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Interview: Devon Graye
The star of Legendary talks about working with Patricia Clarkson and playing a teenage serial killer
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Legendary, which opens on September 10, stars Patricia Clarkson, John Cena and up-and-comer Devon Graye, best known for playing a teenage version of the titular character on Dexter. But now the L.A.-based actor is turning his attention to film, including Legendary, where he plays Cal, who wants to learn to high school wrestle to get closer to his brother, actual WWE star Cena, and the upcoming Avalon High. Encore recently spoke to Graye in New York.
Did you have any wrestling experience before joining the cast of Legendary?
No experience at all. I didn’t even really know what wrestling was. In my mind, I kind of associate it with boxing. When we actually started watching wrestling matches, it was this brand new world that I knew nothing about. It was fascinating, but intimidating because I was like, “I can’t do that!” But by the end of the two-week training—and another week of training in New Orleans—I felt pretty confident in it, which is a place I never thought I’d get to.
What kind of stuff did you do in training?
We did what the training would be for a high school wrestling team, just condensed into a two-week training. We did it for several hours every day, and worked on the basics like stance and different drills. We actually worked with high school wrestling teams in Los Angeles. Some of them were a little more aggresive than others [laughs]. I remember one in particular where my neck sort of snapped at one point. But yeah, it was very condensed to learn all of that. It was good for my character, though, because I felt Cal’s learning it all so fast too, so it was kind of nice to have freshness of not being too good at it, but also not being terrible at it.
When you worked with John, especially during the wrestling scenes, did anything go wrong, so to speak?
The worst that happened is, he’s so big and so strong, that he grabbed my arm, and although he didn’t hurt my arm, I went home that night and noticed that his fingers and palm bruised into my forearm.
How familiar with Patricia Clarkson’s work before coming in?
Very familiar, to the point that I knew so much about her that it’s almost stalker-y. I had seen most of her work actually because I was such a huge fan. When I first heard she was attached to the project, I felt like I wanted to do the film so badly just to work with her. I feel incredibly blessed to have her in my life.
In the film, you have a bleached blond hair. Was that in the original script or did you add that?
It was actually a little bit of my idea. In the script, it mentions many times how Cal resembles the mother and Mike [Cena's character] resembles the father, and it says that the mother-son resemblance is uncanny. I talked to the director and said, “I want to look more like Patricia in some way, and I feel like we should go a little lighter with the hair.” So we did, like, three different hair tests; my poor hair was getting bleached and bleached with different colors. In the end, I think we found the one that is her hair color, it looks very similar to hers. It was different for me; I’ve had black hair and red hair and brown hair, but never—
Red hair?
Yeah, I had red hair in Dexter for seasons one and two.
Oh yeah, that’s right. Speaking of Dexter, that’s probably the role you’re most often recognized for.
It is, definitely. Because I’m older and look a little different now, people know they know from me something, but they don’t even think it’s from TV. Maybe they went to school with me, or something like that. But yeah, especially when the show first came out and I still had the red hair, I was getting recognized all over L.A.
What’s it like playing the younger version of an already existing character?
I went into Dexter as my first big job, and now, I think I’d go into way differently. That’s not to say I’m not happy with what I did, but I think it was a very new experience and my confidence level was at zero. I respected Michael [C Hall]’s work so much on Six Feet Under, so to play the younger version of him was huge. I kind of had no idea what he was doing with the character because I hadn’t seen anything of his, and wouldn’t know until the first season came out. I did all my stuff without ever seeing Michael, so it’s nice that the two do kind of resemble each other in some way, acting-wise, but it would have been nice to see what he did with the character to incorporate it into my role. But he’s so brilliant and gifted at what he does, and it’s also intimidating playing a younger version of someone who’s so great because you want to match up to their performance and you don’t want to be the weaker version of the two.
That’s interesting that you guys never met or speak while researching the role.
We spoke at table reads, but being at a table read, you don’t really know how someone’s going to do the performance. I think I only had one scene with him, where he’s choking this other young actor and it morphs into me for one second. Throughout the rest of the show, we’re never near each other.
Do you enjoy playing dark roles?
I do, very much, and there’s something about it that gives you more of a thrill than playing someone like Cal, because Cal is such a positive, happy go lucky guy. That’s fun and that’s great but it’s a little challenging too because you don’t want it to become boring. When I’m playing a darker character, I feel more alive and vibrant because it’s not me in real life. It feels like acting.
Do you still keep in touch with the cast of Dexter?
It’s funny. I run into Jennifer Carpenter [Deb on Dexter, and Michael C. Hall’s real-life wife] at the weirdest places. She was the first person I ever met on set. She was in this cop uniform for the pilot, and she gave me a huge hug and said, “Oh my gosh, it’s so nice to meet you!” She just made me feel so at home and so great. And I run into her at Coffee Bean in L.A. and Starbucks in L.A. and all these different places, and when we were doing Legendary in New Orleans [where the film was shot], I was at the gym in the hotel and I turn around and Jennifer Carpenter’s right there!
You guys should be close. You’re the younger version of her husband.
I actually got really close with the family of the actress [Haley King] who plays the younger version of Deb, and moved in and lived with them in L.A. I rented a bedroom from them. I never dated the younger version of her, but we lived in the same house for a year-and-a-half.
Besides acting in TV and film, you have a bit of a theater career.
I did Holes at the Orpheum in San Francisco for a few months, and that was actually the stage thing I’ve done. But yeah, Holes was the first big thing I did, and I became an Equity member because of it. I would love to do more. It’s just that L.A. theater is few and far between, the good stuff. But I would like to come to New York at some point and do some work here. It’s so much exciting here than it is in L.A.
What’s next for you?
I did a movie in New Zealand shortly after Legendary. It’s a Disney film called Avalon High, based on the book series by Meg Cabot. That comes out in November.
Just out of curiosity, what’s it like being in a Disney film? Is there added pressure because of the brand name?
I put pressure on myself to look good because you have the fanbase of those Disney kids are so…they’re used to these perfect faces and perfect smiles and perfect everything, and you go into it thinking, I’m not perfect enough. With the hair and makeup people every day I’d ask, “Is this Disney enough? Am I going to get a fanbase of little kids because I want them to like them?” I didn’t feel any pressure from producers or anything like that. I put my own pressure on it because kids are so particular and can be the cruelest critics of all.