Don’t hate Scott Porter because he’s beautiful, hate him because his “job” involves pretending to be in love with both Rachel Bilson and Jaime King on the hit new CW series HART OF DIXIE. As George Tucker, the man caught between his feelings for his life-long friend and fiancée Lemon Breeland (King) and the adorable and alluring newcomer that is Dr. Zoe Hart (Bilson), Porter has his hands full. Or at least that was our takeaway from our recent one-on-one with the former FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS star who was kind enough to take a few minutes to chat up what life is like in the fictional, fantastical and awfully flirty town of Bluebell Alabama.
Aside from the adorable Rachel Bilson, what was it that initially attracted you to HART OF DIXIE?
Scott Porter: I came from the world of musical theater and comedies and in Hollywood it’s so easy to be pigeonholed. Not that being pigeonholed into a dramatic situation after FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is a bad thing — because it’s not and I’ll be forever grateful for FNL for opening so many doors for me — but I wanted to show that lighter side of me and what better way to do it than a show with Jaime King, Rachel Bilson and being a romantic lead in basically a television version of a romantic comedy. I think television needs this. I think there’s a void open for an hour long show that is funny, quirky, and great. PUSHING DAISIES was probably the last show that really filled that void, something that was its own little world, its own town and filled with heart and beauty. It was a gorgeous show and I say if we can get anything close to that we’d be completely thrilled.
What have you enjoyed the most about playing George thus far?
It’s funny in watching FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS a lot of people would see the relationship between Jason Street and Herc, there was a lot of funny in that. But then it would always come back to the seriousness of the situation. With HART OF DIXIE, I get to show that funny, I get to be valiant and be the hero in a very different way. I couldn’t be more blessed.
How long do you think it will take for real cracks to appear in George and Lemon’s (Jaime King) not-so-fairytale romance?
They are like Bluebell royalty and you’ll come to find out down the road that there’s a bit of a relationship between their parents and there is a kind of a class lineage in the town. The town expects them to be together, they were destined to be together and we’ll see how that kind of eats away at them and how they deal with the speed bumps that are inevitably coming. Will love that has lasted through childhood, high school and college really conquer the adult problems that are out there? There’s something so magical about having a love that matures with the people that are involved in it, but the curiosity of Zoe (Rachel Bilson) and George is equally as intriguing. Honestly, I love working with both actresses equally as much, so I just want to keep doing this little dance, this three way tango as long as I can.
Have the producers found away to incorporate your real-life musical abilities into the show?
We might see George sing a little tune, but I don’t know if we’ll do a full-on musical episode… maybe season 5! That said, George has got some really great secrets and I can’t wait to kind of unveil them. Perhaps his aspirations for Broadway is what took him to New York instead of law. I don’t know, but we’ll see.
And finally, since no interview would be complete without adding fuel to the fire that is the FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS big screen rumors, what have you heard?
Connie britton and I were shooting a movie together last week (Editor’s Note: This interview took place during the first week of August) and the day that the news broke she said in her very polite singsongy voice, “Scott have you heard about this movie?” No, we haven’t heard much about it. All we know is pretty much what everybody else knows. We know that Jason [Executive Producer Jason Katims] is seriously looking at writing a script and we know that it would pick up pretty much where the show left off. It wouldn’t take us back in time, it would take us to a new place and a new time, probably with some new kids and maybe some cameos from some old friends. 
HART OF DIXIE airs Mondays at 9PM on the CW and stars Rachel Bilson, Jaime King, Cress Williams, Scott Porter, and Wilson Bethel. Catch up on past episodes you may have missed for free online at clicktowatch.tv