thomas doherty shirtless

For the 2021 Ability of Young Hollywood Effect, Diversity profiled three young stars making an affect in the entertainment industry. For more, click here.

On HBO Max's reincarnated "Gossip Daughter," Thomas Doherty plays Max Wolfe, a 17-year-old romantic omnivore who seduces all the boys and girls — and even a male instructor — at his Upper Due east Side high school. But on this day in late July, just a few weeks afterwards the debut of his breakout TV role, Doherty isn't kissing everyone.

The 26-year-old Scottish actor logs on to a Zoom call, dressed in a blue hoodie. His eyes are groggy; his voice sounds hoarse, and his words are interrupted by a throaty cough. Plainly not even our brightest TV stars are impervious to COVID-19, which Doherty contracted a few days ago — postponing our photograph shoot and an in-person coming together.

Lazy loaded image — Heather Hazzan for Variety

"It'southward balmy, fortunately," says Doherty, who briefly lost his sense of odor and taste. "I actually feel OK now."

Then he sheepishly admits that he hadn't gotten vaccinated yet, because he'd heard well-nigh other people getting sick from their shots and he'southward been working since last October, shooting "Gossip Girl" around the clock. "I was to go to coffee with yous, and then straight after, at 6 o'clock, I was meant to get vaccinated," Doherty says. "We booked it. And and then I got COVID."

But there's no need to alert DeuxMoi. Like a storyline from the more inclusive and sexually audacious — and incomparably nicer — "Gossip Girl," this saga has a happy ending.

A calendar week later, after two negative COVID tests, Doherty bounces back, appearing at a two-hr photo shoot involving multiple costume changes (including a throwback to Brad Pitt circa "Thelma & Louise," with a white cowboy hat, sitting on a bale of hay) and an impromptu manicure where he paints his nails. He ponders a black polish before deciding on ruddy — a better friction match for the sleeveless denim jeans belong that he dons without a shirt, showing off some of his xiii tattoos.

Among his cast of previously unknown 20-something co-stars, Doherty has been in the business organization the longest, and is perhaps the most recognizable actor in the group considering of his days as a Disney Aqueduct star in 2016. He's enjoying the motion to Park Artery. With the assist of "Gossip Girl" creator Joshua Safran, Doherty has crafted a leading man for Gen Z ¬— office old Hollywood, part polyamorous, with supreme confidence and nontoxic masculinity. His performance has put him on the map as one of the actors to sentry in the 2021 TV flavour.

Max is a gleeful scenery chewer, both dramatic and bitingly funny, whose dialogue seems designed to go viral on Twitter.

During the actor's audition, Safran noticed that Doherty was making the graphic symbol too sinister, closer to Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) from the original serial. "I worked with Thomas in the notes session," Safran says equally he recalls telling Doherty: "'Actually, this guy has more Cary Grant virtually him, like a rakish winking — yous're in on information technology with him.' Once I said that to him, Max was born."

Long before his shirtless on-screen bed-hopping, Doherty got his big break in 2016 at age 20 on the Disney Aqueduct U.K. serial "The Lodge," after juggling odd jobs equally a bartender and ringing upward teen apparel at Hollister. He crossed over to U.S. tween audiences in the TV movie "Descendants 2" and its sequel, in which he played Captain Hook'southward crooning son and, in real life, became office of a Disney couple, dating his co-star Dove Cameron.

"Disney is such a huge platform and at that place'due south a lot of exposure, and then it definitely gave me that," Doherty says. "It was my beginning time on a flick set, which was really exciting." The office earned him a devoted fan base — he now counts iv.4 million followers on Instagram. "Americans love Disney," Doherty muses. "They go mad for Disney, and then that was interesting: getting stopped on the street and asked for pictures and stuff."

But he was ready to graduate to more serious material. Doherty's first developed role arrived in 2020, in Hulu'due south "High Fidelity" Idiot box series. Although he appears in only three episodes, he fabricated an impression as a musician who sleeps with Zoë Kravitz's tape-store owner Robyn Brooks. "I lived in Greenpoint [Brooklyn] when I was shooting that, and so I knew I wanted to stay here," Doherty says about his apartment. On his days off, he takes acting classes and rock climbs at an indoor gym.

The new "Gossip Girl" takes a more than with-the-times approach to its young characters, portraying a world where not everybody is cisgender, white or straight. The plot follows Zoya Lott (Whitney Peak), a new student from a relatively small groundwork who, with the help of a scholarship, reunites with her queen bee half-sister Julien Calloway (Jordan Alexander). This time around, the identity of Gossip Daughter is laid out upfront — it'southward the school's instructors, led by English teacher Kate Keller (Tavi Gevinson), using an anonymous Instagram business relationship to keep their students in check.

Doherty binged the original "Gossip Girl" years after its run (he was too immature when it premiered in 2007). "It wasn't something that I would accept e'er watched when I was 12," he says. "Simply so a couple months after, I heard that they were rebooting 'Gossip Girl.' I was like, 'Oh, that'south cool. I wonder who they are going to cast.'"

