Taylor Gray was, for a long time, typical.
And typical for a boy growing up in La Mirada meant soccer or hoops or baseball after school and surfing on weekends. All fun all the time.
So when a neighbor’s father, a guy who oversaw the rides at Knott’s Berry Farm, offered him a chance to ride the rides at Knott’s Berry Farm for free, as part of a commercial – and said he’d get paid for his time – Gray jumped.
During the shoot, as Gray and others were riding and generally ignoring the cameras, the director told Gray he was a natural.
“I thought, ‘You’re kidding, right?’ But he said, ‘No, you’re really good.”
That was about five years ago. And since then Gray has been anything but typical.
He landed a series of national TV commercials, work in which he was essentially urged to show up and smile. Then he worked a job with a respected actor – a working pro who follows the Method method of acting – and Gray’s eyes were opened to the possibility that acting is an art.
Then came Gray’s biggest opportunity to date – co-lead in a new Nickelodeon series “Bucket & Skinner’s Epic Adventures” – and the La Mirada teen was given his biggest, most difficult direction yet.
Be yourself, Gray was told; be typical.
It’ll be a stretch.
•••
After the commercial for Knott’s Gray quickly found more pitch work. He was in commercials for Dannon water and Verizon phone service. He helped Wal-Mart sell its line of “High School Musical” products.
Then, in 2007, Gray landed a movie role, playing the son of parents Rosie Perez and John Leguizamo in the crime drama, “The Take.” On the set of the movie, Gray got his first acting lesson.
Little things the actors did, on set but not on camera, caught Gray’s attention. Leguizamo’s character was shot,and the actor would ask Gray to zip up his jacket and do other things to help him, as a wounded father might ask of his able-bodied son.
Gray noticed it all. And it made an impression.
“(Leguizamo) does Method acting, which was something I hadn’t been exposed to before… trying to figure out why his character would do things,” Gray says.
Acting could have depth, and being an actor could be interesting. Soon, Gray was engaged in the craft, taking acting classes in Los Angeles and beginning the groundwork for what he hopes will be a career.
He’s even pushed himself to study what he can of Hollywood while at high school in Orange County.
He attended Troy High School in Fullerton, getting into the school’s media studies magnet program. He’s taken classes in photography and video production, among other things.
“I figured I’d take anything I could related to the business (of Hollywood),” he says. “If I learn now about working behind the camera it’ll only help me in front of the cameras.”
•••
As a working actor – a young actor but, still a working one – he’s been pushing for a break.
And one seems at hand in the form of “Bucket & Skinner’s Epic Adventures,” the Nickelodeon series about two friends who care most about surfing and girls, possibly in that order.
At the first audition, Gray read for the role of Skinner, the whackier of the two. He made a good impression, he says, but the casting director soon was replaced. So, three months later, he read for the part again.
Over the course of 11 or so auditions, he read for both parts – Bucket is the quieter of the pair. He even did screen tests for both parts, opposite a handful of other actors who wanted the job.
“Bucket, he’s like the reliable guy, he’s normal,” Gray says. “The straight man. Everyone can relate to him
“With Skinner, I was definitely playing a character,” Gray adds.
“I don’t think there are many people in the world who are like Skinner.”
Eventually, he got the part of Bucket, and a request to do something that at first seemed to run counter to all the acting classes he’d been taking.
“I remember them saying, ‘We want you to play it as close to you as you can,'” Gray says. “Which was a little weird at first. ‘Play myself? How do I do that?'”
•••
That was about two years ago.
And, no, you haven’t missed anything. The show premiered only this month.
The project was in a TV version of turnaround and was officially green lighted only last summer. Gray got word during an acting class and was pumped up enough about the news that, when he got into his car that night, he accidentally pulled the handle off the car’s door.
“Bucket & Skinner’s” executive producer, Tom Lynch, says Gray was the most natural guy they could find. And Lynch, whose shows for tweens and teens include “South of Nowhere,” “The Troop” and “Kids Inc.,” adds this:
“He’s a real kid.”
For now.
Since the show launched production late last year, Gray has grown up a lot. He’s graduated from high school. He’s met some other kid actors (Drake Bell and Josh Peck of “Drake & Josh,”) from Gray’s favorite Nickelodeon show growing up. He’s a few weeks from turning 18.
And he’s come to grips with a reality – acting is his job.
“I’d been to a good amount of sets, but this was crazy,” Gray says of his first few weeks of shooting. “Because this was where I was going to be working for the next who knows how long?”
Months later, Gray remained the kid buried inside the actor.
When the show premiered, nearly two weeks ago, Gray and the rest of the cast were given the option of watching the feed together at the studio.
But Gray says that didn’t seem real.
So the actors and their moms did what normal kids and their mothers do – they invited cast and crew out to a local spot for a pizza party.
By all accounts, everybody had a fine time.
Typical.
Contact the writer: 714-796-7787 or plarsen@ocregister.com
