Lee Norris reflects on his 'Tree Hill' years & looks forward for Mouth & himself!

Lee Norris has been on One Tree Hill since its 2003 debut./CW TV

Lee Norris has literally grown up in front of our eyes with his wealth of television role experiences. As a young kid he made his acting debuts on Disney's The Torkelsons and ABC's Boy Meets World. But no character has allowed him to truly grow and make a name for himself as an actor like that of Mouth McFadden on One Tree Hill. For the past seven years Norris has been playing a role that has taken him on a journey of various routes as an actor, encountering all kinds of challenges one can encounter from the high-school to young adult 'real' world. And through it all, his character has remained the loyal, humble friend. A quality whom anyone who spends even a small amount of time with Lee Norris can see is something he shares with his on-screen role. In our interview, Norris reflected back on his most significant story lines with Mouth, the on set moments he'll never forget, as well as what he hopes to see happen for Mouth and for himself. He also shares what life on One Tree Hill and in Wilmington has taught him about, well, life!

What's a storyline that stands out to you from the seven years you've been playing as Mouth?

Lee-You know I have to say for me, I always go back to the storyline with Jimmy Edwards and my character. I thought it was so smart of Mark [Schwahn] the way that he handled that. You know my character sort of started out with Jimmy Edwards' character on the side lines and his character kind of faded away and so you just sort of expected never to hear from that character again and then they brought him back in such a powerful way. And I really think that episode in season three with the school shooting, I think it was one of those episodes with those of us that have been around from the beginning are the most proud of.

And for Mouth, he was sort of this happy go lucky guy before all of that and since then he's been through some things in his love life and a lot of ups and downs. I mean you have to remember that really did a number on him. It's his best friend and his best friend potentially turned on everyone and had this really dramatic thing happen so. And I love the stuff whenever they bring his mom back. The lady who plays Jimmy Edward's mom, she's a fantastic actress and it always takes me back to those early days of the show that I really love and it was such a dramatic and challenging storyline. That one stands out to me more so than all of the love triangles and all that stuff. You know that stuff is a lot of fun to do and fun to play but that storyline always stands out to me personally.

 What's your take on what's happening with Mouth, Lauren, Skills, and Millicent? Do you think he should date Lauren or be loyal to his friend?

Lee-It was difficult when I read it. I mean looking at the situation Mouth has really been on a roller coaster with Millicent. I mean all the problems she's had, she's just been through so much and you know there was a point where I, I was rooting for Mouth and Millicent because I love them together, but there was a point where I was like if she doesn't get off this self-destructive path, at some point he does have to protect his heart and take care of himself. Because he did try to reach out to her and it just wasn't sinking in for some reason. And during that time you know this natural relationship with Lauren merged and it was really kind of interesting for us as the actors because we're all close friends. Allison [Munn], Lisa [Goldstein], and myself, we're all really good friends. We didn't really know where they were going with it so Allison and I were just excited because we got to do some stuff together and we hadn't had that much to do together but we didn't necessarily know that they were going to take it down a romantic path and then it sort of happened. We were a little bit surprised but it was really nice. It was a nice relationship and it felt very easy between mouth and Lauren which I really liked. It just felt natural.

But at the same time his friendship with Skills goes back so far that I really don't know. I obviously was conflicted about it and I think that friendships are very important and relationships do come and go unless you end up with the one. So you have to be loyal to your friends. Without giving anything away my hope is that mouth will stay true to his friendship but also stay true to his heart and I think you'll see that he tries to.

The Brooke and Mouth friendship has been a significant bond on One Tree Hill, why do you think that has lasted for so long through good and bad?

Lee-It's one of those things that started in the very beginning of the show when everyone was just getting to know those characters. It was kind of cool because you have the hot like kind of vixen in school and like the kind of nerdy nice guy, that you wouldn't necessarily ever put them together romantically. But you know as the series has gone on you found out there's a lot more to Brooke than just that image she had in high school and there was a lot more to Mouth than just being kind of nerd and I think they found an unlikely friendship in each other. Certainly Mouth had some romantic things about her cause of how beautiful she is. But I think that they always like that and root for that. A lot of them have I think it's just because Mouth and Brooke have always been good to each other and they've always sort of looked out for each other. It's kind of nice when you see that between an unlikely pairing like that. Because that's so much how real life is. A lot of times you find a connection with someone that you never really expect to have, those are some of the most wonderful relationships that you have in life. It's been really nice to see that friendship continue to grow and be there and especially this season she and I, you know Sophia[Bush] and I are great friends and we had a couple of moments this season. It's one of those old relationships which goes back to the old days of the show which I think is always fun for the viewers that have been around for a long time you know.

