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Public Appearances > 2012 > Interview KTLA (Jan. 11, 2012)

If you were to dream up a group of actors to band together and make an environmentally conscious, nature exploration show, I think it’s fair to assume that you would not expect those actors to be James Lafferty (“One Tree Hill”), Stephen Colletti (“One Tree Hill,” “Laguna Beach”) and Stuart Lafferty (“Death Sentence,” “One Tree Hill”).

The brothers Lafferty, Stephen and award-winning nature photographer and author Ian Shive star in a show called “Wild Life: A New Generation Of Wild,” that is all about bringing the wonders of the great outdoors to a new generation. The adventurous guys have captured exploits varying from Everglades exploration to swimming with manatees.

Hollywood Crush caught up with Ian recently to get the lowdown on their buzzworthy project and why the show is meaningful (and not just “Celebrities Gone Wild”).

“[This show is] about, ‘Let’s experience something through the eyes of people you recognize on TV, in an environment you’ve never seen them in before,” Ian explained of showcasing themselves in a non-egotistical manner. “It’s really about the experience of being outside.”

Ian went on to say that they thought long and hard about how to use James, Stephen and Stuart’s profiles in a way that didn’t open themselves up for online criticism.

“Four dudes outside is definitely a perfect meal for the internet snark,” he admitted. “We even joked around about it… The way you avoid that is by not being ridiculous about how you tell the story. A lot of reality programming overdramatizes and sensationalizes petty things,” he explained. “We’re not going to be out there like, ‘Oh my God, Stephen got bit by 64 mosquitoes! What do we do now, let’s go to the doctor!’ It doesn’t need to be that,” he said.

Ian added that their intent in creating the show is to be “the antithesis of reality programming,” and that they hope to take the show from the web to a primetime TV slot.

“We’ve had a lot of interest, and it looks good that we’re probably going to end up on TV,” Ian revealed, although they aren’t yet sure on which network the show might be broadcast. “The whole point is to reach a bigger audience and bridge barriers of what people think of the outdoors,” he said. “It’s lookin’ good.”

Source: Kara Warner @ Hollywood Crush MTV

After “One Tree Hill’s” eighth season wrapped in March, series regulars James Lafferty and Stephen Colletti decided to forgo the typical poolside party destination in favor of a whole different kind of vacation.

Along with Lafferty’s brother, Stuart Lafferty (who die-hard “OTH” fans will recognize from a Season 2 guest appearance) and nature photographer Ian Shive, the costars took a no-frills trip through Florida’s National Parks to explore some of nature’s hidden gems.

They filmed their adventure as a pilot presentation for “Wild Life: A New Generation of Wild.” The fifteen-minute presentation is available online and we’d highly recommend checking it out — you’ll see the four friends meet manatees, navigate alligator-infested rivers, and even visit a sunken statue of Jesus at the bottom of a river in the John Pennekamp State Park.

It’s an idea that they’ve been kicking around for quite a while.

“James and I and his little brother Stuart had always wanted to put together a travel documentary, and we were actually pitching it around a couple years ago,” Colletti tells Zap2it. “We wanted to do a European travel vacation show and gear it toward college kids on a budget and a time limit, and find secret spots, hidden gems in Europe that people would want to check out.”

Unfortunately, the execs they met with were interested in taking the show in a different direction that was all too familiar to Colletti, having had his high school personal life aired for the world to see on MTV’s reality drama “Laguna Beach.”wildlife-colletti.jpg

“We found that people were interested in a reality TV aspect that we didn’t want. It was too personal, too much of partying and whatnot,” he says. “They would run with those ideas and it kind of freaked us out. We wanted to feature the surroundings and feature the travels themselves, in a more respectable sense, so it didn’t work out. With work, it kind of fizzled for a while.”

When they began working with Shive, their excitement about the project was reinvigorated. Lafferty tells us that retreating into nature was just what he’d needed after 10 months of working on “One Tree Hill” in Wilmington.

“When we’re in Wilmington, we’re very much in our comfort zone,” the 8-year series veteran says. “Work is a very easy place to be, because everybody knows each other and we’ve been doing it for so long.”

Getting his hands dirty was a refreshing change. “To get together with my brother, who is also a really good friend of Stephen’s, and to go out there with Ian and really sort of get out of our comfort zone and be subject to the elements and enjoy the natural surrounding habitat, it was kind of a shock, but it was also very much needed,” Lafferty explains. “It was a great wake-up.”

Though the “One Tree Hill” stars are the subjects of the pilot presentation, Colletti says that they’re not planning to be the stars of the show if they can get the documentary series picked up.

“We don’t want to feature ourselves going on these adventures, we want to bring other people, other personalities into it, bringing an awareness to people so they can understand their surroundings,” he says. “There are these amazing places in your backyard that are very accessible and cost-effective. Personally, you can take a lot from that.”

“We had an absolute blast. I’m very proud of it, honestly,” Lafferty adds. “I think it’s a really positive project. I hope it’ll make people want to have a good time like that, go out and have similar experiences. That’s really what it’s all about. We’re trying to show people that these are easy things to do and it’s so accessible.”

Source: Zap2it

OneTreeHillWeb.net writes: A few weeks ago we informed you about the Wild Life: A New Generation of Wild project for James Lafferty, Stuart Lafferty, Stephen Colletti, and nature photographed/author Ian Shive. They will be documenting their look behind-the-scenes into the wildest places in America and around the world for their web-series as they bring ‘the wonder, beauty, and adventure of the outdoors to a whole new generation.’

They began their journey last month into the wild and have been documenting it on Twitter (@WildLife_TV) and their website http://www.generationwild.tv. There have been some awesome updates and pictures of their trip which we strongly think you should check out. On Monday, April 18th tune into GenerationWild.tv for the premiere episode!

Source: OneTreeHillWeb.net

Here are some captures on James’ brief appearance in Wakey Wakey’s videoclip Car Crash.

Wakey Wakey is the band of Mike Grubbs who also starred in One Tree Hill on season 7 as “Grubbs” the bartender who later appeared to have an amazing voice! So cool James is a part of one of his videos. Let us know what you think of the video.

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Projects > Videoclip: Wakey Wakey “Car Crash” (2011)

Sorry with being late with the photos. Enjoy! Credits goes to Sheeda.

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Public Appearances > 2009 > Battle of the Sexes Basket Ball Game (Jun. 2, 2009)
Public Appearances > 2009 > Battle of the Sexes After Party (Jun. 2, 2009)