Sophia Soto
After two seasons of waiting, the third season of My Life With the Walter Boys gives Cole (Noah LaLonde) and Jackie (Nikki Rodriguez) fans what they’ve been waiting for: a real chance at their relationship. George’s (Marc Blucas) stroke was a wake-up call for the Walter family to realize what’s really important in life, which sets the scene for the two of them to finally go after what they want.
However, a childhood friend from Jackie’s New York past and her uncle plant doubt after doubt about Cole’s worth into his head, insisting that he would only hold his girlfriend back from her full potential. By episode seven, everything comes crashing down for the couple, and while Cole ends up leaving his big race in the finale to go talk to Jackie and explain, he doesn’t get the chance before Danvers runs him off the road.
Read Awards Radar’s spoiler-filled interview with the actor below, where we discuss taking on more mature storytelling, what racing represents for Cole’s personal growth, making even the small moments of his and Jackie’s journey meaningful, their breakup, and much more.
To start off, I need to tell you that I’ve been ready to go to war for Cole Walter since I finished this season.
Noah LaLonde: Well, it’s very interesting because I haven’t spoken to a lot of people who have seen it, but you never know when people are going to see something, and it’s immediately going to be perceived differently. We’ve talked in the past about how, I don’t know, I feel like Cole’s actions have been — people have found their way to see his heart through what he’s done, even though on the surface, it can tend to be a little bit hard to swallow sometimes, and this season, I mean, there are some really distinct examples. One in particular, of course, that, if you’re not really following the whole season, if you watch in a vacuum, it’s really jarring. So it’s good to hear that you’re ready to defend.
No, because first it was Richard and Elliot, then it was Alex, and Jackie just was the final blow, and I was just like, is no one going to push back at him and be like, I know this isn’t you, what is going on? I was ready to fight someone, because I was like, we’re not going to continue to torture this poor boy — he is so upset, why is no one helping him?
I know. That’s kind of where the magic, I feel like, of this season is, is that I almost look at it as in two parts. The first season is its own thing, and the second season, I feel like, is Cole’s way of addressing the thing that he’s needed to address. He’s taken ownership, and he silently tries to work on himself and create this better version of a person for himself, for Jackie, for the next opportunity, whether it’s coaching or whatever it is. So he’s working on that for himself.
But in the third season, you kind of see for a moment that new version of him. He’s actually happy, he’s with the person [he wants to be with], and he even finds something else that is maybe a little bit dicey because of the PTSD of what Jackie could have experienced with just the topic of being in a car, but after, he starts to self-destruct again as soon as it becomes that thing where people are putting things in his head and like, ‘Hey, all that work that you’ve done on yourself? I’m here to tell you that it wasn’t enough. I’m here to tell you that no matter what you’ve done, it’s not going to happen.’ The way it’s said to him is even worse, because it’s people who are speaking down to him so comfortably, which is a thing that I never like to see. But it all gets pushed under the rug because nobody sees it except for those people. So yeah, it’s an interesting thing. It’s an interesting dynamic shift, and then it shifts again. It’s a fun season, though.
Moving on to George’s stroke, I told you how much the portrayal of that storyline has meant to me personally, seeing how realistically it was handled. There were specific things I noticed with Cole: him being at the hospital the most, because he didn’t want his dad to be alone, and even once his dad was home, burying his own feelings of what it was like to see his father so unlike himself in that position, so that no one else would worry. We saw all the kids handle the situation differently, but why do you think it was important for Cole to be the one to have those reactions?
Well, I think because in that process of working on himself and growing as a human being, you know, a young adult, a YA himself, there’s a certain sort of awareness that you start to develop. In this case, Cole knows that everybody stuck with him through all of this stuff. First of most, being his parents. The thing I always say about him is I hope that he realizes the support that he has and the people around him in this family. That’s not just a strength of quantity; it’s a strength of quality.
And so, when something happens to someone else, I think it’s probably the first chance that Cole, like he says in that scene at the end of episode one, has to return the numerous favors that have been done for him and the unconditional support that has been done for him, and not because of some life-threatening health thing. I mean, again, this question since the first season of, well, Cole lost his football career, Jackie lost her family — George almost loses his life, and so the stakes are even higher. I think maybe for the first time, Cole has been able to pull himself back and realize a little bit of prioritization with those stakes and realize just how impactful losing somebody like that who’s been by your side could have been. I think it comes at a time where he’s mature enough to know that it’s important to be there, and so he is. I think it’s as simple as that.
We talked about moving into a more mature space with a YA show too. What is that like to portray and bring these more serious subject matters in knowing how it will affect audiences and, in the process, getting to stretch yourself as an actor?
