For the third cover of 10 Men Issue 55 – Future, Balance, Healing – photographer Magnus Unnar captures rising actor Jack Dylan Grazer inside the Betty Ford Estate in Los Angeles. A self-described Raf Simons super fan, Grazer wears Prada’s SS22 collection, styled here by Garth Allday Spencer. After a breakout role in Luca Guadagnino’s miniseries We Are Who We Are. Grazer is ready to stake his claim as the industry’s next big star. Here, he sits down with Roxy Lola to discuss his journey so far.
Jack Dylan Grazer is going through pivotal moments in his life. The 18-year-old actor has discovered – and solidified – self-love and just bought his first house. Grazer is at the forefront of the next generation of Hollywood, one that is more self-aware, emotionally intelligent and unwaveringly honest. In particular, he is purely fascinated by the world around him and what lies ahead.
“Let me give you the backstory,” says Jack Dylan Grazer, who Zooms in from his family home in Los Angeles, where he was born and raised. He twirls a drumstick with expertise (he just wrapped Dreamin’ Wild, the film he learned drums for) and his hair is a perfect mess; in the background, the sound of his Grandpa watching soap operas in the room next door faintly fades in. This week, Grazer has just bought a house in Nashville. “Basically, I was filming Shazam 2 [Shazam! Fury of the Gods] in Atlanta and I went to Tennessee because I have a lot of family on my Mom’s side that I’ve never met before. I met my third cousin, we played guitar together and we talked about her Grandpa, who had just died from Covid. I had met him in LA, he was actually the guy who gave me the guitar I play in the first place. So it was kind of an unintentionally spiritual experience. We went to the cemetery and talked. It was really special and it really resonated; I walked away from that experience thinking: I want to go back. I felt understood. Then I came back to LA and realised how buzzy it gets here. It’s a lot of noise, a lot of gossip. But I fell in love with Nashville. I bought the house there primarily for my Mom but also as a base camp. I love it.”
Between films right now, Grazer is trying new things. There’s a wave of interest in self- improvement online – one scrolling session on TikTok proves that thousands of teens are confidently and refreshingly talking about building self-worth and becoming the best versions of themselves. “I’ve always considered myself the anarchist archetype, if I’m to put any archetype label on myself, but I’ve actually been praying a lot recently and meditating,” he says, exuberantly. “It’s not something I tell a lot of people. I don’t want to be that guy, I hate that guy who’s preachy, like ‘you know what, man, you gotta start meditating, you gotta start talking to God more’,” he says, rolling his eyes. “But it’s definitely working for me. I’ve been writing more, I’ve been creating more music, which is something I am finding that I love. I’ve been in really dark places in my life where I’ve been so bereft of inspiration, creativity and productivity. But I notice when I have these conversations with myself, conveying the faith I have in me, it helps. Just knowing who I am is helpful. And every decision that I make, as long as it’s authentic and not pretentious and it’s honest, then I’m happy.”
The turning point for Grazer began in 2019 when he was filming Luca Guadagnino’s miniseries We Are Who We Are. Grazer, then 16, played the moody 14-year-old, Fraser. “I had my epiphany, or whatever you wanna call it… Public epiphany?” He laughs. “I was having my identity crisis at the same time Fraser was having his identity crisis and somewhere the wires got crossed. When I ended that role I was like, what am I supposed to do? That was when I fell into a really deep depression that lasted too long. But I’ll tell you this, a lesson I gained from that dark, deep, consistent sadness I was in for a long time is that the feelings I felt then were valid. Then, I realised that, because I didn’t love myself, I was so dumb. I forgot to love myself and I was taking terrible care of myself and that’s the reason I was so sad because I had no backbone and no integrity in who I was.”
It’s a crucial point of adolescence, figuring out who the hell you are. And that’s hard in a social media-centred world. “Dude, nobody talks about it,” he says, with a sigh. “It’s weird that nobody really talks about the psychological part of hormones, if that’s what it is. It’s like, maybe you’ll become severely depressed. It’s tough for kids to navigate, especially now. At least for me, [I was] growing up as a face on social media with constant judgement. For some it’s okay, for me, I love an audience, but an audience of 4 million people scares the shit out of me. It’s a lot of pressure, especially when you’re young.” He goes on social media to see what his friends are up to, but he’s aware that sometimes the doomscrolling is too much. “If we didn’t have it the world would be super different. It would be a lot more altruistic. I notice on TikTok everybody’s got each other’s back, which is a cool thing to see. The fact is there will never be perfect unity… It’s like we created this whole alternate world on our phones where people can yell at each other and say terrible things – I don’t know why we thought it would be peaceful. Humans aren’t always peaceful.”
Acting has taught him what he calls his greatest strength, empathy. He explains that there’s less of a community amongst child actors and more so a family felt with actors across the generations. “I just filmed a movie and Beau Bridges was in it and he said something really special. It was after the [shooting] incident on Rust and he made an announcement saying, ‘We’re all a big family of filmmakers and when we lose one we should mourn.’ We’re all peers. When I meet another actor it’s an unspoken thing; we don’t have to say much, we get it. We all started somewhere where we were just human. I’m still human but the journey of it is realising how human you really are and that being treated like something else is weird. Grounding yourself is super important.” He notes Steve Carell as someone he worked with and connected with (on Beautiful Boy; he played the younger version of Timothée Chalamet’s character), as well as Guadagnino, who gave him “a blessing and a curse of insight. Now I’m hyper-aware of every movie I watch. A few weeks after wrapping that show, I’d call him and ask: ‘Hey Luca, do you think this movie is good?’ He would say, ‘No, it is hipster bullshit.’ I would be like ‘Oh… yeah yeah yeah I hated it too… Why did you hate it!?’” He laughs. “His judgment means everything to me. But he is a genius.” In the future, Grazer would love to work with Spike Jonze, Patty Jenkins, the Safdie brothers. “I want to work with Martin Scorsese, of course. I want to work with these guys before they outgrow me – or croak.”
Grazer’s passion for everything we speak about is infectious. He loves music, endlessly. Recently, he’s been writing songs and recording them in his living room. For now, they’re just for him. Sometimes it’s nice to keep something to yourself, I say. “Yes! To have something sacred. I feel like I would almost be surrendering it if I gave it away. And you know what, all the crazy, artistic stuff that we do, it’s all for us at the end of the day. Even when we give it to people, it’s for us, because we want the response. But I’ve learnt the only response I really need is from me – and that’s pretty cool.” His musical heroes include a solid line-up of Jim Morrison, Action Bronson (“that dude has a presence that is unmatched”), Mick Jagger (“duh”), Jerry Eubanks, Robert Plant, Van Morrison, Laura Lee Ochoa (the bassist in Khruangbin), Mick Fleetwood and Jacob Collier, who he’s “obsessed” with right now.
His fascination with the arts is thrilling. He can’t speak about the next project he’ll be filming, but grins mischievously when asked about it. For now, he’s making music, meditating and working on self-love. And experimenting with fashion. If he could collaborate with anyone on a collection, he’d love to work with Raf Simons. “Fashion is a great [form of] outward self- expression. I wore something weird the other day. I skated for a bit in it. I wore a dress and these big baggy corduroy pants, with this bright green, obnoxious Dickies hat. I loved it. [I felt] fabulous! I have a lot of stuff going on in my head. A lot of thoughts and feelings. If I can look in the mirror and say, ‘this is the guy who’s having these thoughts’, that makes sense. Then I feel like I can put pen to paper. I’ve made this character into an outfit.” Grazer turns to his Mum for support and advice, and the most important thing he’s learned has come from his mentor, Janet Adderley of The Adderley School, where he studied acting. The lesson is simply, ‘the show must go on’ in all aspects of life. “I want to create everything. I have so many ideas, it’s intoxicating. It’s driving me crazy. I want to direct. I want to pursue this music thing in a way that’s going to be personal.”
He’s thankful that he has realised his worth. “If I don’t feel like the best performer that doesn’t matter. I believe my gift is that I’m supposed to be an entertainer, I’m supposed to be a performer. I’m good at it and I love doing it. I know for a fact those are the things I have to do. When I don’t feel good at it I have to remember that I’m human and I’m not perfect. I have to remember the gift I do bring and that when I do bring it, that’s my purpose. So it’s remembering my purpose and what I was put on this earth to do. That makes me feel a lot more valuable.” We talk about exploration and adventure. He’s wise beyond his years but that childlike excitement never wavers. “Follow your heart,” he almost yells into the camera, laughing. And then, softly, he says what seems to be his motto these days: “Do whatever you need to do.”
Issue 55 of 10 Men – FUTURE, BALANCE, HEALING – is on newsstands March 25. Pre-order your copy here.
PRADA: BOY WONDER
Photographer MAGNUS UNNAR
Fashion Editor GARTH ALLDAY SPENCER
Text ROXY LOLA
Talent JACK DYLAN GRAZER
Grooming SONIA LEE at Exclusive Artists using Oribe
Fashion assistant ZOE ANASTOS
Production RICHARD VILLANI at Villani Productions
Shot at THE FORD ESTATE
Thanks to THE PRESIDENT GERALD and BETTY FORD ESTATE
