Austin Nichols Felt Wrong Kissing Mary-Kate Olsen in Holiday in the Sun

While appearing on the Drama Queens podcast Tuesday, Nichols looked at the parallels between One Tree Hill and the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen film.

And while he believes both the show and 2001 family romance shared a similar audience, there was something that felt “wrong” about locking lips with a then 15-year-old Mary-Kate.

“I was definitely nervous because Mary-Kate was 15, and I was, I think, 18 or 19, or maybe even 20. I don’t remember, but I was too old,” Nichols recalled. “And it felt weird, and it felt wrong.”

He continued, “And I looked very young, so watching the movie, I don’t think you notice. I’m real tall and skinny and nerdy. But I don’t think you can tell there’s a big age difference. But from my brain, I was like, ‘She’s 15. This is weird.'”

In the film, Mary-Kate and her twin sister, Ashley, now 38, played rich teenagers who traveled to the Bahamas with their parents for winter break.

Nichols’ character, Griffen Grayson, tried to woo Mary-Kate’s Madison Stewart at Atlantis Paradise Island.

Ashley, who played Alex Stewart, also had a love interest, resort worker Jordan Landers, played by Ben Easter, who was even older — nearly 22 at the time when they shot the direct-to-video release.

“I was a little bit nervous because of my age. My manager was like, ‘I think they told the girls you were 16,'” Easter recalled in a 2021 interview with to E! News, before clarifying that he immediately informed Ashley he was almost 22.

“We hit it off right off the bat,” the actor-turned-photographer added. “They could see I was professional and I wasn’t some creep.”