Yeah, I mean, like I’ve said from the beginning with this character, I felt a certain kinship, I know of a certain kinship to Cole, because there were so many parallels just with having a sport kind of define so much of your life, having it be so intertwined with your identity, having to then pick up the pieces and recreate that identity. I often say, I see parts of him in myself, and so sometimes it feels like in my character work, I’m guiding him through his life within the bounds of the script, of course, but it’s lined up so nicely so many times. So the chance to get to put all of this maturity on display, and have a space to do that, is really cool because it’d be very easy to just continue to do this same thing with the character, the script, and the world, but I think the season is indicative of the fact that these characters are growing and there is sort of a timeline that they’re getting toward; you’re not a high school forever.
In the same way, the power of TV and film is you can see yourself on the screen, or you can see a circumstance on the screen that reminds you of something you’re going through, or helps you rethink something that you’ve gone through, or is something you’ll watch, and then down the line, have a better understanding of. It’s the same thing to be able to bridge the gap between life and art. I just hope the same thing, like you’ve been so kind to confide in me in what’s going on in your personal life, people see that, and they feel comfort, they feel solace, even if they don’t expect it, or if it’s not exactly the same, but sometimes it’s very similar. It’s an honor to be a part of that, whether it’s the most serious thing, or even something that is just perspective-shifting for someone. So I continue to feel super, super grateful for the opportunity to just have a role in people’s lives, and hopefully do the maturing process justice. It’s like I’ve gotten a second chance to do it a little bit, because I obviously had to at some point myself, and now I get to rework it through him.
Now you get to scream at Cole, like, Oh my God, don’t do that!
Yeah, and it’s funny, it’s hard to — when I watch it back, having been removed from it, and not quite in the depths of the next chapter, kind of in this limbo, I still root for him. But I have that feeling because when I’m doing it, you’re making sense of all these things, and you find a way. There’s sense to be made. Everybody believes what they’re doing, but when you watch it back, it’s hard not to do a little screaming, “Ah, come on!”
We do get a new chapter with Cole this season in terms of racing. For you, what do you think that has unlocked within him? I feel like a lot of his life has been uncontrollable with his injury, with what he’s lost, and then feeling a certain way about Jackie despite the complications, but now he is literally in the driver’s seat and giving himself a little freedom.
I think it’s a refreshing thing, especially in the way that he confronted so much of the last stage of his life, which was that loss of control. I think in season two, we saw, not to bring another pun into it, a lot of him taking his foot off the gas, and slowly navigating what was ahead of them one step at a time, not 140 miles per hour. So, to have done his version of some personal work that led to some personal growth, and then kind of had that be so on the sidelines, to get back into it, and really, in all sense of the word, take control of things, I think it gave him that — it’s like he lost that sense of control, that force that was his life, and to be prepared to accept the new one, he had to go through that stage of having nothing.
It’s no surprise that it took almost a reforming of who he is. He emerges as this person who’s now a lot more ready to confront and be with this person who’s been inspiring. Jackie’s character has been inspiring him and kind of pulling him in some way, literally, and just her presence alone, pulling him out of that slump that he was in. And then, to come out of that slump a bit, have some good things happen: his dad does start to get a little healthier, Jackie’s feelings become pretty transparent, and the racing presents itself. When you only have 10 episodes, you have to do it pretty quickly, but it’s a little bit of, okay, if you put the work in and you’re patient, these good things can happen to you. So I think that opportunity being presented to him is timely, because I think he was ready for it. Now, what happens next with that is, again, like, he didn’t get hurt racing. He got hurt being responsible. But he took a couple dips into the irresponsible pool with it.
Reflecting on Cole and Jackie’s scenes this season, was there a moment or a line that seemed simple in the script, but felt magical or extra meaningful for the characters when you were actually bringing it to life or watching the final cut?
Yeah, a lot of them. It’s no secret to us, or at least to me, that I think there’s a decent amount of support for the Cole and Jackie thing. So I mean, whether it’s my family members or if I meet fans on the street, a lot of times I hear like, “Oh, I hope [it’s] you guys,” or “Hope it’s you.” I hear the other side the same amount, but knowing that there is that behind it and then knowing that we’re going to be dipping our toes into the actual [relationship], it was a little bit daunting at first. You didn’t want to go through the motions of it. You wanted it to be meaningful and to represent the whole path of what it took to get to that. I remember Nikki and I made sure that we didn’t, like if something wasn’t feeling authentic to the characters, we would take a little bit of extra time with it or try to do it in a meaningful way that didn’t just get swept up in the — obviously, I think we’ve had good chemistry since we met, doing scenes for a long time have been a lot of fun, but to actually do scenes that are not just showing chemistry, but really showing a developing love for two characters, I think it was something that was a lot of fun for us.
