First Impressions: Bradley Constant

Written by Dio Anthony

Bradley Constant is living his Hollywood dream as Young Dwayne Johnson on ABCs Young Rock. Joined by two additional Rocks, 22-year-old Bradley plays the teen-age version of the famous pro-wrestler, turned actor, turned Hollywood sweetheart. In true Tinseltown fashion, Constant’s life is being rocked [pun-intended] by a starring role on a sitcom. It doesn’t get anymore American than that. On the afternoon following his debut Late Night appearance––In his first printed interview, he discusses all of the life-steps that have led him to this very moment. His moment. 

DIO ANTONY: Before speaking to you, I watched you on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon , that was so cool. I'm really curious about what the dynamic and relationship was with you and Dwayne on set. Being as though you're playing a younger version of him, could you speak to that a little bit?

BRADLEY CONSTANT: You know, we never worked together on set but he was always there. He was always around and we communicated regularly. He always had good and encouraging advice for all of us. For Adrian [Groulx] and Uli [Latukefu] who also play different versions of him. Right after I booked it, we had our first chat. They set it up right away. We talked about what life was like for him as a teenager—and he really elaborated on it. Of course I had questions right off the bat. 

ANTHONY: What did you ask him?

CONSTANT: The first thing I asked him was––what were the top three most important things to you at 15? He said, girls, working out, and family. At the time, he had a tough relationship with his dad, but he would occasionally go to the gym with him when he was around. Those were moments where they could chat. He really elaborated on all of these points so naturally. While we were shooting, any questions I had I could always reach out o him. 

ANTHONY: That's amazing. You hit the ground running with these great questions for him.

CONSTANT: I was excited.

ANTHONY: I love that. What do you remember when you first became aware of who he was? As a younger kid I mean. For me, I’m 30 now, but I remember growing up he was ‘The Rock’, always on my TV somehow. Then years later he stopped being The Rock. 

CONSTANT: I remember him always saying, Can you smell what the rock is cooking? I was  watching that with my dad when I was little. I was probably like five or six and my dad would always have wrestling on in the living room, and I just got to sit and watch. He was obviously one of my favorite guys, somebody that looked like me. I was a big fan then, and growing up, I followed all of his movies. The first movie I saw was Walking Tall and I loved everything he's been in. I've been a fan for awhile, man.

ANTHONY: I love the scene where teenage Rock is with all the other kids in the lunchroom and  we learn for the first time that he looks older than his peers. I thought that was really interesting because I always looked older as a kid. What was your own high school experience like?

CONSTANT: Well, I was tall too. I was actually like 6’1 at 14 going into 15, but I was skinny, you know, I wasn't muscular. You could say I found myself in some funny situations. I often hung out with my older brothers and their friends. I was a little bit mature for my age. I guess I was into what the older kids were into and were trying to do. They would go see rated R movies. It was funny because I was so tall. I was taller than a lot of my older brother's friends, four or five years older than me. Sometimes they would get turned away for the movie and I'd get to go in because I was taller than all of them. High school was fun. Playing this role has definitely reminded me of that. But I'm glad I'm not 15 anymore.

ANTHONY: What do you remember about growing up in Tuscaloosa, AL? Would we consider this a small town USA kind of situation?

CONSTANT: Yeah, kind of. Not very small town, because we're a college town. We have the University of Alabama, who has a huge football team. But it's very small knit––most people know each other. So I guess it does have that small town vibe to it. It’s an awesome place. I love it.

ANTHONY: I read that you convinced your mom to move to New York city and I immediately wondered what that conversation must’ve been like?

CONSTANT: Well, my mom is just an incredibly amazing person. I don't know how it worked, but I initially would travel to New York city and would do these talent showcases over the course of a weekend. We would take an Amtrak train from Alabama––it was a 24 hour ride from Tuscaloosa all the way up to New York city. I’d do a class on a Thursday night and then we'd have a performance on Monday where agents and managers could watch us. Then I'd rush back home on the Amtrak train to make it back to school. Eventually I drew interest from a manager in New York and they were like, you know, you gotta be out here in New York to get auditions. So I looked at my mom like, eh, can we do it? Is it okay? No? Please? It didn't take too much convincing. It’s not too surprising, my mom is pretty dope.

ANTHONY: She believed in you..

CONSTANT: She did man. She really did, and I think we were both really excited to leave that small town. New York is exciting to think about and I have two older brothers, and both of them were already out in college. One of them was in Boston. We thought moving to New York would be moving a little bit closer to one of my brothers. It was a big move.

ANTHONY: What do you remember about those early days? 

