[Warning: The next comprises spoilers for episode one in every of We Are Who We Are. Learn at your individual threat!]
There are issues on this world we all know with absolute certainty: grass is inexperienced, water is moist, and Jack Dylan Grazer is a teen icon. You may bear in mind him from his flip as neurotic hypochondriac Eddie Kaspbrak within the It films, or because the superhero-loving Freddy Freeman in Shazam!, or, perhaps most significantly, from his TikTok, the place he has a frankly huge following. However in his newest position as Fraser in HBO’s We Are Who We Are, the viewers’s window into the world of the present, he is doing one thing totally different.
Within the sequence created, directed, and co-written by Luca Guadagnino, Grazer performs Fraser, a 14-year-old military brat who, once we meet him, has simply relocated to an American army base in Italy along with his mothers. His uncommon presence — every little thing from his bleach blonde hair to his eclectic, fashion-forward wardrobe, to the way in which he vibrates with chaotic vitality — shakes up the group, and the primary episode is devoted to a day within the lifetime of Fraser, instructed solely by his eyes as he feels out new friendships with fellow teenagers Caitlin (Jordan Kristine Seamón) and Britney (Francesca Scorsese), will get drunk by himself, and bodily fights with one in every of his moms. For Grazer, the position was a no brainer with the Call Me by Your Name director connected. “I bear in mind strolling out of the theater like, ‘Ugh, I need to work with that director,'” he gushed over Zoom.
TV Information caught up with Grazer to unpack the primary episode, Fraser’s journey along with his personal masculinity, and what it was wish to slap Chloë Sevingy.
I used to be studying an interview with Luca the place he talked about how he had all these concepts for the characters that he ended up throwing away after attending to set and speaking with you guys in regards to the present. What sorts of conversations did you’ve with Luca about bringing Fraser to life?
Jack Dylan Grazer: Luca and I talked lots about motives and what [Fraser’s] experiencing as an individual, and Luca additionally expressed to me that Fraser reminds him of himself when he was younger, when he was that age. Type of like a younger little Luca, and I see that so usually, truly. We talked in regards to the music that Fraser listens to, however largely —I can not actually consider something particular, however we hashed out loads of our concepts and we clashed heads in essentially the most good manner, and each of our inventive inputs have been introduced into play. It was so nice to talk with him about it.
You introduced up the music. Just about each time we see Fraser, he has his headphones in his ears or round his neck.
Grazer: Fraser is basically impressionable to music. It shapes him, and it does with me too, I am actually inclined to vary in my temper once I take heed to any music. My thoughts simply goes with music. Luca can be like, “Okay, so on this scene you are listening to this music,” and on my prop telephone they might put, like, a QuickTime of the music that Fraser was listening to. It was the final word immersion, among the many different components of immersion that have been in play. Truly, I had a Fraser playlist.
What was on it?
Grazer: A bunch of stuff. I put Blood Orange on it, I put Frank Ocean on there. And likewise, a few of the songs that I put in my Fraser playlist — I instructed Luca to have a look at my playlist, and he put a few of the songs within the present.
One of the attention-grabbing scenes from the primary episode is once we see Fraser run by a basketball courtroom the place a bunch of troopers are taking part in, and later, he walks in on all of them within the bathe. He is surrounded by these very conventional examples of masculinity. What do you concentrate on Fraser’s relationship to his personal masculinity?
Grazer: I need to discuss this. So, a part of the rationale that his relationship along with his mother is so demented is as a result of he resents her, and he holds her accountable for the absence of a father. And he does not even know if he actually desires one, however he desires to expertise it. He desires to expertise every little thing. As a result of he does not like her, so Fraser’s like, “He is most likely higher.” And he does not like her as a result of she retains tearing him from his house and placing him in locations he does not need to be. However I feel the absence of getting a masculine determine in his life actually, in a manner, type of is enlightening to him, like, subconsciously. He realizes that the confines of standard masculinity are so — it is only a waste, it is a waste of a life. To disregard our primal instinct of attraction, which is like, what our function is? It is not even labels. It is simply, “I like this individual. I am interested in them as a result of they’re a pretty factor.” He involves that conclusion fairly early in his soul search.
Whereas we’re speaking about Fraser and his mother, that scene the place he slaps her took my breath away.
Grazer: That was actual, too.
Was it actually? Did you slap Chloë Sevingy?
Grazer: Yeah. A couple of instances, like eight instances. She wished to, it was her concept! She’s such a professional, she’s such a boss, it is unbelievable. However Luca was like, “We need to do that for actual, like a 1940s film, and that is going to be actual.” And he or she was like, “Oh my god, yeah, that’d be nice! Jack, do you are feeling comfy slapping me?” I used to be like, “Do I really feel—? Uh, no.” However Fraser does, Fraser feels comfy slapping her. It is intense, and the dynamic is so bizarre. She was pregnant throughout taking pictures, and I talked to her on the telephone not too long ago, and he or she was like, “You understand one thing? I at all times wished a daughter, till I performed your mother and I had a boy inside me this entire time, and I used to be at all times type of disheartened. However pretending to be your mother actually made me need to have a son that is such as you.” And I used to be like, Chloë Sevingy desires to be my organic mother?
Can we discuss in regards to the outfits? Fraser has so many nice garments, like that shirt he wears within the first episode.
Grazer: The Raf Simons one? I really like that shirt. With the shorts, the shorts have been so sick. The wardrobe on that present… Giulia Piersanti was the costume designer, and he or she’s such a visionary. I want I might’ve taken a few of these garments house.
Do you’ve a favourite factor that you just wore?
Grazer: Sure. The factor I wore within the fourth episode, the go well with, I like that outfit. And there is this Rolling Stones jacket, with the tongues. That is one in every of my favourite all time outfits.
Fraser comes into the present as this outsider. He seems to be totally different than everybody, he has a complete totally different perspective, the way in which he carries himself is totally different. What do you concentrate on his place throughout the buddy group he finds himself in? Is he making an attempt to slot in with them?
Grazer: Fraser completely seems like an outsider and misunderstood, however he additionally does not even actually care. He does not put within the effort for different individuals to know him, as a result of there is not any use. He does not assume individuals even deserve his intelligence. He is type of, I assume, forthright and pretentious in that manner, however when him and Caitlin work together, it looks like it isn’t a mutual factor, however then they discover solace in each other they usually’re asking themselves the identical questions they usually have the solutions for one another.
Talking of Caitlin, what do you assume goes by his thoughts when he takes secret photos of her?
Grazer: He is enamored by her. He is so in awe. Additionally, he is an enormous fan of poetry, the poetry lures him in and to see this stunning, standing tall and impartial girl — that is thrilling.
We Are Who We Are airs Mondays at 10/9c on HBO.
Jack Dylan Grazer, We Are Who We Are