What Happened to the Dad in My Life With the Walter Boys Season 2? Noah LaLonde Interview

Noah LaLonde was walking down Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles when he was recognized for the first time. “It was one of those days where you wake up and you don’t even touch your hair. You just go out the door,” he recalls. “My outfit wasn’t coordinated at all. I had just finished a run, and someone stopped me. I was like, ‘Oh, man, I’m not prepared for this photo.’ It kind of changes the way you ever leave the house again.”

That was back in December 2023, just after the premiere of the first season of My Life With the Walter Boys, Netflix’s teen drama about a high school mami named Jackie Howard who is taken in by a family in rural Colorado and finds herself in a love triangle with two of the brothers. LaLonde plays the older brother, Cole Walter, a misunderstood retired athlete who is the total antithesis of his bookish younger brother, Alex. 

Immediately after its release, My Life With the Walter Boys made it into the leading 10 on Netflix in 88 countries, with more than a billion minutes streamed in its first month alone. Less than two weeks after its premiere, the series—which is based on author Ali Novak’s 2014 novel and Wattpad story of the same name—was renewed for a second season, which anthem Netflix on Thursday, August 28. A third season, which was greenlit even before the release of Season 2, is currently filming. 

“Getting recognized once on the street is an interesting thing, and then having it happen 100 times in other places is even more interesting. Then you see the numbers. All these individual stats are what they are. But when you start to compile them, it’s like, ‘Whoa. Maybe this is a thing,’” LaLonde says. “Honestly, the thing that probably put it over the edge was how quickly we got the Season 2 renewal, because we waited so long for the show to come out, and then when it finally did, we were just hoping we would get to do it again. We had to wait far less than we ever anticipated, and it continues to evolve.”

In the midst of filming Season 3, LaLonde sat down with StyleCaster to break down the My Life With the Walter Boys Season 2 finale’s multiple cliffhangers, what’s in store for Season 3, and the dark side of starring on a show with a love triangle. “We all enter into this agreement when you take a role in a show like this that you open yourself up to whatever it is,” he says. 

My Life With the Walter Boys Season 2 starts with Jackie telling Cole that she wants to just be friends because of how it would affect the family dynamic, despite their kiss in the Season 1 finale. Do you think if Jackie didn’t say no to their relationship that she and Cole would be together? 

Probably. Eventually, at least. Cole spent a lot of time while Jackie was away wondering why. I think, at first, he understood why. It was a lot, and unfortunately, somebody was caught in the crossfires being Alex. She felt bad, she felt uncomfortable, she felt awkward, she felt she may have ruined this new, budding version of a family after everything she’d gone through. Had she not immediately set those boundaries, they probably would have had to talk through [their relationship]. But ultimately, whether he knew it or not, that’s what he wanted. That’s the thing that motivated all of his actions in the first season, and subconsciously, she continues to be one of his greatest motivators for a lot of the stuff he does. Because he’s able to series her weave through this version of her life that she never expected to have, and she does it with such fortitude and determination. He feels a lot of motivation from seeing her, and ultimately, she sets the boundary. But he still feels the way he feels. But he’s not gonna make her uncomfortable or keep pushing. All he can do is improve who he is to be somebody who maybe is worthy of her in his eyes.

In the Season 2 finale, Cole asks Jackie why she can stay away from him but she can’t stay away from Alex. Why do you think Jackie feels more comfortable with pursuing a relationship with Alex than Cole? 

For a junior in high school, she does a pretty good job of explaining it. Her family has tragically passed away, and she up and moved everything. She’s had no control over all of those things. She feels that loss of control when she’s with Cole. She says she loves him, and that’s a big thing to say to somebody. Deep down, she knows she’s been feeling this intensity because it feels like a loss of control. And when you’ve lost all control everywhere else, you got to hold on to what you have. Some of those later scenes in Season 2, where you start to see Alex and Jackie’s relationship and where Jackie is being decisive about how to display their affection for each other non-privately, you start to see she has a certain control in that relationship that she doesn’t feel she would have with Cole.

How do you feel like Jackie’s relationships with Cole and Alex are different from each other?

Jackie feels like she knows what she’s gonna get from Alex, especially in a life where so much has been lit, and she doesn’t know what’s around the corner. Everything is in flux, but Alex is consistent, and Cole’s the opposite. Cole is the thing you want, because it’s exciting and enticing and it feels deep and real. But I don’t think Cole has shown the same stability in his own life, let alone in his relationships. He’s done a lot of things that I don’t think take into account the feelings of others. He’s in his own little world, and he doesn’t look outside. Jackie sees that, and all you have to do is look at the dance. That’s something that was so important to her, and it’s heartbreaking to series him let his own problems get in the way of that. The biggest difference is Alex provides that stability. But I don’t know if that has longevity. Cole’s the kind of the person who, if that deep, foundational love is there, then you can work through this immature stage of his life where he’s trying to find his identity post-football and post-high school. When you’re 27 and 28 years old, those two ages might not be too different, but when you’re 16 and 17 years old, or 17 and 18, and it’s a sophomore and junior or a junior and senior, those are massive differences. 