How was the Utah filming experience?

Lee-It was really fun. We had a blast. We worked in Park City, Utah which is just this beautiful location, there was so much snow on the ground. The only thing that was kind of a bummer about it was that we had to actually work everyday that we were there so we didn't get to play or ski(laughs) you know as much as we would've liked to while we were there. It was just beautiful. The people were just so welcoming. We had a ton of fans that showed up which was just amazing. We were like how did you guys find us cause we were in kind of these crazy locations, as usual the die-hard One Tree Hill fans showed up. It was awesome. We had a blast.

They got some fresh snow while we were there, they really found some great places for us to shoot. We all got to go sledding one day which was just like a blast, especially with Jackson [Brundage], you know when he's around we're all like little kids basically. We all kind of just like to have fun. (Laughs). It was a really great way to wrap up the season because we worked hard all year. You know the drama on the show can be really really heavy so it was nice to have an episode where some fun things happen but also there's some drama otherwise it wouldn't be a true One Tree Hill episode. (Laughs) But we had a lot of fun. It was nice.

Looking back on your One Tree Hill experiences, is there a day that stands out to you as the most fun?

Lee-It's so hard because we've actually had so many fun days and that's a really good problem to have but it's rare that I go to set and there's a day that I don't laugh about something cause I'm working with a lot of my best friends and people that I've known for so long. But when I think back on it, let's see...well you know recently while we were in Utah we had a snowball fight. It sounds kind of silly but it was so much fun. We just had a blast and we were totally just kids again. I mean how often did you get to just go work and just run around with your friends and throw snow balls all day? It's just so fun, it seems kind of criminal to do it but that's a really fun memory especially with some of the new kids involved. That's really nice.

In the past I think back to one of the most fun episodes I remember was we did a cheer leading competition way way back in the beginning and we all actually traveled to South Carolina to shoot that episode. We were all staying at the same hotel and we were still getting to know each other at the point and we stayed up all night just like going to each other's rooms and just being dumb and kids and just being silly. We snuck into the pool at night at the hotel and jumped into the pool. We just had a blast you know. Lots of fun memories with that.

Was that when mouth choreographed the dance for the cheerleaders?

Lee- Yes!(laughs) It's so funny people come up and talk to me about that almost more than any other thing Mouth has done on the show. That was sort of the first thing that we gave Mouth to do that stood out from just the typical stuff on the show. I remember I had so much stake out. I got to go and just watch these girls do this cheer leading routine like I just had to figure it out for myself and it'd never done anything like that before. The girls were really nice about helping me. And it turned out to be really really funny when I actually did it in front of the cameras and everybody, and I just remember all the crew and everyone was laughing because it was just pretty hysterical. Just a lot of fun.

What's a storyline you would still like to pursue with Mouth that you haven't?

Lee-You know he's done so much but, well first of all I've always joked that all of his friends are famous basically. Like Nathan is a famous basketball player and Haley is a singer and Brooke's a famous fashion person and now Julian is a budding director, so I'm like where's Mouth's fame and fortune?(Laughs) He needs to be on like ESPN as a big time broadcaster you know. Enough of this little tree hill crazy news stuff. He needs to get to the big time so I think that would be fun. And then just personally I'd love to see him just find happiness with a girl and I don't know who that would be but I want him to just find someone that is good to him and vice versa. As boring as that sounds and it will never be that simple in tree hill but it would be nice for him to end up that way.

This was a popular fan question, why is Mouth still unemployed? How is he managing?

Lee- They actually made a joke about it in one of the episodes, I think it was the 80's episode, where Junk and Fergie are over Mouth sees that they ordered a pizza and he says can you guys chip in I'm unemployed and then it turns out to be Kylie, his sort of fantasy date or whatever. I think that because there are so many famous and wealthy, rich people on the show, that it's kind of especially mirroring the time that we have now, economically things in the world are kind of slow at the moment you know, I think they thought it was nice to have a character that wasn't necessarily succeeding at everything and that was having to endure a little bit of the struggle. And so I think that's sort of where they were going with that.

