jacket. Ralph Lauren
shirt. Calvin Klein
necklace. Karo Koru
opposite
jacket. Ralph Lauren
shirt. Calvin Klein
jeans. Levi’s
necklace. Karo Koru
Inspired by the same-titled, NY Times bestselling book, Where the Crawdads Sing is one of the summer’s most highly anticipated film releases. At the helm of the film’s production is Reese Witherspoon, and matching the mastery of her behind-the-camera prowess is the bevy of onscreen talent that brings the story to life. Among the film’s rising talents is Logan Macrae, who costars as Jodie, the fiercely protective older brother of protagonist Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones), an introverted social castaway who is scandalously tried for murder in the 1960s Deep South.
No newcomer to sharing screen time with Hollywood legends, Logan has worked alongside such luminaries as the late Ray Liotta (Black Bird), Amanda Seyfried (A Mouthful of Air), and costars with Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones in Amazon’s soon-to-be-released The Burial. Heartbreakingly handsome and wonderfully down to earth, the former economics and political science major opens up to Schön! about the serendipity of his off-the-beaten-path success, staying grounded in la-la land, and, for the first time, reveals his aspirations of starring in one of Marvel’s biggest blockbusters.
Where the Crawdads Sing is a wildly successful novel. It spent more time in the number one slot on the New York Times Bestseller’s List than any other book.
Yeah. It’s crazy how popular the book was and it was something that I didn’t even realize until I got the part and then I started to do my digging on it. I was just absolutely blown away. I had no idea.
I was going to ask you how familiar you were with the book or its storyline before actually taking on the role.
The closest I got to it was when my wife read the book. So the book was, like, in the house.
In the house before the role came to you?
It just worked out that way. I got some information from her—what she knew about the storyline—and then I tried to get a good overview of what the story was before the audition. I hadn’t read it before the audition. The fact that I was able to shoot it in New Orleans, which kind of has a special place for me, was something that I look back on and it was perfect for me. It’s really how I look at it because even looking at Jodie as a character, there were so many similarities between him and me, that it was kind of just a match made in heaven a little bit.
Could you tell us what are some of those similarities?
In the story, both Jodie and Kya just go through some very difficult things in their upbringing in life. And not that I ever went through anything to the extent that they have, but I think the similarities that Jodie and I have kind of is the way we face that resilience and the way that we approach those things and just our overall protectiveness of our family, in his case, his younger sister, Kya. I have two younger brothers and I play that older brother role as much as I can with them. I think it’s just that stoic approach to kind of difficult situations and learning how to get through those things.
You say that the stoic approach gets through things and it sounds like it’s perseverance and fortitude, which are two essential traits for an acting career. How would you say that those traits—the traits that you just said you have in common with Jodie—have helped you navigate through this industry that you’re in?
Yeah. I think one of the most difficult things with modelling and acting is you’re gonna get told “no” so many times. It is guaranteed that you’re gonna be told no way more than you’re ever gonna be told “yes.” So the fact that I started modelling at, I guess what I considered a young age, in my early twenties, just taught me to keep a very level head through things. It’s so easy to get swept away in numbers and jobs and potential clients. You can get excited about something but if you get too excited, you tend to be crushed pretty hard if it doesn’t come through. I learned very early on that it’s more about the work and the consistency and the other side of it will all shine through if you focus on those things.
Could you give us—let’s say a 30-second elevator pitch— the storyline of Where the Crawdads Sing?
I would say you don’t have to read the book. I think what made the book so successful is what also makes this movie successful. It was adapted so well, and what is so special about this story is that there are different things taking place. It’s not just this love story between Kya and her love interest, and it’s not just this crime that took place and the case that surrounds it. You also watch Kya’s resilience as a woman go through very difficult things. I would just say go see it because I don’t think there’s anything else out there. It’s so unique in everything that takes place within this one story.
In what ways do you feel like the landscape, or energy of NOLA, or just outside of NOLA enhanced what was happening in the storyline?
