Elizabeth Black | October 15, 2014 3:00 pm

Will Chase, who plays Luke Wheeler on Nashville, has an unenviable role on the sho. Brought in as Rayna James‘s boyfriend-turned-quick-tracked-fiancé (the wedding is in December, y’all!), he moseyed on in between Rayna and her ONE TRUE LOVE, Deacon Claybourne. Those of us who have been rooting for Rayna and Deacon to finally reunite might have been a little disappointed when uber-well-known, seemingly issue-free Luke swept Rayna off her feet and promised her a perfect celebrity relationship (Ruke? Layna?) and a stable home life — something Deacon could never offer. Chase spoke to VH1 recently about the fan reaction to Luke (“Ive been getting a lot of ‘Puke Wheeler’ hashtags!”), that incredible ’90s ponytail he donned in a flashback scene, and the buddy-cop spinoff he wants to make with co-star Charles Esten.

How are fans reacting to you these days now that you’ve stolen Rayna away from Deacon?

Will Chase: I’ve been getting a lot of Puke Wheeler hashtags!

That’s pretty hilarious! Are there any other good audience reactions to your character?

WC: There are some candid fans that are just like, “I can’t stand this creep Luke Wheeler,” and I’m like “What did he do? What is creepy about him?” ‘Produce there’s really nothing. What’s fun about most of our fans…I mean there are always the trolls who are just mean to be mean on whatever show. But our fans are fun because I know they follow me and they try to stick up for me. If people do get mean, they’ll go “Well, wait a minute, come on! Remember these are characters in a television program.” What’s amusing about it is you see what you want to see. I mean Luke has literally done nothing incorrect.

You’re just a successful, nice, decent human being without an alcohol problem.

WC: Hashtag that. Nice, successful, rich human being without an alcohol problem, yes.

Do you get invested in the other plot lines on the show? There are so many, and you don’t have scenes with so many of the other actors.

We’re getting ready to shoot this epic episode right now. It’s amusing, I very rarely see Jonathan (Jackson) and Sam (Palladio) and that crew because I’m never in scenes with them so I see them in the makeup chair or out at the Opry. I like never see them. But in this episode we’re shooting now, it’s all of us together and it’s a lot of fun. We’re shipwrecked, can you imagine? We’re shipwrecked on an island. No, I’m kidding.

That would be incredible. Shipwrecked on the Mississippi in a pot episode of Nashville.

WC: [Laughs] We did a dinner cruise and — I could really have fun with is, look at your face! You’re hanging on to every word!

I would be so into that. I wrote a post recently that predicted where the show could go with Juliette’s pregnancy, like maybe she starts an all-sequined parenthood line of clothing for pregnant performers — just ridiculous things.

WC: For pregnant performers! It’s amusing you say that. I think the days of outlandishness are done on our show. Our writers — I don’t envy them. I don’t envy them that task of having to fit all these characters into these pegs which I think they do a pretty outstanding job. Because you constantly are, other than your series customers, you’re constantly, and I was one of them, I was recurring. And I remember going to test for other jobs and you don’t know if this guy you’ve written this big arc for is going to be there next week. So you’re constantly having to rewrite and rethink.

I did want to question you if you ever worry because they do have a habit of killing off people when it’s necessary. Do you ever worry that Luke is going to get into like a horrible bus crash or something?

WC: Well you know what. I mean really, who’s died? Lamar, who else?

Lamar, Peggy, Juliette’s mom, and her sponsor.

WC: No, I mean I think they’re done. At least, I can’t imagine them doing that much more. Just ’produce it’s so like, “Really? A bigwig’s going to die?” No, I’m not worried about that. I mean I think there’s enough stuff there for them to write without killing me.

It seems like you in a way play a lot of roles that are kind of meta to your real life. Like as a performer constantly playing a performer. And also like being in somewhat of a celebrity relationship in real life and also playing that.

WC: That’s really fascinating. I have never plotting of the meta thing. Now I’m thinking about every role I’ve ever played in my life. That’s really fascinating that you say that. I certainly didn’t seek it. We can talk to my administrator about this. I do remember once when we were debating taking this job vacant, “Do I want another job where I’m playing…Not playing a star or something, where I’m singing on a show like am I going to get pigeon-holed as the guy that now sings on the show?” But to me, I don’t think of this show like that. And especially my character. I know he’s a performer but this is, it’s an acting job and I don’t sing that much on the show really. I mean I probably sing every third episode or something. A little more this year. But I know that had to do with my hiring as well. I mean, I went on tape, Christian Borle, who was my co-star in Smash, he put me on tape. I sang the lines and I knew they wanted the musicianship to be authentic. And they’re real sticklers on our show. We’ll do take after take after take if your chords are incorrect on the guitar. That kind of thing. Which I like, being a musician, I like that.

So you really play your guitar on the show?

WC: Well I mean I play enough guitar to get by. I don’t like to play guitar live. But no, we have the guy coming up, “Your G chords are a little eh…” You know. Which I like, I like that authenticity. But the Smash thing, playing a Broadway actor and I’m a Broadway actor. I was just thinking about Edwin Drood, which I did on stage was kind of like an actor… So I don’t know… [Joking to his administrator] Find me another job, Anthony! No, that’s a splendid notion and I don’t look for it. It’s just that’s a very fascinating thing. My favorite days that we shoot are the concert days. Produce I feel right at home. And then I also get the electric part of playing the largest country star in the world. Who gets to do that? Who gets to shoot that and play a rock star? I’m fortunate that I get to, ’produce I like it.

If you could play a role that’s completely against that composition type, what would you do?

WC: The serial killer on Showtime. No, I don’t know. Something like that. Or something deep. I would like to do a political drama. I’m a West Wing fanatic. I like that. But I’m kind of open. A bigwig was showing me some of my Rescue Me stuff the other day and I was like, I forgot I did that. I literally forgot I did it. And I’m in a bald cap, dying of cancer and I was like, “Oh, I really made some bold choices!” I was proud of my work and proud that that was a completely different thing for me. And for me, there’s a question of “What was the foremost moment for you as an actor?” and for me it was Rescue Me. I plotting, I’m being bold in my choices.

It only informed Luke, to make Luke as not charming, to make Luke a real guy who really is this way. He really does say colloquialisms. Like in the last episode, hold on, this was one of my favorites, it was, “Oh you’re walking through hell with dynamite drawers on.” Now I’m sitting there, Mario Van Peebles who was our director, was shooting a different scene that was going to lead up to the scene where I say that. We’re shooting a different scene, he says to Connie and I, “You guys can play the ambiguity in this scen, ’produce we’re going to resolve it in that last scene. ‘Produce you guys are both walking through hell with dynamite drawers on.” And I went, “Defense me?” He said, “What? You’ve never heard that saying?” I said, “I’ve never heard that saying. That sounds like something Luke would say.” Literally five minutes later comes new pages for the last scene. And it was they added that. And I like that. But anyway the point was, I like when Luke gets to say things like that. He gets a kick out of it.

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Tags: Nashville, Television, Will Chase