And also it was all set up for a result of mouth standing up for his friendship with Nathan and not doing the story on Nathan and the whole scandal was going down. I really love that I felt like they got back to the core of who Mouth really is and his character. He's sort of veered off path the last couple of seasons and sort of been on this really dark journey and I really like the fact that they had him have him stick up for his friend. I felt that got back at to who Mouth is at his core and he's the type of guy that said you know what I love my job but I love my friends more. I'm willing to take a hit for my friend and do the right thing so I thought it was really cool.

How have you grown as an actor playing Mouth all these years?

Lee-It's just allowed me to grow first of all just by being on a set almost every day and watching everyone and working with some terrific directors. Like working with Paul Johannson, he's such a terrific director. He really challenged me in a lot of ways to go to some different places with my acting, you just learn from experience and by doing so, to be on a show for seven years has been just an invaluable experience that way. And then also I've gotten to really stretch and do a lot of different things because the character is so, he's so varied I mean one minute I'm doing comical things like the cheer leading routine and then the next season I've got to deal with my friend who's killed himself in the school, and the hardships that come along with all the relationship trouble he's had. So I've just gotten to do a lot of very different things and as an actor that's what you want. You want a character that is all over the place that allows you to try on different persona's so. It's really been a blessing. You know hopefully I have grown. I hope that's the case. I think all of us on the show have and we sort of joke around when we see the show on Soapnet sometimes, some of the older episodes it's really funny to see how much we've grown not just as actors but just hairstyles and the clothes. (Laughs) It's just hilarious to see some of the older episodes.

How do you think you've grown as a person since when you first moved to Wilmington?

Lee-Well I've grown up a lot because when I first started on the show I was just out of college and now I'm kind of I guess you can say a young adult or maybe even a full fledged adult, I don't know. (Laughs) You know you just go through a lot of life experiences in that time. Everyone does no matter what you're doing. But I've just grown up a lot and started to encounter some of the big decisions of life in terms of what career I wanted to do and figuring out personal relationships and things. Wilmington has been an amazing back drop for all of that to happen cause it's such a wonderful town with so much to offer in terms of like wonderful people. Like a picturesque setting. I couldn't have asked for a better place to really grow up. And also with the people on this show I mean these guys are truly a family to me now because we've been together for seven years and that's longer than I was with the people I went to college with or even the people I went to high school with so we've really had a good amount of time together and we've all sort of grown up together, and it's just been an amazing experience. I certainly have a lot of growing left to do and a lot left to learn but over these past couple of years I just really feel like a stronger person now.

How was the filming experience in 'Blood Done Sign My Name'?

Lee-It was a really intense, you know in that movie I played a guy who was accused of murdering a black Vietnam veteran. It was just very very intense. I mean its detectable that as an actor I really enjoy because it was so different from what I do in tree hill and so challenging, but then personally to get into the mind of someone, a character like that was really hard. It was hard because that's very far from who I am as a person and what I've been raised to believe. So it was just really draining but also one of the most rewarding experiences that I've had on the set and the movie just kind of came out in limited release and I got to see it and it was really just a powerful story and just a great experience all around.

I spoke with Cullen [Moss] a lot about that film and he also said it was amazing experience shooting it and working with you in it.

Lee-Working with Cullen was so fun because we're just Junk and Mouth on One Tree Hill, we're usually kind of silly, what he and I have to do together you know whether it's a water gun fight or playing video games or something like that. So to go from something so lighthearted to something so serious, it was comforting to have him there. Because during the intense process of shooting it was someone that I was familiar with that I could just kick around with when the camera wasn't rolling and it kept me very loose. He's just a great guy in general and a terrific actor so we had a lot of fun together.

What is a dream role you would love to explore some day as an actor?

Lee-I wish I had a better idea but I'd love to do something involving music in some way. I was an accapella geek in college and I mean I'm not like a professional singer by any means but it would just be sort of fun to incorporate music into something. So whether I got to play a musician or a singer or something to that degree, I think that would just be like merging both of my interests into one because I'm a huge music fan. I think it'd be really fun. In fact you know there's a lot of people on the show with Joy [Galeotti], Kate [Voegele], Grubbs, they're just tremendous musical talents and so we've always joked that we should do a like a musical One Tree Hill episode because there's just so many of us that really enjoy it.

