Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with The Last Summer’s Wolfgang Novogratz

Wolfgang Novogratz is heating up the screen as All-American boy-next-door, Foster, in Netflix’s newest romantic comedy, The Last Summer, the perfect film to get us ready for the warm weather and good times that the season brings. This coming-of-age story follows a group of recent high school graduates who come together to create lasting memories during their final summer before college. Wolfgang’s character is anything but your stereotypical jock, and that’s thanks to Wolfgang himself. He collaborated with the film’s writer and director, William Bindley, to create a new dimension to Foster. Pop Culturalist chatted with this exciting up-and-coming actor about developing his character, how he got started in acting, and the exciting projects he’s working on.

PC: Tell us about The Last Summer and your character in the film.
Wolfgang: I play Foster in The Last Summer. I was drawn to the project because I saw the majority of Foster’s scenes were with Alec, played by Jacob Latimore, and I thought it would be an amazing opportunity to get into the ring with such a talented actor. He’s worked with so many incredible filmmakers and people throughout his career. I was very excited for the audition, and I was extremely fortunate that I got offered the part after just one audition. After that, I got on the phone with William Bindley, the director, and we started talking about the script, the story, and where Foster fit in.

Foster was originally written as a jerk who wanted to hook up with all these girls. He was very superficial. I started to ask myself, “What compels him to make this list? What is the reason? What is his motivation?” Then I thought, “he’s a virgin.” That’s the reason he makes this list. He wants to try and create as many opportunities for himself as possible. He’s desperate to get laid and not be a virgin by the time he starts college in the fall. Bill and I started talking about this and he loved the idea. We started to reimagine Foster, tweaking a couple of scenes. We added the scene between Jacob’s character and Foster in the truck where you find out his secret. That scene was written after I came aboard.

PC: How does that affect your preparation and mindset heading into filming? Foster essentially becomes a completely different character.
Wolfgang: It’s interesting! I had two scenes for my audition. The first was when you meet him and he shows his list to Alec. The other was the ending when he meets the older woman who he finishes the driveway for. In my mind, I already made the choice that he was a virgin. Then, I bought that to Bill after I got the part.

PC: How similar or different are you to Foster?
Wolfgang: We’re very different. Personally, I didn’t relate to Foster. That was part of the reason why I wanted to humanize him and make him more three-dimensional.

Audiences have seen this womanizing, d-bag character in so many teen rom-coms, but we wanted to give him more layers, so we came up with this backstory. He has a lot of insecurities. When he was younger, he never got attention from women. There’s a line in the script where I say, “I’m a Christian bodybuilder.” I thought to myself, “What high school kid body builds?” We came up with the idea that he does that because he’s trying to reinvent himself for the summer. He’s trying to create this new persona: an Alpha male who’s good with women. He’s trying to get rid of the Foster that he used to be, but he’s still a scared little boy inside.

PC: Besides your own character’s storyline, is there another one that resonated with you?
Wolfgang: When I first read the script, I was so excited to see who they were going to cast to play Chad and Reese, the guys with ties. I thought their storyline was so funny: these two geeky guys are given an amazing opportunity, and they roll with it. It’s one of those situations that only happens in movies, but that’s also why we love going to the movies—it’s entertaining and an escape. I thought Jacob McCarthy and Mario Revolori did a great job bringing it to life. It’s really funny. They also do it in such a relatable and believable way. There’s a scene after the guys spend a night with two older women where they’re walking home and their ties are messy, and they just start dancing. It’s such a cute, sweet, and innocent moment for these two young guys.

PC: We get to see how each of these characters spend their last summer. How did you spend your last summer after graduating high school?
Wolfgang: I actually made a major life change. [laughs] Here’s a little backstory on myself: from pretty much the age of five, I was training to play division one basketball. Basketball was my entire life. I was doing whatever it took to make my dream a reality. Then my senior year of high school, I was extremely fortunate to have achieved that dream. I had a lot of wonderful opportunities from top schools to go play big-time college basketball.

In my senior year, I also took a drama class for the first time; I had never acted before. I’ve always been obsessed with movies, but had never acted. I remember thinking how I worked my whole life for this goal, and that I achieved it. I proved to myself that I could do it. During that process, I found a new love and I wanted to start a new chapter in my life.

