Edge Of Seventeen: Jack Dylan Grazer
In the early fall of 2017 on a very cold New York City night, I hurried over to the theater, in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood.
Words by Dio Anthony
This was a solo viewing trip––since my attempts at some company were dimmed shortly after I gushed about the amount of 1980s caliber-Gore sure to be witnessed on screen. IT, a reimagining of Stephen King's 1986 wildly successful novel of the same name--about a killer clown--had a cast full of children. Yet its subject matter was too scary for grown adults.
Over the next two hours, I marveled at the perfect amount of comedy in this horror film, and its breakout-star––13-year-old Jack Dylan Grazer. Grazer playing the sensitive and sheltered Eddie Kaspbrak caused roars of giggles throughout the dark theater––popping up every few lines, every utterance funnier than his last. On my way home, I texted those I tried persuading that their loss was substantial and their eventual love for this film was imminent.
Smash cut to the spring of 2019--I am once again at the cinema––this time accompanied by my family as we watch the fantastical Shazam. Grazer is now 15 on-screen, as the crippled Freddy Freeman, a good kid, and a good friend whose ability to believe saves his friends and his family from, ya know--evil destruction, etc. My family and I would go on to quote Jack as Freddy, along with every other character--and of course the ultra-catchy random shouting of SHAZAM! became a daily activity too fun to curb or refrain from.
Flash forward to 2020, an unmatched year in American history. Luca Guadagnino's highly anticipated We Are Who We Are premieres--Grazer seems older, appears to be it too; playing Fraser, an enigma of a teenager with a revolution going on inside of him.
When I meet Jack in California, he has recently turned 17--quintessential teen-age. He has long and thick locks of curls, reminiscent of Jim Morrison’s famous mane. He's dressed in a deliberately mismatched Dickies suit. Brown pants and a beige oversized shirt. Jack is from the Pacific Palisades, an idyllic residential neighborhood tucked between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. His life feels charmed in a sense. He's wildly curious, engaging, and his sense of self is second-to-none. A little bit over a month after initially meeting, we catch up for what I hope is a raw, unbiased interview on life at the Edge of Seventeen.
DIO ANTHONY: okay, so I'm ready for like a really chill interview. I feel like you’ve done a lot lately. So I’m going to try and make this one a little different. I'm excited to talk to you for a couple of reasons. Because this is our first cover, going into it I thought, okay, who is someone that people will be talking about for years. I’m sure you’ve heard something like this before. Does it feel weird when people say stuff like that to you?
JACK DYLAN GRAZER: It makes me feel like I’m on the right path I think. Because I feel really, really, like in-sync with what I'm doing. I'm really proud, I guess. But mostly, I'm just so happy and fulfilled that I'm able to do what I'm doing. I mean, I'm so grateful to be able to act and play pretend and play different characters all the time. It's good that people think that I'm good at it.
ANTHONY: I feel like you seem to have a somewhat ordinary life. But at the same time, you're also doing magazine interviews. How normal is your life, compared to other 17-year-olds?
GRAZER: I mean, I go to real school, and I spent the majority of my life in public schools. I had a public elementary school and a public middle school. I'm at a really cool school now and I’m really loving it. I love learning. I love being in school, so that’s always been really important to me.
ANTHONY: When we met and talked about your school. I was actually surprised that you still attended regular school.
“I think the numbers are pretty intense. Seeing all those numbers of people. Because I don’t know more than half of my followers.”
GRAZER: I’m pretty ordinary. I play the flute for fun. I skateboard with my friends. I skateboard by myself. I don’t know, I feel like I have a very normal life still, like any 17-year-old. It’s not like this big, grand, luxurious thing. But I am very, very happy and thankful when I get to experience that too, while still being a normal kid at heart.
ANTHONY: One thing that isn't ordinary though is your amount of Instagram followers at your age. Is that scary?
GRAZER: Yeah. Um, I think the numbers, nonetheless, are pretty intense. Seeing all those numbers of people. Because I don’t know more than half of my followers. So yeah, it’s kind of, shocking or something like that. It’s shocking to see that many people who know me.
ANTHONY: What’s something that you're super into right now.
GRAZER: Right now I’m honestly so focused on driving. I love it. I love it so much. I don’t have my license yet, but I have my learner’s permit and I’ve just been so excited about driving. Like, I’m obsessed with driving right now. It’s like my favorite thing in the entire world. I’ve also been writing a few short stories here and there, and poetry. That keeps me productive and creative.
ANTHONY: I think it’s ironic how before the internet, and even in the early days of it—the information accessible to us about an actor or musician we really enjoyed was so limited. That is not the case now. However, I don’t think people know the little details that make up who you are. So the rest of this interview will be somewhat of a fact-sheet, reminiscent to vintage magazines that would print wholesome but bizarre every day facts about their subjects. First question––what’s an instrument you stopped playing?