So, I think it did [enhance it] just in the sense that if you ever get the chance to see kind of the swamp, even state parks – it was shot in the state park just outside of New Orleans. If you get the chance to see these places, I don’t think there’s anywhere else that looks like it. You go on a swamp tour down here. I remember the first time I did it, which was years ago before anything of this, and it’s a mind-blowing experience. I remember going on a fan boat and I was shocked something like it exists. It’s just a very, very special place and I think when you deep dive and you see the way that this movie was shot in the swamps, it just worked so, so well for what this storyline is.
You were in the swamps of NOLA— getting the tour of the swamps just outside of NOLA— and then it worked out well because you knew how to navigate through it for the film. It sounds like that, kind of.
Yeah, it just kind of lined up that way so it wasn’t the first time I’d ever been out there or anything or experienced that. In my mind it was funny because, obviously, when you read these books, your imagination creates these pictures for you. The closest thing I had was my experience going through these swamps outside of New Orleans years ago and coming to find out other people felt like that was the perfect backdrop fold as well.
How recently did you move to New Orleans?
I moved to New Orleans because of COVID. I was in New York City and then COVID sent everyone all over the world. My wife and I felt that getting stuck in an apartment in New York City didn’t sound great, so we left very, very early in March 2020. We both bought one-way tickets down here and she never saw that apartment again. I did; I went back and packed it up and stuff. It wasn’t expected or anything, we looked at it as a vacation. I think a lot of people thought they were taking some time off and then, months later, realized it was their new lives.
Well, it sounds like New Orleans is closer to your heart than New York, but I’ll just ask you which of the two—since professionally, you’ve lived in both— feels closer to your disposition, to who you are?
That’s very hard. I like some of the things that New Orleans offers in the sense of space and I mean living in a single-family home versus an apartment in New York City. That beats anything every day. I think pace and motivation-wise, I love New York City in that sense. There’s just an energy about New York that the second you get off the airplane, I think you just kind of feel that buzz of people. It’s a place that I love just dropping back into because it’s just so, so motivating when you’re there actually full time. I think it can be tough sometimes and it wears on you a little bit, but at the same time, I do love New York City.
shirt. Mr Porter
tank. Calvin Klein
jeans. Levi’s
necklace. Homer
opposite
jacket. Todd Snyder
shirt. Calvin Klein
jeans. Mr Porter
shoes. Allen Edmonds
necklace. Mejuri
I notice you’re very humble considering all of the headways that you’ve made in your career and you’ve worked with some heavy-hitting names—you were with Ray Liotta in Blackbird, and Reese Witherspoon directed Where the Crawdads Sing, and then I heard that you are working with Tommy Lee Jones and Jamie Foxx too. What would you say is the greatest lesson that you’ve learned while working with such heavyweights?
I’ve been unbelievably blessed in terms of working with all of those people. It’s happened in the last year. If you had told me that two years ago, I would’ve said you’re crazy. To turn around and work with all of these names back to back to back has been an absolute blessing. Working with them, I always go back to this one—it was Jamie Foxx. There was a day on set where I didn’t have lines that day, so I was just somewhat in the background. I got to sit back and watch Jamie work and he had this scene where he had to deliver a pretty important moment in the story. I remember the director calling action and I’m still green to this and still learning a little bit that when a director calls action, I’m like, “okay, and go.” I jump right on top of it.
It was amazing to see Jamie take his time and get himself in the right place before he started the scene, even though action was already called. He just knew that for himself to get what he needs out of the scene, he has to get himself in a certain place so that it works. He took his time and it was just a very powerful thing that he did. It taught me that, at the end of the day, the results of what we are doing are the most important part of a film and you have to do whatever it takes to get those results even if people are waiting on you. At the end of the day, the results matter the most.
I read that you took sensory classes to get you more in touch with emotions for when you’re on screen. Whatever you had to emotionally unearth—let’s say to open you up to those emotions for onscreen—were you able to utilize any of that off-screen?