CONSTANT: Man, I remember how unsure of the future, but how hopeful and excited we were. We had made those trips to New York city before, and I was in love with it. New York is still my favorite place of all time. I love it. I remember we got a rental car and just packed what we could in the back of it and in the trunk. The first half year we lived there, we lived in this couple's attic and we’d all hang out. It was sweet, but I slept two feet away from my mom. Teenage boys are not super excited about that. But it’s funny, looking back. She's my mom, she's always there for me, and we're the best of friends. She's really been a part of the whole journey.We went through tough times and we always found our way. Eventually we got an awesome place in Hell's kitchen and the city really started feeling like our own. I moved to New York when I was 15. I was kind of becoming my own man and figuring out who I was and New York is a heck of a place to do it. I had a girlfriend at the time when I was there and I started auditioning for some really cool things that in Alabama I never had the chance to. New York was really just a place of hope and excitement. And it was really the beginning of our journey.

ANTHONY: I love that. I was going to ask you a little later what your relationship was like with your mother, because the show touches so much on that, but you kind of answered it. I keep asking you things that I've read apologies for that [laughs], But I did read that you're an avid runner and I was wondering where you picked up that love for it?

CONSTANT: In middle school I was a little bit heavier and I was kind of insecure about it. My older brother and my oldest brother, Chris came to me one day. He was like, I'm sorry, man, I'm sorry, you're feeling this way, but you know what? You can control what you want to do about it going forward. He took me out on a run one day and we ran one mile and I was huffing and puffing. It took like 20 minutes to get through all of it. But he said, you know what, keep your head up and your chest out.That’s the mentality I've had going forward. Running became a daily thing for me. I would wake up in high school and run at five in the morning before class. It was a daily thing. It kind of grounded me and it became part of my drive to want to move to New York city and do everything. I run every day, the reason I'm going to run later today is because it clears my mind and it reminds me to keep pushing myself. Every marathon I've done always comes at the best time because it’s a reminder to keep pushing. In a way that's really what kind of pushed me through in this career. There's been a lot of no getting up to this point.

ANTHONY: Epic, You’ve found all these like little life moments with family. Very much like the show in a way.

CONSTANT: Yeah, man. My families’s my everything. 

ANTHONY: I also read that you wore a fake mustache for your audition. Is the one on the show real?

CONSTANT: That one is actually mine! It’s funny. Going into it. They had to put a fake one on. I didn't know at the time if I could grow it. Halfway through the performance at the audition, it started flapping off and I was like, Oh my goodness. I was super nervous. Of course, nobody wants that to happen, but it kind of broke the ice and all my nerves left the air and went away and it worked out. After I booked it, I just let it grow throughout the summer months until we started filming. I was working at a grocery story at the time and all of my coworkers were demanding that I shaved it. It was starting to look pretty awful to them. But once we started shooting the show, having the mustache really helped me become the character more. I started to like it and I enjoyed trimming it in the mornings. It became a regular thing and I was real proud of it. Of course, after I wrapped I shaved it off. I went straight home to Alabama to stay with my grandmother and the first thing she said was please shave that mustache. She wouldn’t let me back in the house [laughing].

ANTHONY: How long was it from knowing that you got the role until you actually left to shoot?

CONSTANT: I booked the role in March of last year and we shot it in September. We initially were planning on shooting in Los Angeles. Then the COVID lockdown happened the week of my audition. It was incredible how quickly they were able to figure things out. Production quickly changed to shooting in Australia. I'd never left the country before, so that was exciting. I got to spend that time getting excited. It felt like a five year wait. However, it made the tough days at work a lot easier. I was always able to remind myself, hey look, you're going to be in Australia in four or five months, you're going to be okay. That's enough. Once I got there it was amazing. There were no known cases at the time and we were able to walk around without masks, go to restaurants, that sort of thing. It was like normal life. 

ANTHONY: When I first tuned in, it really did feel like California to me. Down to the architecture.. 

CONSTANT: That was the craziest part. The first day stepping on set and walking down the hallway in the high school, passed all the lockers. I'm like, wait, we're in Australia. This feels like the states. I'm an American. This is so unreal.

ANTHONY: This whole ride feels life changing for you. What sticks out?

CONSTANT: Ooh, man. Some of my favorite moments on set were my scenes with Stacey [Leilua] who plays my mother on the series. It really felt like I was talking to my own mom. All of us had the best chemistry, from hanging out in Australia when we weren't shooting, to petting a koala [laughs]. I held it and it tucked its head under my neck and I was freaking out. It was awesome. So many incredible experiences. that wouldn’t have happened if we filmed in LA.

Photographed by Brian Saculles