jesse metcalfe

Route 66 Revisited

It’s a classic American cocktail. Take two guys, one Corvette Stingray, and a stretch of open highway. Mix. And get out of the way.

Emily Chavous Foster Fashion & Style, Watch & Listen – Fashion

jesse metcalfe
Actors Jesse Metcalfe and Ian Bohen tread pavement through Palm Springs' neighboring hills. Naturally, a proper desert jaunt requires a designer wardrobe.
PHOTO BY FREDRIK BRODÉN

The television series Route 66 premiered Oct. 7, 1960, and ran 116 episodes 
until March 20, 1964. The show followed two young men who travel the country in their Chevrolet Corvette. Both Jesse and Ian wear Vuarnet sunglasses, 
Panache Optical Gallery Palm Springs.

Photographs by Fredrik Brodén

 
Styled by Neil Cohen

Profiles by Emily Chavous

actor: jesse metcalfe

“To be able to transform is something that I get very excited about,” says Jesse Metcalfe. “As actors, we want to appear as little like ourselves as possible.”

In Escape Plan 2: Hades, an upcoming sequel to the 2013 prison-break movie starring Sylvester Stallone, Metcalfe is badly beaten and unrecognizable in the opening scene. “A very different character for me, very edgy, aggressive,” he says. “It was a large ensemble cast with a lot of badass guys [Stallone, Dave Bautista, 50 Cent]. I got the opportunity to have a lot of action, do a lot of stunt work. I’ve played a lot of romantic leads in my career, so anything that’s different is obviously very welcome.”

He plays the love interest in Hallmark Channel’s Chesapeake Shores, which is filmed in Toronto and based on a book series by the same name; the finale of its second season aired in September. Metcalfe has been songwriting for more than a decade and gets to peacock his guitar skills in the show as a budding Nashville musician. “I love acting; it’s definitely a very pure, creative outlet for me. But music is even more pure — it’s just such a direct reflection of who you are.”

Hallmark’s 2015 film A Country Wedding debuted Metcalfe’s mellifluous side and ultimately landed him the gig as Chesapeake’s Trace. “It’s the first time I really got to showcase my ability to sing and play guitar,” he says.

Thirteen years outside Desperate Housewives and his breakout role as Eva Longoria’s boy toy — which, along with 2006’s John Tucker Must Die, propelled him through the ranks of Hollywood’s hottest-hunk lists — Metcalfe is acutely focused on grittier pursuits. Films like Escape Plan 2 and The Ninth Passenger, marked for release later this year, provide opportunity to explore darker personas. In the latter, he portrays a shady mechanic aboard a luxury yacht in what he describes as “a play on a B horror movie.” Though fans will be pleased he hasn’t eschewed sentimental leads: next month Metcalfe can be seen as a single father on the road to romance in Hallmark Channel’s original movie Father Christmas, which premieres Dec. 17.

He is also adding producer to his resume with In Stranger Company, in which he stars alongside Danny Trejo, and Steps, a story about battling addiction, written and co-produced by Metcalfe’s fiancé, Cara Santana, in which they both star.

“It just seems like a logical progression. More control over the material is something that all actors really yearn for,” Metcalfe says. “I’m working toward that … I’m poised and ready for that next window.”

“I love acting; it’s definitely a very pure, creative outlet for me. But music is even more pure — it’s just such a direct reflection of who you are.” Jesse Metcalfe
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Route 66 was famous for supplying great, 
once-great, and soon-to-be-great actors with guest star appearances. Among them were 
Ed Begley, Rod Steiger, Rip Torn, Tuesday Weld, Walter Matthau, James Caan, James Coburn, 
Robert Redford, Jack Lord, Joan Crawford, Cloris Leachman, and Buster Keaton. Above: 
Jesse wears a Hanes T-shirt, hanes.com; 
The Kooples bomber jacket; watch, Jesse’s own.
 

VIDEO: Get a behind-the-scenes look at this photo shoot with Jesse Metcalfe and Ian Bohen.

actor: ian bohen

Ian Bohen isn’t afraid of a little dirt.

Fresh off filming the final season of MTV’s Teen Wolf (which earned him a cultlike following for his portrayal of villainous alpha-werewolf Peter Hale), Bohen has spent recent weeks split between the pine-dappled hills of Montana and Park City, Utah, mid-production on Yellowstone, Taylor Sheridan’s new series slated for release next summer.

It’s a modern-day cowboy drama — the first show greenlit for Paramount Network, a rebranding of Spike TV — in which a family’s Montana ranch is under siege by encroaching settlers. Alongside Kevin Costner (as patriarch), Kelsey Asbille, Kelly Reilly, and Wes Bentley, Bohen portrays a lasso-wielding law enforcement agent named Ryan.

“We get a lot of weapons. We’re constantly roping and riding,” he says. (And working with Costner? “It’s like baseball with Derek Jeter. We just want to watch them do their thing and try to be as good.”)

In a way, the job takes things full circle for Bohen. When he was growing up, his Uncle Tom was his hero. “We would put on backpacks and walk out in the woods, spend three or four nights, and fish and make fires and just talk about life.” Uncle Tom took Ian to Montana and taught him to rope steers; now Sheridan has taken him back.