GRAZER: When I was little I took guitar lessons and harmonica lessons. I could totally play my harmonica if you asked me to, but I don’t play it regularly. But anyway, I used to take guitar lessons and I don’t know but I feel like guitar lessons are really hard. I tried playing guitar now, recently, like as of five days ago, starting to pick it up again and really trying to learn chords and stuff like that. But I have a bit of a hard time with it, cuz I have like, trauma from my old guitar teacher. He would do these really kind of condescending things. My first guitar lesson he was like, how do you not know what to do? Your fingers go here, how do you not know that? And he’d be like, why is it so hard for you to move your fingers this way or that way?I don’t know but it just was, I couldn’t move my fingers that way. It was really hard for me, but I’ve been recently getting a better grasp. Not to like avenge him or anything..
ANTHONY: [Laughs]
GRAZER: I think it’s such a cool instrument, kinda basic I know.. Oh! Oh! Wait, I have a cool new instrument, it’s kind of like a quarter mixed with a saxophone. Let me play you a little sound.
*Jack plays a short and soulful sound*
ANTHONY: Wow I like that. Kind of Blues-y
GRAZER: Totally.
ANTHONY: Favorite musicians?
GRAZER: That's a good question. I don't know. I feel like Jim Morrison would’ve been really cool to see live. He was always such a catastrophe on stage. And I love the doors, I think they’re one of my favorite bands..Like ever.
ANTHONY: What's your favorite track?
GRAZER: Favorite Doors track? Probably Peace Frog or a few from their first album. Yeah, all of that.
ANTHONY: Favorite actors?
GRAZER: Ahh, that’s like picking a child. No doubt, Robin Williams I think is one of my favorites.
ANTHONY: That’s a classic choice.
GRAZER: Also, after I saw The Joker, I really saw Joaquin Phoenix. Not the first time, but I saw his range more. My favorite quality in any actor, like, my most admirable quality in any actor that I try to learn from is range. I love Steve Carell for his range. He can be so funny and also be very dramatic. And that's what I love about Robin Williams. I love that about Jennifer Jason Leigh. I love Natalie Portman, Robert De Niro. So many, really..
ANTHONY: I love that you're looking up to all these older actors.
GRAZER: Yeah, but also like, even older actors too. I love Jack Lemmon and I love Ernest Borgnine and Ingrid Bergman. Those are really inspirational to me.
GRAZER: Favorite colors?
GRAZER: Blue and green are my number one favorites. But a cool combination, or I should say my favorite combination is probably, orange, green and purple.
ANTHONY: Orange green and purple?
GRAZER: Deep down it looks kinda vomit-y.. like vomit.
ANTHONY: [Laughs] I’m dead. That’s so funny. Okay this next one’s good. Favorite possessions?
GRAZER: Maybe my dog, who’s kind of my best friend..ever. Jingles will be my number one. Second, probably my lava lamp. This is sincerely hard!
ANTHONY: What’re your dislikes?
GRAZER: Easy. Tuna. Unless it’s in sushi. I like sushi but I don't like cooked fish at all.
ANTHONY: Same. The collective dislike for cooked fish is insane.
GRAZER: What else? Chewing with your mouth open, I don’t like that. I don’t like a lot of things and now I can’t think of any of them. I don’t like when I'm on the phone with someone and then I'm saying bye. And then I turn out to be saying bye for like 30 minutes–– and they're like, bye! And then they're like, Oh, by the way…yada yada. It’s like why don’t you just tell me later after we get off the phone…
ANTHONY: [Laughing] It’s a whole thing. My mother does that a lot, it’s painful to watch..
GRAZER: Same with mine…and my dad.
ANTHONY: favorite fashion trend that's going on right now?
GRAZER: Hmm. That’s a good one.
ANTHONY: I mean, for me, I think one thing is how a lot of people are actively taking fashion cues from different decades. So it's just this kind of casual blend of all these styles and new and old trends on the streets..
GRAZER: Yeah. I also think a lot of people kind of hit on this, but I think it's kind of cool that people are trying to encapsulate skating culture, people who don't skate are trying to dress like they do. I think that a primo-factor in skate culture is the attire. It’s very casual and versatile and can be specific, and I think people are trying to pull that off and it’s cool.
ANTHONY: In the skating community, Is that a thing? People noticing other people are trying to dress like skaters that aren't actual skaters?
GRAZER: Yeah. And those people are called posers, I guess.. They go, you don't even skate but you're wearing Independent and Thrasher.. But I don't know, I think it's cool..
ANTHONY: In closing—the most personal one yet. What would you say your best qualities are?
GRAZER: Maybe my creativity. I'm really thankful for that, even though sometimes it fails sometimes. But my creativity and my imagination. My empathy too.
Dio Anthony is the founder of American Studies. A version of this story appears in the Fall/Winter 2020 collector’s edition with the title "Jack Daze."
Photographed by Daria Kobayashi Ritch Styling by Jake Sammis Written by Dio Anthony