Fifty-fifty the original actors might blush at Max'due south script pages. His arc involves making out with his friend Aki (Evan Mock) in a steam room and having sex activity with Aki's girlfriend, Audrey (Emily Alyn Lind), behind both of their backs. In some other episode, after learning that his gay dads are on the verge of a breakdown, Max goes on a bender, and is dropped off at school the next day in a car from Mount Sinai Hospital. He kisses a male and a female nurse on the street before stumbling to course. "I think I actually kissed most four of them," Doherty says with a laugh. "They only showed 2."

Doherty is careful non to dish likewise many spoilers nigh the testify. Just the 12-episode commencement flavor, which is still filming, will have an intermission before the remaining six episodes air later on this year. As a upshot, Doherty has had to shoot winter episodes of "Gossip Girl" in the sweltering New York summer. "I did a scene the other twenty-four hour period, and I had boots on, trousers, a tank top, a shirt, a big jacket and a scarf," he says. "And I was halfway through a scene and I was like, 'Tin can we finish?," because I could feel the sweat dripping downward my confront."

He has worked hard to perfect his American emphasis and carry himself as a teenager. The get-go "Gossip Girl" aired on The CW, just HBO Max allows the new version to exist racier. "I knew I was going to be naked," Doherty says. "So I was like, 'Do 17-year-olds take hairy chests?' I tin't think if I always did."

Doherty recalls a belatedly-night shoot that made the existent-life gossip pages. On his style from the makeup trailer to pic a locker room scene, he opened his robe as a joke, flashing his abs and Tom Ford briefs. Merely when it was too belatedly did he encounter a row of paparazzi camped on the sidewalk outside. "I was like, 'Oh fuck!'" Doherty says. "And they were like, you're going to be famous tonight."

• • •

Inhabiting Max has been an centre-opening experience for Doherty. "I have always seen sexuality as a spectrum," he says. "Just playing Max, a pansexual character, was incredibly liberating. It was very educational, and it definitely made me challenge my own preconceived notions, my indoctrination, of 'This is who you lot beloved, this is what yous practice, everything else is wrong.'"

Like many of his age-group peers, Doherty says he doesn't believe in labels. "I recollect it is very limiting, and I think as I get older and experience life a piffling bit more, you constantly evolve and you're constantly growing," he says. "I experience like labels limit you. They're well-nigh walls to your growth."

Asked afterward about how he identifies, Doherty — who is reportedly dating model Yasmin Wijnaldum — says that he wouldn't use a label to describe himself. "It'southward merely been girls," he says of his romantic relationships. "That's a preference. Simply 26, living in New York …" He trails off equally he gives a devilish smiling.

Different Max and the kids on "Gossip Girl," Doherty isn't i to live his life on the internet. "I'1000 not a huge fan of social media," he says. "I don't think information technology's a very positive addition to the world, and I worry for younger people on it." His interactions on Instagram are limited to posting pictures and DMing his fans back. He explains: "I really unfollowed everyone on my Instagram because I was similar, this is just noise. Information technology's counterproductive."

Doherty'southward career dream would exist to make the leap to Broadway. And when he's non filming "Gossip Daughter," he has been fine-tuning his theater chops. "I'm hoping to build some singing muscles and dancing muscles back up," Doherty says. "There's nothing ameliorate than the stage. It'southward just so open and it's free — and the energy." What would be his dream musical? "I'd honey to do 'Side by side to Normal' or 'Spring Awakening' before I become too old. And 'Ragtime' would be and so cool."

"He'll be the side by side Hugh Jackman," predicts Kenny Ortega, who directed Doherty in the "Descendants" movies and worked with Jackman on the Australian tour of "The Boy From Oz." Ortega recalls discovering Doherty out of a stack of self-made audition tapes while casting Captain Hook's son. "And about No. 36, Thomas appeared and simply slayed me," Ortega says. "He merely had something rare. He reminded me of a young Christian Bale." (Ortega directed Bale in the 1992 Disney motion-picture show musical "Newsies," which has since go a cult hit.)

Thomas Doherty Power of Young Hollywood

Doherty reveals that he auditioned to play Riff in Steven Spielberg's remake of "W Side Story." "I didn't get that, and I was and then sad," he says. "That was the greatest heartbreak of my life. I merely love 'West Side Story,' and I really, actually wanted to practise that."

Dorsum on "Gossip Daughter," Max will be the one breaking hearts, thank you very much. When asked how long he'd like to be on the bear witness, Doherty deadpans: "You're going to get me fired."

"Honestly," he continues, "I'm having a really skillful fourth dimension. It's and so holistic in terms of acting. It'south a fun gig. I get to meet loads of cool people. I think three seasons would be cool.

Four, mayhap? Only who knows?" When asked for comment, Gossip Girl could non be reached.

Production Design: Daniel Luna; Styling: Warren Alfie Baker/The Wall Group; Grooming: Geo Brian Hennings; Manicure: Kiyo Okada/Kramer + Kramer/Chanel Le Vernis; Look ane (white suit): Arrange: AMI; Vest: Hermes; Look 2 (tank top): Tank: Dolce & Gabbana; Pants: Sandro; Necklace: Mudd Pearl; Look 3 (denim jacket): Jacket and jeans: Levis; Necklace: Elise Frieda; Look iv (tank with cowboy hat): Hat: Planet Cowboy; Look four (pinkish sweater): Sweater: VINCE

Source: https://variety.com/2021/tv/features/thomas-doherty-gossip-gir-hbo-l-pansexual-1235038120/#!