Interview: August Roads, up-and-coming star, talks MTV’s Faking It, music & more!

August Roads, a name you’ll surely want to remember (can you say major heartthrob musician potential?) has taken the Faking It world by storm. Despite his seemingly short stint on the show, his portrayal of Oliver, a character in which Roads describes as sort of a MacGuffin to the overall storyline on MTV’s rookie series has without a doubt sparked the interest of thousands of fans across the U.S. and beyond.

His cool and spontaneous demeanor was apparent during our interview last week, where the up-and-coming star chatted about all things Faking It, his musical stylings on YouTube and some projects the fans can look forward to in the future.

So let’s get to the good stuff…

MCKENZIE MORRELL: Can you tell the readers a little about yourself and what drew you to the Entertainment industry? 

AUGUST ROADS: About myself? I can’t really explain myself, but I’m spontaneous, I think that’s the best way to describe me. And what drew me to the Entertainment industry is I had nothing better to do with my life and I was like ‘well I mean if these people can do it, they’re just people so it would be cool if I could do this’ and I don’t really have to work a job I don’t like, because I do enjoy this. I’m pretty sure I could have done anything but this is a little bit easier, and it’s kind of like sticking it to society because all I have to do is just be myself and they pay you too much money for it. [laughs] it’s like to coolest thing ever. I probably would have been a thief if I wasn’t in the entertainment industry or something like that [laughs]. Something excited, but I don’t know.

Let’s talk about MTV’s Faking It for a minute. Tell us about your role as Oliver on the show and your interaction with Amy? 

I think basically Oliver is just a MacGuffin, like he’s not really important for the story it’s basically just reinforcing the fact that Amy is in love with Karma. I think that that’s the point. Like this really cool guy, like Oliver he’s just like and awesome dude he’s going to be like the coolest guy in college, you know that. She takes it for granted because she wants something else, you know what I mean and I think that’s the point of Oliver to reinforce that.

A lot of fans were asking ‘what was it like getting jumped by Rita Volk, I’m sure it was tough to be at work that day’ [laughs] so there were a lot of funny, quirky questions about that. 

What was it like getting jumped by Rita Volk? [laughs] It was actually, I guess it made it look like she jumped on me but she barely even touched me and it wasn’t too sensual of a kiss, I mean it’s high school you don’t really know what you’re doing.

You talked a little bit about yourself, but are you as nerdy as your character is, do you have any similarities or differences? 

I don’t really think Oliver is nerdy. I just think that he just found something more interesting to do with his time than what everyone else seems to be doing because everyone else just follows the pack and he sees how unsatisfied people are with just being mediocre and just trying to impress other people. He doesn’t want to do that I don’t think. And I don’t want him doing that and I think that’s why I related to Oliver being this jaded person about life sometimes, I mean we all do that you know? [laughs] Oliver’s the type of person who just wants to get out of high school and just move on to better things, but really it’s not going to get better for him. Unless he can think of some different way of thinking. He’s just angry right now.

The audience has really embraced this show, what do you think draws people to Faking It? 

Well I just think it’s really relevant. I mean everyone is going to say that, it’s just so relevant in our times and on top of that it’s just a really cute story. And it’s different and I think that’s what draws the fans to it. It’s interesting. It’s new, everyone likes the new puppy, you know what I mean? We’ll see when it gets old if people will still like it, which I think they will. I think it’ll be really different.

To see how it progresses through the times… 

Yeah, I’m interested to see how it is and if it’ll be able to continue being a different type of show, staying on a high school type show.

Fans ask, will we get to see Oliver again? Is there any hope for the future? 

I don’t really know the rules of the industry, but I’ll just say probably for safety purposes. Probably, why not. There’s only a few more episodes, just watch it. [laughs] what else are you doing at 10:30 at night, you’re not doing your homework. [laughs]

Right? Everybody is staying up until 4 a.m. to watch Twitcams of the cast. [laughs]

Exactly.

Viewers have been pretty active on Twitter, have you gotten any weird or angry tweets yet? 

I’m kind of new to this whole social media thing to be honest, because I’m a hermit. And every person that I look up to kind of kept to their own. I respect that, but I also realize that I’m living in a different generation where I can’t really do that. And you’ve got to play the game that’s put in front of you. Luckily I haven’t gotten any angry tweets I’ve just gotten, I don’t even know what it means, I don’t know if they’re serious, I don’t really understand it, when people say ‘I love you,’ it’s weird, I think they love Oliver and they love this idea of this perfect guy. I’m guilty of falling in love with ideas and everything, I think we all are. We fall in love with an idea and also in the sweep of some type of celebrity thing, which I don’t believe I am, yet, at least. Even when I am, if things keep going the way that they are and I’m fortunate enough to have some type of career where I can go to Whole Foods every day and not worry about money, that would be really cool. But no angry tweets, sorry.

Have you seen any of the fan art that people have made of Oliver, is it weird to see? 

I haven’t seen too many, they haven’t sent me too much. I really appreciate it, I mean come on. There’s so many actors here in Los Angeles, who am I? I’m not weirded out by people just supporting me. I love it. My only problem is, I can’t give out too much love because then people will get the wrong idea, you know what I mean?

Exactly. 

I really don’t want people to get the wrong idea, all I want them to know is that I am so grateful that I’m giving this opportunity to do what I love for a living and they’re just helping me do that and at the end of the day people could send me the weirdest stuff in the world but as long as it’s good-hearted then I appreciate it. I’m definitely not as nerdy as Oliver because Oliver could talk better than me [laughs.]

Hopefully now you’re staying grounded so when you do take-off, hopefully you still have that mindset. Since celebrity these days are very much head in the clouds, entitled and all. 

No, no, no. I hate that, I’m so not about that. Literally if I died today, I would just want everyone to know that I’m not special at all. I’m just a regular kid who kind of just went with his gut and just did it. Of course there’s times where I doubt myself and I don’t know what I’m doing. Meryl Streep doesn’t know what she’s doing, who am I to say I know what I’m doing, [laughs]. She’s said that in some type of speech she gave, she was like ‘I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know what I would say to another actor to tell them, I would just say trust yourself.’ I just want people to know if you want to go do something, like really go do it and if you’re honest with yourself and if you work hard it’s possible. This is all possible.

Take Oliver out of the equation, are you Team Karma and Amy (Karmy) or Team Karma and Liam (Kiam)? 

The story you would hope that Karma and Amy come together but, I’m not saying this because I know what happens, because I don’t know what happens. But just knowing how high school is, people separate and people go in for different reasons and best friends, you know, you might think you know everything about someone and you might feel comfortable with someone and when you reveal something they might not understand it. I think realistically Liam and Karma, yeah why not he’s an attractive guy, if it’s high school I mean sure, of course a girl would go out with him, there’s no doubt in my mind. In a perfect world it would be Karma and Amy, but you never know what’s going to happen. That’s the beautiful thing about the show, it really keeps you wanting to watch more. I’m actually excited to see where it goes.

I am too. I mean, you could have both, you want something at different points in your life so who’s to say they can’t be together for a certain amount of time and then kind of switch gears and be with somebody else. 

Of course, [laughs] Faking It: College Years.

Right? Faking It: Retirement Home [laughs] 

[Laughs.] 

So you sing? Everyone really loves your covers on YouTube, including myself, do you happen to write music as well? 

Thank you. Oh, I have so many songs, I’m kind of neurotic about, ‘cause for the longest time before I was someone who people would take a second glance at, I had all of my original songs up on YouTube, and I took them all down and now I’m just doing covers. Right now I’m not really focusing on music, I’ve always just done music just for myself. I put them up on YouTube because people like listening to it and I like singing these songs, I don’t even know why I do it. It’s not showing off, there’s other people that could show off a lot better than me. [Laughs] I don’t know, something just feels really right about music and I write all the time. Whenever I have an idea I’ll go and write it down and BS it on my guitar, because I don’t know how to play at all. [Laughs]

Who are some artists that influence you? 

People always ask me, like they always ask me… they don’t always ask me [laughs] sometimes I see some messages on Twitter like ‘who are your favorite artists, what is your favorite genre?’ like I don’t have any bias, like literally I have been listening to so much hip-hop, it’s crazy, I love hip-hop, I can’t get enough of it, it’s different and misunderstood and I really hope it’ll be diverse within the next ten years. But there’s so many good artists coming out, I’m a huge Kanye West fan and I’m a huge Jay-Z fan, and I respect them and I’m talking about hip-hop artists like I’m a hip-hop artist and I’m not [laughs]. But I just really appreciate any artist that has integrity with their music and puts their heart into it and I think something beautiful will come out of that. I’m really critical when I watch another artist, I can tell when someone is just singing to show off, like if they have a beautiful voice, but are they connected to that material at all, I don’t think so. They have beautiful voices and control and everything, it’s just not what I like to do. Artists that influence me musically are, they don’t really influence me musically, but when I listen to them it makes me want to go sing a song. You just get that tingly feeling. Whenever I watch Maybe by Janis Joplin I want to die, you don’t need too many words. Radio Head kind of inspired me. Jeff Buckley, of course, I love what he does. I love all artists, there.

Do you have any favorite actors? Do you have a movie you just really love right now?

I just saw Godzilla and I didn’t really dig it too much. It’s not my cup of tea, though. Actors I look up to is probably actors people don’t really know too much anymore, you probably know them, but all these kids are like ‘awww I love JLAW’ and I’m like who the hell is JLaw? And they’re like ‘JLaw you don’t know her? Jennifer Lawrence.’ Everyone loves these new actors and I really appreciate their work, and I’m a new actor, but I think they all know who the greats are. When acting wasn’t just anyone who’s pretty could go walk in and say some lines. There was a little bit more integrity and it was more of an art. Marlon Brando, top of the list. James Dean. Montgomery Clift. Those are the guys who when I went to school for acting my teacher was like ‘okay, you think all these actors nowadays are good, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, no, look at these old movies.’ I started watching these old movies and there’s something different about them. Don’t get me wrong, there are some beautiful performances nowadays but those are the people I like to go back to. But of course, Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, all those guys. Every actor who’s working is talented, to be honest and everyone is talented. I just might not like it. At the end of the day, everyone is doing what they like to do because they like it and who am I to hate?

They don’t make movies the same nowadays. 

No, they don’t and it’s cool, they make really great movies. It’s just I like, you know, The Panic and Needle Park?

Yes!

Okay. Like that, there weren’t like shot to shot and closeups of this, and there were some but it was kind of like a play and it still was great and I remember when I first watched that I thought like “holy crap, Al Pacino is the man!”

In tonight’s episode, Karma and Amy are going to have a threesome with Liam. If you were in Liam’s shoes, what would you do? 

In real life? or in Oliver’s shoes? [laughs] I’m not gonna say it, I’m not gonna say it. Because my fans are pretty young and stuff, [laughs] I know what I would. I know what any guy would do. You know what, I probably would say I would do it, but then once I got there I would probably not. Because it would be really weird because I would be like ‘these are lesbians. Like why are you guys doing this?’ This would be a really weird scenario with me doing it. [laughs] It would just be odd.

Right? and I think the episode is going to be odd because you’re going to have the same reaction. Like that. 

Exactly. We’ll see.

The final question I have is are you working on any other projects musically, or acting wise that we can look forward to? 

There are some things on my IMdB, that are coming up, like High School Exorcism, I have a little part in that. I did some independent films, and also I’m going to be on this TNT show, I don’t know if I’m allowed to say it. I’ll put it all up on Twitter when I’m allowed to. Don’t wanna step on anyone’s toes [laughs]. Like I don’t want to be like ‘oh, I’m going to be on That’s So Raven,’ tomorrow and everyone like ‘oh my god.’ Then execs never hire me again, because that kid has a mouth on him. [laughs] 

Right? He’s blowing up the Twitter world. 

I know, Raven dies, I’m so sad! [laughs]

You’re time traveling to be on That’s So Raven. 

I said a show that doesn’t exist so people wouldn’t be thinking that ‘is he actually going to be on insert show that exists right now?’

Or now they’re going to be like hmmm is That’s So Raven coming back!? 

Oh man! [laughs]

You heard it here first, That’s So Raven: Reunion! [laughs]

[laughs] oh shoot.

Despite a That’s So Raven reunion being the best news to happen to all the kids who grew up in the 90’s, I think Raven’s days of catching a glimpse of the future is no more. She probably should have seen that coming, right? Nonetheless, August Roads is one talent who is in the now, so you can definitely catch up with him on Twitter, but be gentle, he’s a noob. You can also check him out on YouTube. And hopefully on future episodes of Faking It, Tuesdays at 10:30/9:30c on MTV.