Vibe.com has published a new interview with Mehcad in which we learn a lot about his different projects. I put in bold the new information:

Between battling V-loving Vamps in True Blood and making an impact in Calvin Klein’s “X Marks The Spot” boxers campaign, Mechad Brooks isn’t the arrogant sex symbol you'd expect him to be. In fact, he's quite the scholarly nerd... who tends to take his shirt off. VIBE hooked up with the 29-year-old actor to pick his brain about uncomfortable conversations with his mother, America's big obesity problem, and why he can't wait to turn 30. —Katie Hintz-Zambrano

Word is you were accepted into Yale University, but declined. Why’d you turn them down?
I didn’t act in college per say because I didn’t want an acting degree. I don’t know what you do with that degree. When I was 16 I saw Usual Suspects and I wanted to be a director as well. So I thought I should go to school for directing and producing, something I knew nothing about. Yale did not have a film school. I realized by the time I was 18 that I wanted to go to California and go to film school at UCS.

Most college kids are busy gaining their freshmen 15, how’d you get into modeling?
I was with LA Models and Wilhemina. I basically modeled my way through college, doing local runway shows in LA that don’t pay a lot and a couple of shows in NY and SF and I probably made the same as the average 19-year-old waiter, I just worked less and was around beautiful girls, so it was nice [Laughs].

What did Mama Brooks think of those new Calvin Klein ads? Are you doing another season?
It goes from March to March. I’ll find out in Dec if they want me back. My mom has seen me in my underwear probably a lot more than any other woman, just from growing up and always running around in my drawers. So it’s nothing different for her. The one thing she said is, ‘I don’t know if I should watch this because people are saying it’s X-Rated. Is it really X-rated?’ I’m like ‘Mom, no.’ And the one time she saw a sex scene from True Blood she called me and said ‘Hey, this is really embarrassing, but… do you guys really do it?’ I’m like, ‘No, no, not at all!’

I read you were doing 1,000 crunches a day for those ads. What’s your regimen like now? Are you shooting for 2,000?
I’m really busy so I don’t have the time to do that nor the inclination because I don’t always have a Calvin Klein photo shoot. When I do have something like that, I’ll go crazy for a couple of weeks and go to the gym twice a day and eating lean protein like fish and turkey and vegetables and cut carbs around 4pm. I’m actually launching a website later this year to try to battle obesity, especially childhood obesity, in this country. If you can contribute 45 minutes – one hour a day a week exercising, you’re going to be a healthy person. You can cut down on diabetes and all of these man made problems we have. I do embrace the fact that I can maybe be a voice for people to realize that its not as hard that people think. I’m a pretty passionate person. I don’t do anything half-assed. When I jump into something i really do it to the fullest extent that my time and energy will allow me. I’m from Texas and to see so many people that are obese and with disorders that are preventable. They haven’t been shown or told. I’m really passionate about making sure my fellow countrymen are healthy. It’s a shame.

Are you comfortable with being branded as a sex symbol? Is it easy to embrace?
It’s a double-edged sword in some way. I really haven’t embraced it, but at the same time, I have to be mindful and cognitive of it and appreciative of it, because it does mean that I’ve gotten to a level of recognition and respect that I’ve always wanted. With that, I have to be level headed and appreciative. I don’t think of myself as sexy. The thing is, whether you want it or not, you have to be prepared for it, if you want to be successful.

Tell the truth, are you living the Entourage bad boy life out in LA?
It’s a decision. You choose how you want to live. I don’t live like that at all. I used to be out and about at nightclubs, but unless there’s a reason to celebrate, I’m not going to go out and celebrate the fact that it’s Wednesday. At the same time, there’s a great time and a place to have fun and go drink, a lot of shit isn’t accomplished by waking up at noon hung over.

You sound more like a nerd than a player. What are the geekiest things you enjoy?
I read books... I don’t have enough time to read as much as I’d like. I read a few books a month. Most of the news I watch is Cable News Networks. And I don’t do it because I want to be informed, but because I find it really entertaining. You can find me at different lectures and symposiums at colleges. I just feel like information and knowledge is really entertaining and sharing it and learning it and debating these things it’s like wet dream. So, yeah, I’m a nerd.

You’re close to hitting 30, are you ready to leave your 20s behind?
I am ready to get the hell out of my twenties! I feel like your twenties are when you have all of these great ideas about things you want to accomplish, but you don’t have the inclination to do it. It’s like “I can’t wait to do this...let’s go to the club!” Your twenties is where you have this wonderful mind, but not the patience to let things happen. Your twenties, especially in our society today, are just an extended childhood. You get away with a lot of shit in your twenties that adults aren’t able to do. And I want to be an adult in every way.

What other projects are you working on right now?
I have a couple in pre-production. Brother’s Blood is a throwback monster movie where there are not a lot of special effects but a guy in a monster suit-kicking ass. I play a guy fresh back from Iraq and his fiancé’s brother is headed to Iraq and we all go down to New Orleans and it kind of turns into deliverance meets swamp thing.

I’m directing a film called The Wolf and it’s from an incredible play called The Sandstorm and my friend turned it into a screen play called The Wolf and it’s about three Iraq vets who come home and they’re all standing psychologically evaluated to see if they are fit to be court marshaled for atrocities they committed in the war zone. The atrocities are questionable because in the early part of the war, things weren’t defined. There’s a male and a female solider who escape from the ward and go on a road trip that kind of reminds me of Natural Born Killers.

I haven’t directed a feature length yet. I’ve done it on the lower level but not on a major level yet. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been directed enough to know how to direct in certain ways and how not to.

What would you like people to say about you when it’s all said and done?
People say where do you want be in 10 years? I want to be happy. And I want to work on things I care about and in the end of the day, I would be very happy with somebody acknowledging that Mehcad Brooks passed away on the CNN ticker.