A recent film school graduate, Zander Eckhouse gets to show off his talent and biceps in the ABC Family series “Huge,” premiering June 28. The series revolves around the lives of a group of teenagers at a weight-loss camp. Eckhouse, 23, plays one of the hunky camp counselors. Funny and quick on his feet, the California-based actor, son of “Beverly Hills, 90210” star James Eckhouse, reveals that sometimes a case of beer and some raw meat is all you really need to pack for a nice weekend trip.
Q: What is your favorite vacation destination?
A: Birch Island. It’s a tiny Island off the coast of Maine that looks pretty much the same as it did back when the Wabanaki were living there 300 years ago. There’s no electricity or running water — basically just a single-roomed cabin that my granddad built in the ’50s and a forest full of talking animals and magical creatures. Best summers of my life.
Q: Where are your favorite weekend getaways?
A: I’ve been finding myself in Joshua Tree, Calif., a lot lately. It’s a stretch of wilderness on the cusp of the Mojave Desert about two hours out of Los Angeles. There are great climbing routes and incredible views. Deserts are the most horrific of all natural landscapes. I can only be in one so long without going insane, but there’s something clarifying about the desolation from time to time.
Q: What are your favorite hotels and restaurants?
A: I haven’t seen the inside of a hotel room in way too long. Once we stayed in Barcelo Maya Beach Resort (tiny.cc/an8w8) — this really swanky resort in Mexico — when I was a kid. All I remember is a giant chessboard and the godlike feeling every game of ordering my little brother to his doom. This was long before Harry Potter. I think that was the year we discovered room service and that you could order pancakes for lunch. We ate so many pancakes. As for restaurants, I think food is all about its context. I think the best meal I ever had was a gift shop sandwich at the top of Lone Peak in Utah. Or driving cross-country from New York University, we stopped at this home-style buffet in rural Kentucky — Moonlite Bar-B-Q (moonlite.com). We had been subsisting off of Pizza Lunchables for two days straight, and we walked into a queue of the nicest Midwestern-Southern waitresses and tables of the most golden, glorious cornbread and pulled pork. I think the whole thing cost $10. I’m still digesting that meal. I ate so much food.
Q: When you go away, what are some of your must-have items?
A: If it’s close, I like to pack as sparsely and manly as possible. My last trip to Joshua Tree, I think it was a quarter-pound of raw meat and a case of beer. If I’m going for luxury, I’ll pack a pillow. They’re incredibly useful, and you look cool carrying them around everywhere. I recently lost one I’d been breaking in for, like, 7 1/2 years. I’m still sad over that.
Q: What are your favorite cities?
A: I haven’t been to enough to know, and saying New York or Los Angeles would be cheating. London. Multiplied by five? I’ve never been, but I’m a big Anglophile. I think that’s just because when you’re British, the most foul, stupid things can come out of your mouth and still sound eloquent and well informed. Also Marfa, Texas.
For more from the reporter, visit jaehakim.com.
