‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s Gavin Leatherwood Teases Nick Scratch’s Journey In Part 4

Nick Scratch might be a bad boy on Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, but Gavin Leatherwood — who plays the conflicted warlock on the show — is clearly not. Pleasant to talk to, and touring around with his mom, the 25 year old actor just recently wrapped shooting Part 4 of the series (Part 3 dropped in January) after 10 months in Vancouver, an experience Leatherwood noted to Decider, “I feel like we caught our groove.”

“…The thing that I keep saying about Part 3 and 4 that I love is the fact that we all really got to see the good, the bad, and the ugly in each other, “Leatherwood added. “We’re all away from our respective homes and families. We’re working 10 months, which is a long time out of the year. So we really see each other on our good days and on our bad days, everyone has them. We’re human. We’re working our asses off.”

Though there’s no news yet on whether Sabrina will continue past Part 4 — Netflix usually won’t announce pick-ups until about a month after a season finishes airing — there’s still plenty to discuss with Leatherwood, including Nick’s big emotional arc in Part 3, moving beyond the Harvey/Sabrina/Nick love triangle, what to expect as Eldritch Terrors attack Greendale, and of course whether we’ll see more crossovers with fellow Archie-verse shows, Riverdale and Katy Keene.

Decider: Nick is constantly framed – and they even mention it in the show – as a bad boy… But particularly in Part 3, he kind of seems more like a nice boy. How do you play it? How do you approach the role on set?

Gavin Leatherwood: There’s so many different layers to him. Or at least, that’s what I wanted to seek out, to do. Because there was that kind of bad boy nature, with his orgy stuff and studying dark magic on the side, and whatnot. But he was also just really studious, and a diligent warlock. I think he has the persona of a bad boy, but he does have a really good heart and I think Sabrina really brings that out of him, too. When she comes around, it’s like when the Grinch’s heart grows. He feels his warm, fuzzy center start to tingle up and realize that there’s this thing called love. And we see him, especially in Part 3, really struggle with the antithesis of love and the flip side of it, which is fear, I guess. We really see him go through it in Part 3, just trying to figure out how to balance the giant — what’s the world I’m looking for? Contrast to love, I guess.

CAOS was initially was set up as this love triangle thing — where you had Harvey on one side, you had Nick on the other — but that really branched out in Part 3. Was that exciting for you, to have Nick start to exist on his own?

Yeah, because we had seen most of him with Sabrina, right? That’s where a lot of his scenes were, was their dynamic. I mean, I love working with Kiernan [Shipka], I work with her day-in and day-out. She’s probably the easiest person to work with. But just to start playing in other groups and other energies with other people, it was just an exciting thing, as an actor, to do as well. And to see him start looking at his relationships with other characters and going, “Well, what’s his deal here? How does he really feel about Lucifer and all of that drama?” And there’s this really, really intense hate for this guy, but there’s this also this strange bond and connection that only he knows. That’s where he’s going, almost for comfort through punishment. And then, you know, sex demons and all that as well. Yeah, it’s been a fun part to shoot.

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I’m sure everybody asks you about the sex demon stuff, but is something like that fun to shoot?

Absolutely.

It is?

Yeah, man! It’s fun. I don’t know what would make it terribly awful. I guess if the people I was doing it with were not free or open in some way. But we’re professionals at the end of the day, and we understand what the scene is. We really just want to make that moment the coolest moment we can make it. And there was so much we had choreographed that just didn’t make the initial cut, because of time and all that. But there were some really fun, wild things that we were doing in there. It was a blast. It reminded me of — I was gonna say, like the dance days in the back, but we weren’t doing stuff quite that crazy. But with the choreography, and just kind of working with each other and using our bodies and physicality to tell a story. It was really fun.

So basically what you’re saying is: Netflix, release the extended sex demons cut.

[Laughs] It’s coming, yeah, it’ll be a mini-series. We have several clips.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have these arch, over-the-top, insane things like the torture demons; but then you also have these very realistically acted break-up scenes between your character and Sabrina. What is it like, acting-wise, pivoting from one to the other?

It’s different. You can kind of feel it out. When we have our table reads, you can really get a good feel of what’s happening in those moments. And you see when to take the time to let things play out a certain way. You feel it on the day, as well. There are so many different variables that go into, “What is this moment right here and how do we play with it?” As an actor, the goal or the aim is to try a lot of things and see what sticks and what works. For the break-up scene in particular, since we’re talking about it, there were a lot of things that I was trying to do and then realized that it was something much more simple, in a way. Grounded. Honed-in, almost. Channeled into a realistic vibe. When there’s other things happening, there’s definitely amplified feelings. It’s been an interesting thing, differentiating between the two moments.

Do you try different modes on the day? Even in something like that, maybe do it a little bigger for a take?

I mean, we’re dealing with some heightened-ass circumstances. Yeah. For sure. There’s definitely some moments where the theatre kid in me comes alive. Absolutely.

Nick’s story ends pretty quietly in Part 3. He’s on the steps with Prudence [Tati Gabrielle], they’re just sitting there, they’re both lost. What did you take away from that scene and how did you play it?