But again, you never know how it’s going to look. One that does stand out to me is some of the scenes where — they’re high school kids, and they’re embracing intimately a lot, and there’s different levels to that, but I’ll speak about the less serious ones, like kissing in the hallway and stuff like that. I feel like there’s a really thin line of that could be, I don’t know, maybe a little corny. Maybe that’s the word, if you’re just kind of doing that at every turn. I think we just wanted to make it feel more meaningful. Something that’s been a long time coming and not so much just two high schoolers being irresponsible, but two people who have really wanted to explore what it is to be happy and be with one another, and getting to do that. I was happy with it, watching it back. It felt like I was happy that these two people were happy, at least for a moment.
It felt earned.
Yeah, exactly. It felt earned.
It is because when you watch it, you feel all of those emotions, and I feel like that is the core of a good ship. If you don’t feel anything when you’re watching those smaller scenes — it can’t only be the big scenes. It has to be the small moments, like stealing kisses in the hallway.
Yeah, because how do you do justice to a relationship that’s forged through these massive moments that are so massive, but they’re not all positive? All the buildup comes from so many different sources, and then when you finally get together, it’s like, Oh, well, how do we keep that as engaging? So it was fun to explore for sure, and even as hard as it was, it was fun to explore the other half of it, too, because it’s all there.
A little upsetting as a viewer, but…
I also agree with that. When I was a viewer, as a viewer, I agree.
Well, he did have one win this season, even though I don’t feel like it was celebrated as much as it should have been, but Cole was accepted to UT. Two-part question for you: Do you think if he had found out before the breakup, it would have changed how he thought about his own worth and maybe the future he could have had with Jackie? And how did you go about approaching the portrayal of that pain? I feel like we saw a lot of Jackie’s pain, but we didn’t necessarily see big bits of pain from Cole. It was all very small, which was fitting for his character, but how did you approach that?
Yeah, I mean, both are great questions, especially the first one, because honestly, the way in which I came to find out that he even got in, like, the way we work on the show is we get the scripts as we go, so it’s hard to imagine a world where Cole would have actually known about UT prior to the breakup, which is good for the character. I didn’t have to ask myself that question, because I think it was such this all-encompassing feeling that was like, okay, Elliot, Richard, they’re right. They’re right; she’s doing all this stuff she’s not supposed to do. She’s cutting class, she’s dropping grades, she’s forgetting stuff. They’re right.
I think that that kind of closed in on him throughout the season, and it felt like a dead end with what was next with him. He was so involved in, like, I have to do something, I have to do something, that I think was almost a little bit shocking to find that out because when you get on that self-destructive path, and you start to think negatively about yourself, I think it’s pretty normal to assume the next thing could be negative, too. So it definitely takes a little bit of the sweetness out of that moment.
And he still told her [the news] first.
Well, I don’t think it would have happened without her, which is a sad thing to have to celebrate without the person that helped you so much. But also, there wasn’t really any celebrating. I mean, there was a party, but to say that Cole celebrated, I would say, is a stretch. I don’t think he celebrated at all.
You did get that moment with Alex, which I thought was very valuable to have in terms of him choosing to tell someone because he hadn’t told anyone [the real reason for the breakup].
These are great questions, and they’re jogging different thoughts about this whole process to me, because when we did episode seven, the breakup scene, there were a lot of different ways that we did that. I mean, I remember there were ways that Cole’s pain was very evident. We ran them that way; they were very difficult, but I remember watching it and thinking, Okay, this is going to be the kind of Cole Walter thing where it’s going to be pretty subtle, and you’re going to be tasked as an audience member to decide, why did he do that? Where I think if Cole runs out of the annex and starts bawling his eyes out, then you know, oh, he did that [because of this]. I think the pain of it lied in, again, that thin line that it rested on.
He never really gets it out to anybody until that scene — it is cool that it was to Alex because the way in which they’ve kind of gone back and forth for a while, again, it felt earned that, of all people, he would entrust that information with Alex. But I was happy to see that scene because it is a bit of, okay, fine, maybe you aren’t supposed to be the one to hear all this, but I’m just gonna say it. Like, I have to say this because I have to tell someone. But yeah, it was honestly, of all the things, the certain beats in the script that you’re tasked with inhabiting, that one felt like you just have to see it as what could have been always perpetually like, man, I have no control over this, but I think I did the right thing. But you feel alone, you know?
I’m gonna end by telling you that I’m very mad about the cliffhanger, but I can’t wait until next season, and I can’t wait to talk to you about it. You better take care of Cole for me until I get to see him again.
I hope he’s okay. I certainly hope he’s okay.
All episodes of My Life With the Walter Boys are streaming on Netflix. The series has already been renewed for a fourth season.
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