This Is How Christopher Abbott Kills Charlie From Girls Once and for All

With James White, the guy who launched a thousand headlines by walking away from the HBO juggernaut is about to make audiences forget all about the drip with the homemade bunkbed.

Tyler Joe

In person, Christopher Abbott looks nothing like Girls' Charlie Dattolo, the lovesick if not cloying boyfriend he inhabited for two seasons of the HBO series. He's quiet, skittish, and—if the duffle he's planning to lug to Mendez Boxing gym after our interview at the hushed Marlton Hotel is any indication—the kind of guy who likes to blow off some steam. Perhaps it's these under-the-surface energies that bring to life his titular character in James White, Josh Mond's semi-autobiographical drama about a New York City kid whose dad just died and whose mom (Cynthia Nixon) is dying from terminal, life-throttling cancer. (The film was just given a November 13 release, a date some conjecture is a bid at courting Oscar.) It's an unflinching portrait of a half-formed manchild on the precipice of becoming an orphan. Watching Abbott flounder is a lot like watching an acquaintance drunkenly fumble through a past-its-prime late night: You want to intervene, but it's not your place. And in confronting the audience with his helplessness, Abbott creates a whole new kind of cinema verité: the kind that looks, feels, and ravages just like real life. It's safe to say that Charlie—despite his surprising reappearance on the Girls set—has metaphorically left the building. 

Tyler Joe

There's an affecting line in James White in which Cynthia Nixon, who plays your mom, says that "people like us" either live "way up here" or "way down here." As a creative person, does that concept of toggling between two poles resonate with you?

Yeah, we talked pretty extensively about why all the mood swings are happening. It's not just being moody for the sake of being moody.

As a viewer you alternate between feeling largely sympathetic for this character, who has basically lost both of his parents in a short period of time, and then you're also like, 'Get your shit together, dude.'

My guy? Yeah, of course! He's kind of like an antihero in that way. I feel like the easy route to take would just be that he is this extremely loving caregiver. And it would have been, I think, a little bit too easy.

I think he also sees himself that way—at times thinks he's a martyr…

He is a martyr in a way. The interesting thing about that character trait is that the movie is somewhat autobiographical for [director] Josh [Mond]. Not completely, but he did lose his mother and [the movie] has a lot to do with that. Josh kind of wrote parts of himself into the part as well. The thing about the character and Josh too, everything they do, they do it hard. They love hard, but they also rebel pretty extremely. The character is very self-indulgent in that way.

Tyler Joe

Yes, he certainly expects a lot. Kid Cudi's character is a saint. I don't have any friends who are that good.

But the thing with that is he would do that for other people. So, because he would do that for other people, he expects that—that's one of the characteristics about him. Even with the girl in the movie, you know?

Until she dumps him.

Well they're not…You know, it was never really meant to be. It was a very quick thing. But even with a new person in his life, he just met her and he has set expectations of this girl, you know? So he puts it on people he's known for years, and then he puts it on people that he's known for two days.

So, a lot of the media coverage about you is that Christopher Abbott, the guy from Girls, is now embarking on a grittier, more nuanced career.

Yeah, but it wasn't even like a, it wasn't like trying to move away from…the thing is, Girls was the most popular thing [I did] that people saw, but I did a lot of theater before. It wasn't like I was trying to move away from something. I'm just doing a different job. It's not as romantic of a notion in my opinion.

Tyler Joe

Yeah, even when you're writing about things that aren't fiction, sometimes they take on a fictional storyline, just to get a start, middle, and end going.


One thing that I read in the reviews that I thought was really interesting was commentary on Cynthia Nixon's lack of vanity in the role. But I feel like that's a gendered observation because there's no vanity in your role either. James looks like shit. He's very unhealthy.

Right. He certainly is sweating a lot.

Can you shake off that heaviness at the end of a day of filming?

Well, for that movie, it was just a technical thing of the hours we were shooting. We were on a pretty tight time restraint and we would get a lot of pages done each day. There was never a light day. So just in terms of the hours of work and just being tired from that, forget the emotional things from the scene, just the amount of hours, I was spent most days.

You work alongside Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi in this film. Do you call him Scott?

Yeah, I get to call him Scott. He'll answer to anything.

He played such an amazing foil to your character and, in doing very little, was able to let you be very visceral. What is he like to work with?

Yeah, he's cool. He comes across in the film. I think what he does in this film [is] he's so endearing and genuine. He played such a genuine person. He's there for support for James…

Yeah, we sort of meet James at the juncture in Wedding Crashers when [Owen Wilson] starts to wedding crash alone. Like, all the fun, sexy nights have evolved into this desperate, chasing-the-high scenario.

Yeah, but it doesn't feel very sexy. It feels pretty dire and sad.

Tyler Joe

I keep looking at your tattoos. "Left out winter"—what does that mean?

That is a line from a play that I did. Lucy Thurber is a writer and a good friend of mine. We did a play and it's just a line from the play.

Is that your handwriting?

That's her handwriting.

Oh, that's cool!

Yeah. It's the only piece of work that I tattooed on myself.

Because this is a column about drinking, can you recall the best night you've ever had in New York? Just to add a little levity to a conversation about the depths of humanity.

Good nights in New York, hmmm. Nothing crazy. I sound boring, but truly one of my favorite things to do in New York is to go out to dinner with friends. I know that sounds simple and stupid, but good food and company is really for me.

Good food. Got it.

Table full of drugs?

Much better.

No, but, you know, no specific night. But even like nights, like, we had a hang in my place last night after I got done with the show. Some friends were already there, hanging out when I got home. I love that. We have a fire escape and you can just go out and have a smoke. Stuff like that. Very summer feel, old school summer deal.

Tyler Joe

I went on Getty last night and some of the earliest pictures of you are very fashion-y and clean-shaven. Was there a part of your career when you felt you had to look a certain way?

Well I think, truthfully, in the beginning of my career…So I grew up fairly blue collar. I was also heavier when I came to New York. I was playing sports in school. And when I started going to school in New York and going to HB Studio I was kind of guido-ed out. I still wore, like, a gold chain. I got to HB and I remember I was auditing the first class and I was like, 'Man, I don't fit in at all'. I think I started adapting to the New York artist look a little bit. It came out of insecurity.

Where's the chain?

That's gone. I mean, we all go through phases, right? I had a guido phase.

Tyler Joe

So what's your project vetting policy? Do you have an "I'll do an indie then I'll do a bigger picture" philosophy?

I definitely don't say yes to everything. I didn't use to have any kind of structure. It was like, whatever is good is good. But I feel like as I get older—I mean there's no planning, I feel like there's no really planning careers—you do your best to facilitate what you want to do. And I think I'm a little bit more conscious now, like, maybe I should try and do something bigger, you know? Now it's starting to become more of a real thing. I guess there's a part of my brain that has started to think, 'Well, how can I…?' But I can only do so much.

I hate to bring up Girls, but it seems like you made the decision to do something that feels authentic even if it was the opposite of what might have been the commercial choice. That says something about who you are, right?

Yeah, but again, it wasn't out of this rebellious attitude. I really didn't try to do a rebellious thing. I don't want to be that guy that's like, 'Fuck off,' you know? TV is really challenging in that way. I found it to be really weird to go back and do a part that I did a year ago. You kind of feel like—you just forget how to do it. And that's a little bit what I started to feel. And sometimes you just get full up on something. It's like, you play a part and you're done. There's a lot of stuff about bad blood in the press, but it wasn't like that at all. It was a very adult conversation. And it just didn't work out.

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