I know there are so many of you! Jana [Kramer] too has joked about all the singers going on tour together on the show, because you know she's now pursuing music as well.

Lee-That's right she's working on a country album! Which I was shocked because she's like from Michigan! I was like that's so cool that she's all into country music, I love that. That's really awesome. I haven't actually heard her sing yet. She was like working on stuff in Utah and I kept trying to peak into what she was writing down and stuff but she was really protective about it. But she's just a tremendous talent all the way around I know that she'll be successful whatever she does.

What is your other passion aside from acting? What do you think you would be doing if you weren't an actor?

Lee-You know what I loved just being in college and this is so dorky but I loved like being in school and just going to classes. I was an English major so you can probably relate, but I just loved reading and writing and I was terrible at math. I don't want anything to do with math. I would love to be like a professor at a college, just one of those really corky professors(Laughs). I think that would be such a fun job because you're with young people all the time and it's so fun to just talk about all these theories and all these ideas that are out there. I mean the schedule is great because you get summers off which is like how can you beat that you know. I'm a huge collegian sports fan I follow my wake forest, my alma matter sports teams and stuff so you just get to go to games. Basically I just want to be in college for the rest of my life I guess. (Laughs)

Professor Norris! I can see it.

Lee-Exactly, exactly. I think that would be awesome and so. And who knows never say never I mean if I get tired of the show business world that might be where I end up. Maybe some young kid out there will be sitting in my class some day.

You know I went to Maryland and so we both have schools competing against each other for the NCAA championships every year.

Lee-Oh no, we're rivals! You know Mark Schwhan went to Maryland as well did you know that?

Yes, he and I have spoken about that before. He's always says he loves the fellow Terps who support the show.

Lee-That's so funny because when I auditioned for One Tree Hill you know I was still at Wake as a student and I wore my like basketball shirt to the audition because Mouth was a big basketball commentator fan, and he immediately was giving me a lot of grief about my Wake Forest ties. But in a friendly way and so we easily hit it off because we had this ACC connection. It was just really fun.

If you could go back in time and be anyone from history for a day, who would it be and why?

Lee-Oh man! Look at you with this question! This is tough!

OK, I'll give you some examples, James [Lafferty] chose an author he really liked, Daphne [Zuniga] said Buddha, Austin [Nichols] gave me the name of a famous architect whose work he really admired. Stephen [Colletti] recently said a founding father.

Lee-A founding father? That's funny. Wow, look at everyone's smart and wonderful answers.

You know what this is gonna sound really corny and is different from all that, I actually never got to meet my grandparents from my dad's side. They actually passed away before I was born and if I could meet with anybody I'd love to meet both of them. I guess this is cheating. Because I'd love to get to know my family on my dad's side. That sounds fun. So I guess that's not as cool as like a historic figure. It's one of those things where you know sometimes you don't get to know as much about your family as you'd like to and I'd like to. That would be really fun and nice to have. I got to know my grandparents on my mom's side and they were wonderful people but I'd like to have a better sense of my dad's family.

I'm sure you've heard about all the petitions and letters fans have been sending to the CW about One Tree Hill being picked up for an 8^th season, what would you like to say to those loyal fans who have been campaigning so hard for the show?

Lee-The obvious message that we wanna get out there is of course thank you for you know rallying and supporting the show. And the other message is because this show, you know it's really easy to just sit back and say it's out of the fans hands, it's out of our the actors' hands, it's just up to the network and it's up to the powers that be. But the truth is that so many times on the past this show has been on the bubble and it was the fans who saved it, every single time and so I would just say that what they're doing is important and isn't going unnoticed and to thank you for doing it, thank you for taking time out of your busy lives to support something that you hopefully love so much like we do. If we get back on the air for another season which we're certainly hopeful that we will I can promise you that myself and everyone will work as hard as possible to make it as enjoyable for all of you as possible. It is a business at the end of the day but we really have a such a great fan base that hopefully the network is smart enough not to ignore our very passionate fans.

Click on the name to check out my feature interviews with all of One Tree Hill's leading men!-James Lafferty, Austin Nichols, Robert Buckley, Stephen Colletti, Michael Grubbs, Cullen Moss & Jackson Brundage!

Next week an exclusive interview with Kate Voegele who plays Mia on One Tree Hill!

Photo of Lee Norris & Sophia Bush is property of the author. All other photos are credit to the CW network.