Johnathan Fernandez Talks Gossip Girl And Marvel's Morbius - Exclusive Interview

HBO Max's "Gossip Girl" reboot recently wrapped Season 1, and viewers will be relieved to know that Season 2 is already on the way. Actor Johnathan Fernandez plays Nick Lott, father to Zoya (played by Whitney Peak), on the show. And if you think you've seen Fernandez somewhere before, that's because he's appeared in everything from "Girls" to "Bull" to "Younger," and in 2019, he finished up three successful seasons playing Bernard Scorsese on "Lethal Weapon." 

While the parents on "Gossip Girl" don't get to have quite as much fun as the kids, Fernandez has relished being part of a well-thought-out reboot that's really taken diversity into account to help give a more accurate reflection of what life is like in New York City.

The List caught up with Fernandez as Season 1 of "Gossip Girl" came to an end to find out all about his time on the show, his role in the the forthcoming "Morbius" movie, and the many other film and TV projects he's working on right now.

What was it like joining a franchise that has such a big fandom attached to it already? Did you feel any pressure?

What's super interesting about it as well, for me personally, is that this was the second reboot that I've been a part of, because I had come off of "Lethal Weapon." Now, my friends and I jokingly say I'm Mr. Reboot. You got a reboot planned? Please. You don't even have to ask me. ... I'm the guy. I'm going to make it work. But all jokes aside, actually my friend Chandler Kinney, who's also on "Lethal Weapon," now she's going to be in the new "Pretty Little Liars." I was like, "Man, what are we doing?" Yeah, also on HBO Max.

I think on both occasions, I've been very lucky, I suppose, that my character hasn't existed in the previous iteration. "Lethal Weapon," my character was a brand new forensic scientist. Then Nick Lott — obviously none of us were in the original. That gives you, as an actor, a lot of freedom because you're never going to be compared.

People obviously are comparing, like when the news first came out, they're like, "Emily's going to be like Serena or blah, blah, blah," and it's very obvious that she isn't, and none of us are. Even with Tom [Doherty] playing someone who's the spiritual successor of Chuck [Bass], which I don't think so. They're different enough in a lot of different categories. But there comes a lot of freedom with that, where you're like, "Cool. I can try to do good work. Hopefully people respond to that. I'm not worried about having to do an impersonation of something," because that never works. Anytime that there are remakes and reboots of things that end up being facsimiles of the predecessor, [they] don't work. Because also people are like, "Well, we already watched it. Why are we trying to watch this again in the same manner?"

It's like when you see a play that is being revived, you're hoping to see something different, even though it is the same words. You're not sitting there being like, "I want to see the complete copy of the previous thing." Then there's also freedom in knowing regardless of whether the show's good or bad or somewhere in between, because of that built-in fan base, you know that people are going to watch it no matter what. That's a huge privilege in this business.

Because fighting to get your pilot seen and your pilot reviewed and your pilot to be taken seriously, is such an astronomically uphill battle, that you feel a lot of good fortune to be like, "At least people are going to watch it." If they are going to watch it, that means that they're going to inherently be giving it a chance. The fans have been very kind to us. They've been very positive, the most positive you can be. It's truly all you could ask for.

[On working with Whitney Peak for "Gossip Girl"]

Being able to figure that out with Whitney, honestly within five minutes, that's something that doesn't happen. There's plenty of times where I go to auditions and I'm like, "Man, I would never be friends with this person." Or, "We can work together for sure ..." It's not as easy as it is with some other people. Obviously that goes for relationships and real life as well.

But with Whitney, it was really easy right away. I think we instantly bought into each other, and the people who were in the audience, Josh Safran and Stephanie Savage, Cassandra Kulukundis, who was the casting director, and Josh Schwartz as well. ... But right away, they were like, "These people have known each other forever." It felt like that, which was really wild.

But when I was talking to Whitney, I wasn't mentioning my Nintendo 3DS. I wasn't mentioning VR or skateboarding or any of that stuff. It was funny because since then, I've hung out a ton. A lot of it has been between me and her and her mom and my wife. The four of us went out a bunch when they first moved to New York. It really felt like I was taking on this actual parental situation.

