Charlie Hall knows he’s not a fan favorite among “The Sex Lives of College Girls” fans — and he’s totally fine with that. “I kind of love that he’s unlikeable,” the 25-year-old tells POPSUGAR of his character Andrew, aka Whitney’s (Alyah Chanelle Scott) biochem lab partner and love interest in season two.
Hall joined the HBO Max hit series, which wrapped up its second season on Dec. 15, just a few years after graduating from Northwestern University and pursuing an acting career. Like his costar Mitchell Slaggert, the actor — whose parents are “Seinfeld” star Julia Louis-Dreyfus and “Saturday Night Live” alum Brad Hall — auditioned for a different role than the one he landed, but he admits he loved the challenge of playing his detested character.
“It’s a fun little challenge to play someone that you’re not rooting for in a way that is entertaining and also in a way that’s funny.”
Season two of “The Sex Lives of College Girls” delivered yet another season full of endless laughs, drama, and misadventures with our favorite foursome — Whitney, Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet), Bela (Amrit Kaur), and Leighton (Reneé Rapp) — but the show threw viewers a curveball when they added Hall’s Andrew onto Whitney’s roster. Following her breakup with Canaan (Christopher Meyer), the soccer-star-turned-biochem major finds herself in a friend-with-benefits entanglement with Andrew — something viewers weren’t too keen on at first. But Hall says he welcomes the criticism of his character and relationship with Scott’s Whitney because he’s aware Andrew is “almost entirely unlikeable.”
“He’s pretty douchey, he’s stuck up, he’s super competitive, obviously there are some redeeming moments for him, but on the whole, you’re not exactly rooting for him, which is fun,” he shares. “It’s a fun little challenge to play someone that you’re not rooting for in a way that is entertaining and also in a way that’s funny. [It] was challenging in an exciting way. And then, of course, the writers of the show made it super easy for me because everything they write is very funny. So all I had to do was not f*ck it up.”
Most of the hate toward Andrew stems from his situationship with Whitney and the fact that the two started out as frenemies. “It’s obviously a really interesting one because it’s atypical of how most relationships are in that it’s kind of a love-hate sort of thing,” Hall explains of Andrew and Whitney’s “raw attraction.” “But I think a lot of their attraction is [because] they’re both super competitive . . . when they become romantic is when they actually have a lot of fun together, [and] when they’re sort of almost taking jabs at each other or being competitive.”
“I think it’d be fun to sort of see him almost apologize for being such a little sh*t all the time and maybe attempt to change.”
Of course, Andrew and Whitney’s love-hate relationship got messy once they started sleeping together, and by the end of season two, it was clear their romance was doomed to fail. “I think there will definitely be some relief, for sure,” Hall says of the pair’s breakup in the season two finale. “I hope that there’s a small subset of people that are like, ‘Oh no, I was rooting for them.’ But I think, for the most part . . . especially in the back half of the season, that Whitney is regretful about the whole situation. It has kind of gone a little too far and Andrew clearly is beginning to become a little attached. So yeah, I think there’s a big relief, not only for the audience but also for Whitney.”
Though it’s clearly the end of the road for Whitney and Andrew, Hall hopes he’ll be able to reprise his role in “The Sex Lives of College Girls” season three — which HBO Max just recently greenlit. “Oh yeah, I definitely would love to return,” Hall says. “I’ll walk in the background of a scene if I have to. The show is so much fun. And there’s hope for [Andrew] because it’s very college in that you can’t really avoid your exes all the time because you’re in class together. I do think there’s kind of comedy to be had there for sure.”
As far as what he wants to see of Andrew, Hall just hopes “he gets his f*cking sh*t together and just kind of maybe loosens up a little bit.” “He’s so intense,” the actor adds. “So I think it’d be fun to sort of see him almost apologize for being such a little sh*t all the time and maybe attempt to change. Although, he strikes me as the kind of guy that maybe has trouble changing.”
For viewers who still aren’t big fans of Andrew, Hall has one last message for you: “To everybody, sorry Andrew’s such a dick. I apologize.”
Season two of “The Sex Lives of College Girls” is now streaming on HBO Max.