I think in my day-to-day, what that did is I think it kind of gave me a sense, or it taught me to allow emotions to come up. I think in our day-to-day lives, we’re very much taught to push everything down and show emotion. Men are not supposed to cry and all of those things. The biggest thing I learned from all of that is there’s a reason your body feels as though it needs to do that and you need to give yourself that release when it does need that. I just became more in touch with all those things. As you said, I just learned that there’s a reason these emotions are there and you need to explore that when they do come up because it’s a natural thing that’s taking place.
In terms of your roles and the direction that your career is taking, is there a dream role or series that you have tucked in your mind for what you would like to do?
I’ve actually never said this one out loud, and there’s a little bit of like a crossover in name and stuff like that, but I’ve always been attracted to it…My dream role would be to take over Hugh Jackman’s spot as Wolverine only because his name is Logan and I just think it would be a very interesting character to do something with that. I think it would be a lot of fun to be able to have the opportunity to do that.
Well, when that happens, remember this interview, remember this day. [Laughter]. Just curious, what’s the last show you binge watch, if you even binge watch?
Okay, it was Euphoria. I had a very rainy Sunday here in New Orleans, which I don’t know if that was a good thing because it is such a dark show, and to add like a rainy Sunday to it, too. By the end of the day, I needed to get outside and take a breath or something. It is so heavy. I liked it. I think that the list can go on and on when you’re watching that show and how talented so many people are on that show and the way that it is written and directed. I don’t know what that guy [Sam Levinson] experienced in high school, but it is a hell of a story.
You just sold it to me. So, on a sunny day, I am going to watch Euphoria. [Laughter].
I’m thinking you don’t binge it either, give it an episode-a-day type situation. Don’t do all of it in one day or you might be feeling a little down.
You studied economics and political science in university and then you switched to modelling, and then to acting. Those are so many distinct transitions. What’s something that you’ve learned, a trait that you learned about yourself that you maybe weren’t aware that you had before, all of that, that you realize you have now through all of that?
Yeah. I think that’s a great question. The approach to some of those things and the reason I gravitated towards the political science and economic side of stuff was, in high school, I was student body president. I thought, “oh, okay, let’s do the politics thing” and I felt like I fell into that. I think the biggest thing I learned from where my career kind of veered to and everything is just that we don’t all have such a set path. I was very scared, especially when I did the modelling stuff, because it was so unconventional. I learned that fear should guide you more than anything. If you are scared to do something, there’s probably a reason why you should get up there and do it. I think theatre scares the hell out of me so, at some point in time, I should probably do theatre just because there’s something in there that I will probably gain from it. Following that fear is the biggest thing that I learned throughout that process and those transitions.
Who knows, maybe you’ll play the role of a president — or maybe you might be president of the US one day, right?
Right. It’s so funny to see the celebrity full circle into politics. Politics are a tough conversation nowadays. I think that anything’s possible on those fronts and I think staying well-educated is something you can always do, whether you’re actually participating in it or just kind of watching from afar.
Well, since you have that economics background, any suggestions on how to get these gas prices down?
You wanna know how much a nerd I am? I think gas prices are now down for the 38th day in a row. That’s how much of a nerd I am. So it’s happening, just wait.
Alright, I’ll wait. If they go back up, I’m thinking of you. [Laughter]. It’s great speaking with you. It seems like everything serendipitously lines up for you in life, in a very connect-the-dots type of way. Does it seem like that to you too?
On paper, I think it does. When you’re in the moment, I think it’s a little bit slower for all that stuff and it doesn’t look so perfectly lined up, but I’ve been very lucky and blessed. So it’s gone well for sure.
shirt. Rag & Bone
tank top. Calvin Klein
jeans. Levi’s
opposite
shirt. Mr Porter
tank. Calvin Klein
jeans. Levi’s
necklace. Homer
Where the Crawdads Sing is in theatres now.
photography. Osvaldo Ponton
fashion. Ashley Zielinski
talent. Logan Macrae
grooming. Valissa Yoe @ See Management
photography assistant. Ben Hoste
words. Constance Victory
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