, so I actually knew. We had a Zoom meeting when I officially got the role, and he told me. I was able to sit with that information for a while. I didn’t come in until episode 5, so they were already shooting. It was really helpful to have that information.

Jeff has such a vision, especially in that final episode of the season. If we get picked up for a second season, people are going to be like, “Wait, that ties back to Season 1.” Jeff doesn’t waste a word, which I love. That’s just good writing.

PC: Baron has a lot of internal struggles that he’s often not able to express verbally. You’ve handled that with so much nuance. How did you create the space for yourself to dive into that arc? Is it more or less challenging to express those emotions when you can’t rely on dialogue?
Chase: Sometimes it’s nice when you can’t rely on dialogue because it’s not written for you. You get to color in the lines between the context of the story, your character, why they’re there, what you’re doing, and where you get to bring how you interpret that material. That’s what makes any performance so unique—how somebody goes through that process.

When I was told to not get any sun and it was a record-breaking freaking summer in California, we had like 110 degrees for two straight weeks, I would wake up at 4:00 AM and get everything that I needed to do done out of the way. You can get a lot done in five hours. But I would come back and hobbit away in a dark room. That’s what I did in my hotel a lot, too. I stayed in my hotel and would read whatever episode we were filming and then study the next one when it came.

We’d all read it and were freaking out. We’d all talk to each other. Especially episodes 7 and 8—we were like, “Whoa. Sh*t is getting crazy.” Everyone thought people were going to die. It was a crazy experience all around. I was just sitting in a dark room for Baron. I’m a very instinctual actor. I would read the script and trust my instincts. At the end of the day, it’s really all you can bring to the table. The first time that I read a script, raw instincts are flooding my head.

I was given meat and potatoes with what Jeff wrote, like the dream sequence in 8. I was playing all four different characters. That was one thing he did tell me super far in advance. The first time that I ever spoke with him, he was like, “There’s going to be this scene in 8 where you’re going to play all four characters, so I started studying all of their performances. That was a really cool part and a huge privilege. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do.

PC: Part of your creative process when preparing for a role is ingesting other media. What helped you shape Baron in Wolf Pack and Matt in Chang Can Dunk?
Chase: For Matt, it was Succession. I shot that in 2021 and was really inspired by Succession every single day. When I was off, I would be watching that. I binged it during filming. Zelda, a friend of mine who is also a writer, gave me that recommendation. I was blown away by it. So, for Chang, I was inspired by Jeremy Strong.

For Wolf Pack, I watched a lot of anime. I thought Baron was such an anime-esque, comic-book character. I was consuming a lot of other forms of media that aren’t TV like Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto is one of the greatest storytellers of all time.

But yeah, wherever you can find that inspiration, whether it’s a book or a graphic novel or a TV show or a movie, it goes back to reading the script for the first time and finding that inspiration. There’s always this fear when you’re starting something new, but you also have to ask yourself, “Why am I even doing this?” I’m trying to tell a story. For me, when I am inspired by a story, it makes me want to tell a story. You get inspired. It sparks something inside of you. I always watched sports as a kid, then I’d want to go outside and recreate the same plays, catch that game-winning ball, or hit that game-winning shot.

PC: You deliver such a standout performance in both projects. Was there a scene that you were excited for audiences to see?
Chase: That’s a great question. I appreciate that. Thank you. In Chang Can Dunk, I really liked the pool party scene. Even though it’s a film, we did have to cut it down a bit. Luckily, if you’re playing the antagonists, your scenes aren’t usually cut because you’re opposing the protagonist and integral to the plot.

With Wolf Pack, I loved how Jeff introduced the character. I was there all week. I only worked one hour that day with episode 5. I was in it for two seconds. Then, I had one scene in episode 6 at the very end. I loved how the character was teased. I really loved the scene between Everett and Baron in episode 6 and the whole dream sequence in 8. I love that stuff. The ending is great, too. That’s also a standout. There were so many fun scenes to shoot.

PC: Where would you like to see Baron’s storyline head in Season 2?
Chase: There’s so much stuff that happens at the end of Season 1. There are so many moving pieces and Baron is a big part of it. Since Baron can’t control his urges and blacks out, I think it’d be fun to see him explore fighting the guilt and the other side of him and realizing what he’s done and coming to terms with that. I’d also love to see him integrated into the world and society as a whole because he’s been in the woods his whole life. That would be fun, especially with Harlan and Luna by his side. That could be really interesting. But we’ll have to wait and see.

PC: Both of these projects are going to put you on the map. As you look ahead to the next five to ten years, is there a dream role that you’d like to bring to life on the screen?
Chase: My pie-in-the-sky dream is to be Reiner Braun from Attack on Titans. I think Hajime Isayama is GOAT status. I just want to keep making movies. There are so many. It’s impossible to pick one, but I would love to play a superhero at some point. It’s super cliché, I know, but I want to play one with a little more nuance.

I also want to play a character that my dad made. My dad is actually a comic book artist. He’s created a lot of cool characters. To play one of them would be cool. We’re already brainstorming, and we have this idea in mind that’s really cool. We’ll see where that goes.

To keep up with Chase, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Watch Wolf Pack on Paramount+ and Chang Can Dunk on Disney+.

Photo Credit: Liana Creel