The 2017 remake of Stephen King's It boasted a cast full of talented young actors who each managed to make their character stand out from the pack. Among the most delightful was hypochondriac Eddie Kaspbrak, whose wariness and panic in the face of killer clowns and smothering moms revealed more bravery than even he was aware he possessed. But who played Eddie in It? That would be fourteen year old actor Jack Dylan Grazer.
A native of Los Angeles, Grazer got started in the entertainment business fairly early. He had some connections, too; his uncle is producer Brian Grazer, who has worked on Parenthood, Arrested Development, 24: Legacy, and Empire, among others. According to Grazer's IMDB biography, he attended the ARTE program at the Adderley School for the Performing Arts where he got his start on stage in school productions. It wasn't until 2014 that Grazer made his way to the screen, starting off on TV in The Greatest Event in Television History before making the jump into movies.
Grazer's first film role was in Scales: Mermaids Are Real but It is definitely his biggest role so far. He has parts in movies and TV awaiting him in the future, too. On the film side of things, there's the sequel to It and Beautiful Boy, where he'll be playing a young version of Timothée Chalamet's character. On television, Grazer will play the youngest version of the main character on Me, Myself, and I, which follows three different times in one man's life. Grazer is definitely keeping busy.
But even though Grazer has more projects lined up to go, he still seems to be enjoying the immense success of It, which has become the highest grossing September release ever. While promoting his new TV show, Grazer gave TooFab a little bit of insight into the filming of It and described how much fun he had working on the film.
"To be honest with you, I kind of enjoyed those really intense scenes where [Pennywise, played by Bill Skarsgård] is like grabbing me and screaming in my face and spinning me and punching me and stuff," Grazer said. "I remember one scene after he was done choking me and stuff, he goes, 'Jack, are you okay?' And I was like, 'Yeah! That was so much fun! I love what you're doing with the character, like let's do that again.'"
The sequel to It picks up twenty-seven years after the events of the first film, which unfortunately means a diminished role for the kids as their characters become adults. However, their popularity has probably guaranteed that they won't be totally missing from Chapter Two. That could mean the young actors will appear in flashbacks that link the two timelines together, but it's still very early days for the sequel so it's difficult to say.
New actors will be needed to play the adult versions of the characters, however, and Grazer has already decided who he wants to take on the role of Eddie going forward. He chose Jake Gyllenhaal for the part, which definitely isn't a bad choice at all. And according to MTV News, when the suggestion was raised to Gyllenhaal, he didn't seem entirely opposed to it. He didn't offer to sign a contract on the spot or anything, but he did remark on their similar look — though he pointed out key differences, too. "[Grazer is] very dapper," Gyllenhaal said. "When I was a kid I could barely get my clothes on."
Grazer really made the role his own, so whoever goes on to play Eddie in the future will have a very big fanny pack to fill.