Because she had been to New York, but never alone, never working on this massive show, it was nice to be like, "Anything you need, come to me. I'm from here. I'm freshly moving back from LA." But I've picked up Apple products for her at the Apple store when she hasn't been able to go. I've built furniture for her, I've picked up furniture, all this straight-up actual parent stuff. My wife and I, we don't have any children, and our running gag has been, "Whitney's enough. That's totally enough." She can call me whenever, I'll pick her up from wherever if she needs me in any capacity. I automatically am filling in that thing of, I don't know, worry. I worry about her, or I hope she's okay, all that stuff. It plays into our working relationship, and it's really nice to have that with someone that you really actually love and care for.

Then with the other kids, it's really interesting. I call them kids; they're not all actual kids, but we all get along very easily. We all can hang out very easily. It's a really nice group where no one also feels, not duplicated per se, but everybody's so individual and so different that we are able to jive by filling in these pockets that we don't naturally have, or whatever, as well as the parents. Everybody's such a unique individual that you put us all together, all the gaps are filled.

I love working with Luke Kirby. Luke is such a talented actor, and Laura Benanti as well. To be a part of that, especially because they're all Broadway legends too, between Adam Chanler-Berat and Tavi [Gevinson] and John [Benjamin Hickey] as well, and Todd Almond. I look up to them, and so to be a part of them also, and the kids too who have done such great things, it's those moments where you're like, "Wow, I can't believe I'm here. I can't believe I'm here because people want me here, because they think I fit in with all these people who are already legendary." I really have a lot of love for all the people that I work with.

"Morbius" sounds really intriguing from what you've said. We need to see you in this role.

Actually, it ties in with I'm such a big fan of "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" and Miles Morales, and having an Afro-Latino Spider-Man. Actually, speaking of letters, I wrote a letter to [Phil] Lord and [Christopher] Miller to be like, "I know that I'm too old for this. I know that. But also, have you thought about doing an older Spider-Man? Because you guys haven't really done that yet." I was like, "Also, I'm Afro-Latino from Brooklyn, just like the character. I live and breathe this stuff. I've read so much of it. I've read all of the Miles Morales comics." In the meantime, my friend and I are slowly writing. We want to do a fan film that's me playing an older Miles Morales. Because Batman has barely done that, but most of the other platforms haven't done a superhero character where they've been it for a long time, where they've been this character for 10 years already, or 15 years.

The "Batman v Superman" movie did that a little bit because Ben Affleck was an older Batman. But that's really fascinating to me because, well, what if when you're Spider-Man, you're not a kid anymore? This has been a full-time job, and your body is starting to show some wear, even though it's way more slowed down than it would be for a regular human being.

But there's a lot of rich stories in there for, what about the guy who's been Spider-Man for 15 years? What's his outlook on life now that he's been around fighting crime for so long, he has bills that are now with a spouse, and with a kid? Other comics have touched on this a little bit, but that's what my short film will be doing. I was planning on doing it last year, but then obviously everything [was] pushed [because of the pandemic].

I even hired this woman, Jessie [Pridemore]. ... She's a costume designer that was on one of those cosplay competition shows on Sci-Fi. I had hired her to make me a Miles Morales suit. It's made for me, it fits me like a glove, so I already have that. So I want to do that.

I want to write a feature and maybe try to sell it, just like the gentleman who wrote the Apollo Creed movie did, where he was like, "I wrote the script. I thought it was good." Then somehow Stallone saw it, and then he's like, "We have to make this movie." I would love to have this Spider-Man be that, which would be great, along with another short film. That's where my headspace is at. I'm in the writer mode.

I was going to ask you about ["Lillian"] because it's based on your true love story, isn't it?

Yeah. What's interesting is, I'll never forget this moment. It's the first time that I really realized, "I would love to play Spider-Man in a movie, and I don't know if that's possible," but it doesn't matter. Having that goal somewhere where that's the thing, and anything that serves that purpose, that's what I'm going to try to manifest.

This was on the evening of hosting the Art Directors Guild Awards that they had asked me to host. That was a situation where the prior year was Patton Oswalt. I was like, "Are you guys sure? You made a huge mistake hiring me." But it was such a blast, it was really funny. I wrote the bits with my friend who also writes for "Helpsters."

The night was a success, and Gary Oldman gave me a really big compliment that night. He was like, "Not every actor could also host." I was like, "Thanks. Good luck at the Oscars next week." ... I felt someone's hand on my shoulder, and I turned around and it was Gary. We had briefly met five seconds before that because I was going to introduce him on stage. The stagehand had said, "That's Johnathan, he's the host. He's going to walk you out." ... Then a few minutes later, I felt this hand on my shoulder, and I turned around and it was Gary. He's like, "Hey, I was watching some of the stuff you were doing ... You're good. Not every actor can do both and be so charismatic." Immediately I went into deflection mode obviously, and I wanted to be like, "You don't know what you're talking about." Or, "Well, what about you? Because blah, blah, blah." But I was so stricken by how wild it was that this was occurring, that I was able to sit in it and be like, "Thanks, Gary."

It was wild, wild times. But all that is to say that after the evening's success, we went upstairs because we were in some hotel. Actually, we were in the ballroom of the [Dolby Theater] ... where they host the Oscars. We were upstairs in the hotel later and my brother was waxing philosophically about the things that were happening in my career at the time. Which, at the time, I was in the second season of "Lethal Weapon." I was like, "I need to start writing a short. I need to start writing something. Right now. This feeling that I have, I need to start doing something that is serving the purpose of being Spider-Man."

Because I'm very fortunate for where I was at the time, and doing something like that black tie event for the art directors, and then also "Lethal Weapon," and other things that were happening at the time. But then all of a sudden I was like, "I really need to do something for myself." The next day I started outlining "Lillian."

[On "Lillian"]

Since then, I've finished the full feature version of that, which is chronicling the entire year. Stephanie said she would do it. Lyndon Smith was in the short, Lyndon Smith said she was going to do it. Emily Rickards, who was on "Arrow" for a billion years, she would be in it as well. Now it's a matter of ... it takes forever for these things to come together. But it's really special.

I think it's a cool, romantic comedy that is not taking cheap shots at anything, and not being stereotypical in any way. All these things are percolating. It's a matter of which one starts first once the world opens up a little bit more for indie filmmaking and stuff. ... Part of the pitfalls I had in writing it were things where I'm like, "No one's going to believe that this actually happened." People are going to think that this is some dumb schtick that's being put in here for a plot device. But no, this Looney Tunes thing actually happened to us. On paper, how do you make that palatable because people won't buy it because it's so nuts?

I told some people the story of my relationship once, and they thought I was regaling a soap opera. Those are good stories, though.

Hundred percent, and that's why I ended up going to that. Because getting that out of my system then allowed me to get the sci-fi film done, or written. It was a nice base coat, basically, for whatever's going on internally, and in my brain, and emotionally, so that once that was out, it gave me more freedom to be like, "All right, how do I create a new world," but then also using real life experiences to funnel that through?

I feel if I started the other way around, it wouldn't have been as strong, because I didn't have that foundation yet for what I thought my voice would be for these kinds of things.

Also, I formed a production company, and that's where my first short was produced through. But we're currently in the middle of getting funding for development projects, and wanting to be this ground up diverse production company that produces for all people, by all people, and that doesn't focus on purely heavy stories.

Obviously there's a world, a very necessary world, for stories like "12 Years of Slave," and things that are very socially heavy. But at the same time, I'm constantly craving the non-white version of "When Harry Met Sally." I know things are happening ... You have Issa Rae's movie that she did, "The Photograph," and ["Always Be My Maybe"] with Ali Wong.

I want more stuff like that, where people are being people and it's not rooted in suffering. Basically for white people, and white audiences, that exists. They have the heavy stories, and they have the fun or frivolous stories. A lot of times the ones that are taken more seriously from non-white people, it would only be taken seriously if it is this heavy, heavy story.

I'm disabled, so I often have these conversations about why don't we have better representation for disabled people? It's exactly what you said. It's always the serious side of things. You rarely have a fun romantic comedy. So I think that's the way forward. Unless people start writing their own scripts, and getting those stories out there, we're not going to have accurate representation.

For sure. There was a movie I did with Sam Daley and Bill Crossland [called "Catching Up"]. Bill has muscular dystrophy, and he's in a wheelchair. He put me in his movie.

Basically I got a random audition from a random source through my agent. Then I found out that the film that they were going to do, the short went to Sundance. I was like, "Send me the short. I would love to see the short." My wife and I were at a wedding in the Berkshires, and we were sitting in the hotel. I was like, "Do you want to watch this short with me?" Then she was like, "Yeah, of course."