It was kind of a nice thing to see him resolve in that way, in my opinion. There was so much happening with him in the beginning. There were a lot of different levels of pain, and torture, and anguish, in the beginning. Nick’s biggest struggle, throughout this entire part, is that he just needs to communicate with someone about his feelings. Just anyone. Just talk. We see him acting out and lashing out in these ways, going to sex demons and doing drugs and overindulging. He’s just being violent, taking his feelings out on Blackwood’s flesh-suit, as Lucifer calls it. He’s going off the rails and acting out in all these crazy ways. And then to see him come to a certain place where all of that is behind him and sit for a moment… Prudence, who’s this person he’s known for a long time who’s also going through some crazy shit, comes and sits. There’s just a moment where they can connect. You see a glimmer of hope, because he communicates. He opens up, even just slightly. It sets a precursor to what might happen there. There’s this new, open line of dialogue that just was exchanged between them, and maybe there will be some comfort and solace in that relationship.

Certainly everybody looks at these shows through the lens of ‘shipping… Is that a direction we should look in? Or is it going to be more of a friendship?

I think there’s a comfortability and a familiarity between Nick and Prudence. They’ve known each other for a long time and they’ve messed around in the past, plus the other Weird Sisters. There’s a committed, serious quality to them, I would say. There’s something that’s comfortable with them. And at this point, they are depending on each other to reconcile and get back to ingratiating themselves into the witch world, and into society. But we all know that Nick’s heart is pretty bound to Sabrina. She really was a catalyst for him, in many ways. So I don’t think that goes away. We see Nick lost a lot in Part 3, and there’s still some clarity that he’s looking for in Part 4, for sure.

At this point we’ve heard that in Part 4 the Eldritch Terrors are coming. Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa teased that it’s almost, anthology format is kind of the wrong phrase, but everybody dealing with their own terrors.

It’s not necessarily like each episode is its own thing… It is to some degree. We’re dealing with something much more powerful than anything we’ve ever seen. We’re seeing terrors in a way that are cerebral and very trippy and kind of out there. But I don’t really want to say things without going too far. It is definitely an interesting way of looking at a villain, though.

This is getting very wonky, but we constantly talk at Decider about the “Part” versus “Season” thing, since it seems so confusing for fans. How do you look at them, behind the scenes?

I still don’t really know. Sometimes people will say, “Are you shooting Season 5 yet?” and I typically won’t correct them. So I don’t really know. It must be some sort of technical thing where it’s like, this is the season and it’s split up into two parts. I mean, most seasons are 22 episodes or something like that. For us we shoot them all together as well. I think they just want to release half of them at one point, and then keep people hungry, and then release half again later. You know what I mean? That’s the best way to think about it.

You all just wrapped a couple of days ago, and there were very sweet videos and photos and of everyone saying goodbye… It feels like, at least on the outside, that there’s a palpable difference in how close the cast got over the course of Part 3 and Part 4, versus Part 1 and Part 2. Does it feel like that for you?

Yeah, absolutely, man. Part 1 and Part 2 we were all figuring each other out, like excited little kids at summer camp for the first time. So we were all really excited about everything, and didn’t really know what to expect. The show hadn’t come out at that point, so there were a lot of unknowns. And then with Part 3 and Part 4, I feel like we caught our groove, in a way, where we know what the show is now. Everyone’s got their people that they really bond with. We all still were very easy to socialize with and would have big gatherings, and we do game nights and whatnot. Almost at the beginning it seemed like every weekend we would have a games night, which consisted of running charades and being silly and dancing. Which was a blast.

But the thing that I keep saying about Part 3 and 4 that I love is the fact that we all really got to see the good, the bad, and the ugly in each other. We’re all away from our respective homes and families. We’re working 10 months, which is a long time out of the year. So we really see each other on our good days and on our bad days, everyone has them. We’re human. We’re working our asses off. That just comes, and it really does create a bond that feels long lasting.

I saw a bunch of people tweeting off of that, just the level of sadness of everybody saying goodbye, that “Oh no, the show is being canceled! Oh no, the show is done!” But from the way Netflix renews and cancels things, you’re not even going to hear anything on that front for a while yet, right?

Right, right. We have no clue. I wish I knew. It would make planning life a lot easier.

Yeah, that level of sadness just comes with, like, you spent 10 months together in Vancouver.

And then we’re like, “bye!”

There were those little visits to Riverdale in the first half of the season, other hints and things… Are we going to see any more crossovers in the second half of the season? Anything you can tease?

I think so, if I remember correctly. I know the writers are always wanting to throw in little Easter eggs here and there, to remind people that we are in the same universe. I’m still waiting for my Nick Scratch and Jughead moment. I always want it to happen. I will take motorcycle lessons just to make that happen, so we can ride off into the sunset. But I really don’t know, I’m sure there’s more teasers in Part 4 that I’ve probably missed, because a lot happens. But keep your eyes peeled. Anyone who’s a Riverdale fan will definitely catch more glimpses of it.

And now there’s Katy Keene, as well. Will we see Nick Scratch heading to New York to mix it up with Katy and Josie?

I hope so, man! Because I love this city. Also, Luke [Cook] is on the show, I’m a big fan of him. Yeah, I would love that. Even as another character for a moment, sure. I would love to just be someone in the background, to see what it’s like.

Last question for you, this is very important. You drink a lot of absinthe on the show, and I get very worried about Nick’s liver. What are you actually drinking on set?

That’s colored water. It’s just some dye. I’m pretty sure it’s not going to do anything bad to me. And then there’s that scene where he drinks that little vile of drugs, too. That was apple juice. And I did that take where I drink the whole thing so many times, my bladder felt like it was going to explode. I had to ask them, “I gotta pee. Can we just take a second? I drank so much apple juice. I feel so hydrated. Give me a minute.” I’m fine. No absinthe.

Glad to hear that.

And Nick’s a warlock. His liver’s fine.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Stream Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix