I recently had the opportunity to exclusively interview Grayson Kennedy to learn five random facts about himself and what inspired him to become an actor. Check out my interview with Grayson below:
Loryn: What project do you have in store for 2022?
Grayson: In 2022 I will be directing and producing a play at the Hollywood Fringe Festival at the Zephyr Theatre on Melrose. This will be the inaugural show for my theater company that will launch officially in the fall of 2022. Other than that, this will be my first summer out-of-school and with an agent, so hopefully I will be getting some more projects lined up in the near future.
Loryn: Who is an actor or actress you'd like to work with?
Grayson: I have always wanted to work with Adam Driver. His performances are always so unpredictable, and I would love to see how he tackles a script on a day-to-day basis. There is a lot I have learned about acting simply from studying his films.
Loryn: What inspired you to become an actor?
Grayson: Literature inspired me to become an actor. I was always interested in Shakespeare and poetry. I nearly memorized the banned-book list in middle school, I was always attracted to provocative pieces. Slowly I inched my way into the theater and found that the morality in theater literature aligned more with my interests. Two months after High School I moved to Los Angeles and enrolled at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and have never looked back. I truly cannot picture myself doing anything else with my life.
Loryn: What lesson has the entertainment industry taught you so far?
Grayson: Working in the industry has given me an Iron Epidermis. You can not be an actor and get everything you want. It's a highly competitive industry and you will get approximately 100 "no's" for every one "yes". It's funny, I have this weird curse where I have not, to this day, gotten a single part that I have auditioned for, but every part that I do get, it'll be two weeks later and I'll get a phone call, like, "Hey, remember me from that audition you didn't book? Well we have a new part for you, and it's yours without an audition". I submitted to over a hundred agencies in my first two years in LA and got one reply. Randomly, I submitted a self-tape for a T.V show and through some strange magic, my self-tape ended up in the hands of Progressive Artists Agency, and they offered to represent me.
Loryn: What is something people be surprised to learn about you?
Grayson: People always seem surprised that I was born and raised in Detroit. I guess the connotation of the city does not match my personality, but growing up there, in the middle of the recession, has molded me into the man I am today.