We sit down and watch it. Then when the credits roll, she sees Bill's name. ... My wife was like, "Oh, I had a neighbor named Bill Crossland." Then we watched the film, and she was like, "Holy s***, I think that's him. He's been in a wheelchair ... There's no way that this is a different one." I was like, "Really?" She used to babysit him. ... I emailed him. I was like, "Hey, I'm so and so. My agent blah, blah, blah. My wife is Lauren Fernandez." I was like, "Even if none of this works out, next time I'm in town, I'll say 'what's up.'"

Because from Lauren's father's house, Bill lives across the street. Literally across the street. We got along famously, and then he hired me for his movie. My trailer for this movie that had no money was my father-in-law's house. I shacked up with my father-in-law and my brother-in-law, who was living there at the time, for three weeks in small town Pennsylvania.

I would roll out of bed, go across the street to work. I was the only person who was in the cast that knew about the area because Lauren and I have been together now for almost 18 years. This is basically my second hometown, so I was telling people, "The CVS is over here. Make sure you go to Wawa," this grocery store, this gas station chain.

It was wild to work with Bill and being like, "Dude, [how we connected] makes no sense." The movie, I don't know what happened with distribution. Now it's everywhere. But it's one of those movies that when you watch it, you're like, why wasn't this a sensation? Why wasn't this like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" where every single person knows this movie?

Because it's such an achievement from this kid. I forget how old Bill is. He's maybe 10 years younger than me or something. But either way, he directed that movie. He starred in that movie. He wrote that movie and really was more than capable of doing it. The movie's good. It's really charming.

But also I really love the fact that it had high moments of comedy and also high moments of gut wrenching. There's these moments in the movie you want to throw up because it's so awful. But the way it intertwines is great. If Hollywood were to make that movie, especially before people had proper conversations about ableism, for sure it would've been some able-bodied actor playing that character. It defeats the entire purpose of that whole situation happening. Because then it's so fake.

Are there any dream actors or directors that you're still wanting to work with?

Man, that's a good question. I think it's really hard to say. Because my taste is constantly shifting sands. There's people that I would've said five years ago that I would want to work with, and now I don't know if I feel the same way.

I really like Edgar Wright. I always have liked Edgar Wright a lot. Really want to work with Denzel [Washington], especially Denzel directing something. It would be really, really great to be directed by someone like Denzel. I don't know, someone like a really actor-y actor because you have such a different experience from being directed by somebody who was an actor first.

I'm not saying that directors that are straight-up directors don't do good jobs. They definitely, obviously do. But there is a different kinship and trust that you automatically have because you know that this person knows what it's like to be on this side of things. It was really great working, Kenny Leon, who's one of those people. He directed Episode 8 of "Gossip Girl."

Speaking of Denzel, Leon directed Denzel in "Fences," and is a theater person, and was originally an actor. Working with him is so different. Because he knows. He knows what you're thinking, knows what the traps are for an actor. Knowing that Denzel has directed some stuff, it'd be really cool to work with somebody of that caliber. Because then the whole time, you almost don't want to work. You want to watch this person work. Even shadowing him as a director would be really interesting.

I shadowed Eric Laneuville on "Lethal Weapon," and that was mind-boggling because I really want to direct as well. I'm hoping to be able to shadow at some point in the near future, but the sets have been so closed, and you haven't had too many visitors and stuff. But I think that's my longish short answer. Someone like Denzel specifically, being directed by him would be bananas.

But then also the other side of it is "Scott Pilgrim" is one of my favorite movies, as is "Shaun of the Dead." I watch a lot of British television. I like a lot of British comedies.

Do you know who Rich Fulcher is? He's an American, but he was in "The Mighty Boosh," and then he did a show with Matt Berry, called "Snuff Box." He's the resident American comic actor in Britain. I'm like, "I want to do that," and work amongst those kind of people. Because I gravitate ... All those people, like Richard Ayoade, and "The IT Crowd," and "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace" is one of my favorite things ever. I instantly got "Fawlty Towers" the first time I saw it when I was a kid. So many Americans especially were always like, "It's so different." I was like, "I'm so into it."

The amount of times I've watched "People Just Do Nothing," the series, now, it's obscene. Like I said, my wife and I watched it so many times. That's Part B of the dream. The dream is to be the resident American actor in British television.