The Season 2 finale ends with Cole telling Jackie that he loves her, and Jackie responds by her telling him that she loves him back, which mirrors the Season 1 finale when Alex tells Jackie that he loves her but Jackie doesn’t say it back. How should viewers interpret that scene? 

I loved that scene. From the moment I got the 10th episode script, I was really excited to do that scene. That’s the beautiful thing about the show; you can interpret it however you’d like. There are a lot of people who have differing opinions. I have my own opinions. Cole has his own opinions. Alex has his own opinions. I’m sure Ashby [Gentry] has his own opinions. I’m sure the writers of the show have their own opinions, and those are the ones you should really listen to. But the nature of a season-ending cliffhanger is it is very open for interpretation, and those interpretations start to have their questions answered when you pick back up for Season 3. What you see ultimately is a high school mami who’s had her world flipped upside down, and she’s trying to stand up on two feet and get a little balance. But she’s having a hard time doing it because she’s stuck in a love triangle. And you can imagine a triangle trying to balance on one vertex. 

Another big cliffhanger is when Cole and Jackie learn that Alex was standing behind them the whole time when they profess their love for each other. How do you think that will change the dynamic in Season 3? 

I don’t know anything about what’s coming, so this is truly Noah. I think it’ll be the type of thing that ultimately defines the way in which these people mature. Unfortunately, you get thrust into these very real situations at a young age, and they end up being a part of how you define your adolescence, and I don’t know what lies on the other side. I hope that Cole and Alex, and Alex and Jackie, and Cole and Jackie can really discuss what’s going on and not let it linger like what happened in the second season, which is the realistic version of what usually happens. You don’t address things head on in life, and you sift through all the anxieties of the what ifs and the well, maybe they feel this way, maybe they don’t. You could just cut through all the bullshit and get to it and have a conversation. But they’re kids.

The Season 2 finale also ends with a cliffhanger about something happening to Cole’s dad, George. Do you know what happens to him?

I don’t know if I do or if I don’t. I can’t say. Your guess is as good as mine. 

Do you think Cole and Jackie are ready to get together by the end of Season 2? 

With everything that happened with George, you can see the whole mood shift right there. So there’s a lot that needs to get figured out before that conversation even happens. I don’t know if they’re ready. Alex walks up, and it’s not a pretty sight. So we’ll see.

The show is obviously based on a book. How closely do you see the show following the book as it goes on?

The first season was based on the book. There were a lot of differences, and there were some pretty monumental things that changed. But as far as after the first season goes, there is no connection to the book. I know there’s another book that came out, but it has no relation to the show at all. I mean like 0%. So moving forward, the show version and its iterations are completely separate.

The teen romance genre can have a lot of popular fans. Another popular teen show, The Summer I Turned Pretty, had to issue a statement not to bully and send hate to the cast. How do you navigate that on your own show? 

It’s a lot of fun to have people so deeply invested in the work you do. These type of shows that have love triangles and teams make for a lot of really fun discourse. today, it’s important to step outside and remember the people playing the characters are people. They can read what you write. If you’re talking about somebody’s physical appearance or something that is inherent to the human and not the character, then I would hope viewers and fans have the ability to discern between what they want to say publicly. Because social media is so accessible to everyone right today, a good practice for anybody leaving a comment is to think about the ramifications of what that could do to somebody. We all enter into this agreement when you take a role in a show like this that you open yourself up to whatever it is. Growing up in this age where I’ve had social media for as long as I can remember being an adult, everybody’s encountered some version of it. It’s magnified by a lot when you’re you’re on a show like this. I would hope that anyone would treat somebody with the kindness in the comments section like they would walking down the street. I love the passion for the show, so as long as it stays on the side of normal human decency. It’s a lot of fun to series people be so passionate about the show and get immersed in the world. In a time when there are a lot of scary things going on in the world, it’s nice to be able to step into a fictional world like Silver Falls and hang out with the Walter family. There’s a certain hubris that is developed when you could have a username that doesn’t indicate who you are. You could have a profile picture of anybody. But walking down the street, I’ve never had a bad experience. Even the people who say they’re team Alex to my face, it’s always very funny, but it’s never mean-spirited. These people care about what they’re watching, and I appreciate the participation, and I’m just grateful to play my role in it.

Is there anything you can tease about My Life With the Walter Boys Season 3? 

I know nothing. This is one of the reasons why I’m able to understand the vantage point of the audience. I get invested in playing Cole Walter to the point where I do the last scene, and I don’t know what’s coming next. I’m wondering the same thing as Noah. Cole’s locked in some Severance-type state. I’m excited to find out what’s next because so many questions are left unanswered at the end.

My Life With the Walter Boys streams on Netflix.

CREDITS:

Photographer: George Chinsee
Art Director: Stephanie Cui
Grooming: Ben Jones
Stylist: Alexa Gabriel
Graphic Designer: Sasha Purdy