With its final season premiering tonight, it’s safe to say NBC’s family drama PARENTHOOD will be missed. I spoke with Miles Heizer who plays Drew Holt on the fan favorite show. Drew has grown immensely since the first season and a lot is in store for him in the final episodes. I spoke with Heizer about Drew’s relationship with Natalie, (Lyndon Smith) what it was like working with Tyson Ritter of All American Rejects, and what we can look forward to in tonight’s premiere.
Were there any storylines so far that shocked you? Christina getting cancer, Seth relapsing, Julia (Erika Christensen) and Joel (Sam Jaeger) splitting up?
Miles Heizer: Definitely! I think that at the end of last season when the grandparents sold the house that was pretty astonishing to me. Even the things you just listed, Julia and Joel breaking up at the end kind of. It’s weird and surprising when anything goes wrong because I think the Braverman’s have such a good family connection. They are all a unit and they thrive off of each other’s craziness in a weird way. Anytime something goes south or something happens and causes a rift between people it’s always shocking. Especially all of us as people, not in the show, everyone gets along so well and it’s actually like a little family. It’s weird seeing these people portraying these conflicts.
Is there a particular Braverman you wish you had more scenes with over the years?
Everybody! It’s impossible to choose one, I feel like the majority of my scenes are with Mae (Whitman) or Lauren (Graham) and now with my college friends/girlfriend/ roommate. Honestly everybody, I used to have a lot with Craig (T. Nelson) and I really love Craig so much. It would be fun to have more with everyone; Dax (Shepard) is really funny and I love Erika (Christensen) so I don’t know. The big family scenes when we’re all together, those are a lot of fun. We are all kind of a nightmare, all of us love each other so much I’m sure it gets intense and people get annoyed by us on set. (laughs)
Do you see Drew and Natalie having a future together?
Yeah, they definitely go into that this season. At the end of last year it kind of left off where we were able to be together, she went away but I got a car and was able to drive to her. The whole season was us going back and forth, with her being like “I don’t want that” and me being like “well I do want that because I don’t want to be just friends.” I think at the end of the year it takes off where that left off and they were able to get together and at least try to be together now.
Any chance we will see Amy again? Is that something you would like to see?
I don’t know at this point. Where we left off she was finding herself and finding her way. I would like to know where she ended up and what happened to her.
Your TV Mom has had many love interests over the years, who do you think drew would most approve of her ending up with?
At the end of the day it would be who she is the most happy with. I haven’t really played into her love interests storylines all that much. I think I would definitely be most responsive to whoever she ended up being happy with
Last season Tyson Ritter of All American Rejects was featured in quite a few episodes. How was shooting the luncheonette live recording session scene?
That was so fun, I used to love All American Reject. I really like music and it’s interesting for me to see people play and all of that.
What kind of challenges will Drew face in this final season?
At this point he’s in a relationship, and a lot of bazaar things come with that. You’re feeling so many different emotions that you don’t realize you can experience from another person. I think this last season is about the Bravermans and about their family relationships. As Drew gets older he takes on a role where he’s very protective of Amber and Sarah, I’m in a very similar situation in my life, I have a mom and a sister. You definitely get more protective over them, that’s definitely an interesting thing we’ve been playing on a little bit this year. Last year was a little bit more about his college thing, but as you get older it kind of inherently happens or it doesn’t. For Drew it definitely makes sense that that goes down. I’m excited about that and I think that will be something that’s interesting.
What can you tell us about the premiere?
They definitely start it off with a bang, a lot of exciting stuff and some surprises. It’s classic PARENTHOOD, they are always introducing new topics that they’re going to try and touch on throughout the year. I think they are so good about bringing relative and relatable subject matter and it’s laying the groundwork for what will be talked about this year. I’m really excited; I can’t believe it’s back on!
Drew’s had a ton of different hairstyles on the show, which one’s been your favorite?
(Laughs) My least favorite was when it got long, that was very depressing to look back upon. That’s really upsetting, that was my doing I refused to cut my hair basically. My favorite is probably the most current, I guess whatever you have at the time you presumably think looks the best. I also liked when it was buzzed off because he didn’t have to worry about it looking terrible.
You can watch Miles in PARENTHOOD tonight at 10:00EST on NBC. (Global TV in Canada)