JACK DYLAN GRAZER

“I DON’T WANT TO do easy work anymore,” Jack Dylan Grazer says in a rapid, selfassured way that has an air of selfdeprecation. “I want to be challenged. I want to make things more complex.”

Although he grew up in Los Angeles in an entertainment family—his father is an actor and his uncle is the Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer—he says the craft came to him organically. He remembers elementary school as a period in which he was “getting in trouble a lot.” By order of his mom, Grazer took on a variety of activities and sports to improve his behavior, but nothing stuck until he found musical theater at The Adderley School. Acting “saved my life in every way, shape, and form,” recalls the young actor, who now funds a bi-annual scholarship for students of his alma mater. Ironically, it was his mother who was hard to sway. After much convincing, though, she relented—rearranging her life to drive her son to auditions. “She sacrificed everything,” the actor says. “She gave up on her job so that she could support my dream, and now here I am, living it. It wouldn’t be possible without Mom.” After a few small roles in film and television, Grazer got his big break at age 13 as Eddie Kaspbrak in the 2017 box of fi ce smash horror film It, quickly establishing himself as one of Hollywood’s most reliable fast-talking nerds. In 2019, he co-starred in the DC universe film Shazam! as Freddy, the best friend-slash-sidekick to Asher Angel’s Billy, a role that Grazer plans to return to in the film’s sequel this March. (Adam Brody, patron saint of fast-talking nerds, appears as Freddy’s superhero alter ego, opposite Zachary Levi as Billy’s.) “Freddy and I are the most similar out of any character I’ve ever played,” Grazer says. But as the actor matures, he says he’s ready to evolve his craft and explore different psyches. In addition to the franchise films, he’s worked with Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino in the 2020 series We Are Who We Are, and this year, he will appear in the Chuck Klosterman adaptation Downtown Owl from directors Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater. “As I grow up, I’m less surfacelevel about my identity,” Grazer says. “I’m trying to delve into the complexities of who I am. I want to have more intentionality and be less passive—it’s something that I apply to my characters now, but also to myself.”