Bohen also has roles in Sheridan’s runaway festival flick Wind River and upcoming Soldado (a sequel to 2015’s Oscar-nominated Sicario) with Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro. A third film, Little Women, directed by Clare Niederpruem with Louisa May Alcott in the writers’ room, has offered Bohen a refreshing change of pace: He plays the nice guy.

“He’s just an authentic good guy with no hidden agenda, no ulterior motives. On Teen Wolf I’ve played this deceitful character for so long; to be the good guy was something I hadn’t done. [As an actor] you really just have to get out of your own way.”

Off set, Bohen is busy screenwriting. He studied cinematography at UCLA and has produced his own short films, the most recent being The Tow (2016) starring fellow Teen Wolf alumnus JR Bourne. It’s a darker drama that received enough attention that Bohen decided to expand his storyline to feature length.

“It’s a discipline I’m still learning to navigate,” he says of the writing process. “You have an infinite number of trajectories, and you have to pick the right one and the next right one and the next right one without going insane.”

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Milner was a relative unknown when he landed the role of the once-privileged New Yorker who 
sets out on the road. He barely beat out another newcomer for the role: Robert Redford. Ian wears a 
Z Zegna white wool and cashmere turtleneck and shearling jacket, zegna.us; vintage Stetson cowboy hat, 
editor-in-chief’s own; ID bracelet, stylist’s own.

The series, though a spinoff of Silliphant’s Naked City program, was thought to be inspired by Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road. Maharis’ character, 
in fact, was supposed to be drawn from Kerouac himself. Kerouac considered suing Silliphant for the homage. Center: Ian wears Polo Ralph Lauren white jeans, ralphlauren.com; Tom Ford leather York Chain loafers, tomford.com.

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Martin Milner played Tod Siles, a New Yorker and college grad whose 
once-wealthy father has just died, leaving him nothing but the Corvette. 
His buddy, Buz Murdock, played by George Maharis, was a former 
employee of Tod’s father and from a rough part of town. Left: Jesse wears a Cos teal sweatshirt, cosstores.com; The Kooples bomber jacket and black embroidered jeans, thekooples.com; Eleventy brogue leather boots, eleventy.it; Vuarnet sunglasses. 
Ian wears a Cos high-neck sweater; Sandro black leather jacket, sandro.com; 
J.Crew jeans, jcrew.com; Gola sneakers, gola.com; Vuarnet sunglasses.

When it appeared that viewers were not taking to the new duo, the producers wrote an ending where 
Tod finds true love and Lincoln continues on the road by himself. Top right: Ian wears a Scotch & Soda sweater; 
Vuarnet sunglasses. Jesse wears a Hanes T-shirt; Life After Denim varsity cardigan; J Brand jeans; John Varvatos belt, johnvarvatos.com; Gola sneakers; Vuarnet sunglasses.

The show was created by Herbert Leonard and Stirling Silliphant. 
The latter was a screenwriting legend whose credits include The Killer Elite, The Enforcer, and In the Heat of the Night, for which he won 
an Academy Award. Bottom right: Ian wears a Michael Kors shirt, michaelkors.com; 
vintage Vulcain Cricket watch, editor-in-chief’s own.

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After suffering a bout of hepatitis, Maharis disappeared from the show for a number of episodes while 
Tod hit the road on his own. When Maharis missed several more episodes at the start of the next season, he was replaced by Glenn Corbett, playing Lincoln Chase, an introspective Vietnam veteran. Left: Jesse wears a Tom Ford cashmere turtleneck, velvet blazer, pleated gray flannel trousers, and leather York Chain loafers; Native Ken Bleeker eyeglasses. Ian wears a Ralph Lauren cashmere sweatshirt, corduroy suit jacket, and corduroy pants.

Several guest stars played roles that would later figure in future TV series. Alan Alda played a surgeon in one episode, years prior to his Emmy-winning turn as Dr. Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H, while Michael Conrad, who became famous as the sergeant in Hill Street Blues, appeared 
in an episode as a cop. Right: Ian wears a Michael Kors polo shirt; Eleventy hand-knit argyle cashmere zip cardigan, gray flannel cargo pants, and tassel loafers. Jesse wears a Scotch & Soda plaid flannel 
shirt; Michael Kors plaid blazer; J Brand jeans, Saks Fifth Avenue Palm Desert; Brave Leather studded belt, braveleather.com; Gola sneakers; sunglasses, Jesse’s own. On the tree 
behind them hangs a Banana Republic trench coat.

The series was groundbreaking in that it was filmed entirely on location and on the road, 
never in a studio. Despite being named after “The Mother Road,” the famous highway was almost never featured in an episode, even though the series managed to touch down in 25 states and Canada. Above: Jesse wears a Life After Denim varsity cardigan, lifeafterdenim.com; Vuarnet sunglasses. Ian wears a Scotch & Soda combined stripe sweater, scotch-soda.com.

Models: Ian Bohen
Jesse Metcalfe
 

Stylist: Neil Cohen

Grooming: Chelsea Dorris

Car courtesy of Greg Fogelman.
Crew accomodations: Geodesic Dome House, Palm Springs
airbnb.com/rooms/12830029