So, I spoke with my drama teacher. I told him that I wanted to be an actor and asked him for advice. He said, “If you want to be a good actor, you should go spend some time studying theatre in London.” The day after I graduated high school, I moved to London to go to drama school. I had a week before classes started, so my cousin, some of my old friends from New York City, and I decided to travel around Europe for five days.

PC: How challenging was that pivot?
Wolfgang: Well, my parents were thrilled. [laughs] I had everything that I worked for my whole life, but decided to go do something that I’ve never done before. I looked them dead in the eye and told them, “Everything that I gave to school and basketball, I’m going to give to acting. I’m in this for the right reasons. I want to become the best actor I can be, and I’m going to give it everything I have.” They believe in me as much as I could ask for and have been so supportive.

I definitely did get some late-night phone calls and emails from family and friends saying, “You’re throwing your life away. Don’t talk to us until you go to college,” sort of things. [laughs] It’s funny, once I got my first part, those same people were like, “When’s the premiere? We always knew you could do it.” [laughs]

PC: With the film out now, what do you hope audiences take away?
Wolfgang: I really believe what’s great about this movie is that there are so many characters and storylines. There’s at least one character that everybody will be able to relate to. If you’re looking for love, if you’re getting out of a long term relationship, if you’re trying to reinvent yourself for the summer, if you’re trying to do all the things you never did in high school, there’s a storyline that I believe each person can relate to. It doesn’t matter where you’re from in the world, what class, race, socioeconomic background, there’s somebody that you can identify with. Every person has this chapter in their life when they have a transitional period before they start the next chapter in their lives.

PC: Besides The Last Summer, do you have any other upcoming projects that you can chat about at this time?
Wolfgang: I do! The reason that I’m in New York City is that I’m filming a movie called The Half of It, which is a Netflix movie, as well. It’s a love story directed by Alice Wu.

The film is about a Chinese-American girl and an introverted football player becoming friends. The football player hires the Chinese-American girl to write love letters to the girl of his dreams, the most popular girl in school. I play a character named Trig Carson, who’s the big man on campus—everybody loves him. He’s the student body president and prom king, but he’s a little shallow and narcissistic. He’s not a bad guy, but he takes his girlfriend for granted in certain ways. He’s a device that allows the main love interest to figure out whether or not he’s the right guy for her.

That’s what I’m filming now, and then I am also attached to a film called Hush Hush, which is based off a New York Times bestselling book series. It’s very similar to Twilight in certain regards. It’s a supernatural romance between a fallen angel and a human girl. I play the fallen angel, Patch Cipriano, and that’s set to start filming in Cape Town, South Africa in a few months.

PC: What’s been the biggest lesson you’ve learned being a part of this industry?
Wolfgang: Focus on things you can control and tune out the noise.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: Guilty pleasure TV show?
Wolfgang: That’s funny. I was just speaking to an old friend of mine about this. When we were younger, we used to watch a lot of the VH1 shows like Greatest One Hit Wonders of the ’80s, Flavor of Love, and I Love New York—those ridiculous reality shows that they had, and those countdown shows.

PC: Guilty pleasure movie?
Wolfgang: I won’t say that it’s a guilty pleasure per se because people love this movie, but I saw A Star is Born six times in theaters this year. Let me explain! I thought it was an incredible movie, but each time I went, I wanted to be a director, a producer, and a writer. Each time, I watched it under a different lens. One time, I would go and just watch the movie. Another time, I would go and only watch Lady Gaga’s performance. The next time, I’d only watch Bradley’s. The next time, I watched the cinematography and editing. It was really inspiring. I got some slack from my friends who were like, “Are you crazy?”

PC: Favorite book?
Wolfgang: I just finished reading For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, and it was fantastic.

PC: Favorite play or musical?
Wolfgang: For musical, I would say Rent. I grew up in New York City. I saw it at a very young age, and no doubt, I could sing every word from every song. That one has a very special place in my heart. As far as my favorite play, I just saw Burn This with Adam Driver and Keri Russell. Adam Driver’s performance is one of the most electrifying, colorful, moving performances I’ve ever seen by a male actor.

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Wolfgang: Leonard Skynyrd

PC: Do you have a fun fact?
Wolfgang: After I did my first film, Sierra Burgees is a Loser, I produced and acted in a production of This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan in Los Angeles. That led to me getting my agent, and changed a lot of things for me. It really got my career going.

To keep up with Wolfgang, follow him on Instagram, and catch The Last Summer on Netflix today.