"Degrassi: The Next Generation" star Jake Epstein | The Latest With Maya

A conversation with Jake Epstein.❤️ 


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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It's a latest. Hi Jake. Welcome to The Latest with Maya. Jake Epstein is an actor and singer who you've seen in Degrassi, The Next Generation Suits, The Umbrella Academy, The Hardy Boys, Oi to the World, and so much more. Jake was also in Beautiful, the Carol King musical, and Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark on Broadway and was a part of the first national tour of Spring Awakening. Thank you so much for joining me. I am so excited to be talking with you.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Oh my gosh. Thanks, Maya. I'm super honored you asked to interview me.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Um, so who has had the biggest impact on the person you've become?

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Who has had the biggest impact? Uh there's probably a few people. I mean, my parents for sure. My parents, uh, my mom is uh uh a children's writer, and my dad is uh he's retired now, but he was a lawyer. And um they were uh they loved uh the arts, they loved theater. Our um our family vacation was road tripping from Toronto, where I grew up, to New York City to see a Broadway show every summer with my sister. And um my sister and I are both actors, and I think it's because our parents like fostered our love of the arts and of theater, and and when we said we wanted to do it professionally, they didn't say go get a real job, they didn't say go get a degree, they said we we support you, we believe in you. So it's probably them.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Oh, I love that. Yeah. Um so what small things bring you joy on a daily basis?

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Uh uh right now it's for sure it's my my two-year-old, who's a little sick at the moment, but uh he's um he's got like a really weird and awesome sense of humor. Um he'll like like the other day, he'll tell me, you know, to change his diaper. And I I I'm not gonna like um you know like sniff his bum. If he tells me to change him, I'll do it. So I go to do it, there's nothing there. I said, Miles, there's there's there's nothing here. And he says, joke poop. I was like, joke poop is a pretty good joke for a two-year-old. Like, you got me, buddy. Um, there's just like really weird, strange things like that that happen every day. He gives me a ton of joy. Um also just I love um I love uh playing instruments, so my guitars give me a lot of joy, and I've got a keyboard that I love, it gives me a lot of joy. Writing gives me a lot of joy, uh, great conversations with friends, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Oh, I love that. Yeah, um, so what is the best advice you have ever gotten?

SPEAKER_01 3:50

The best advice I'd ever gotten. Um there's been a lot of great advice, um, but I guess I guess the thing that sticks out to me um I had a an acting teacher named John Boylan who was like a mentor to me, and the thing that he kept drilling with me is uh is is to take up space in a room. And maybe it's part of my own personality, uh like growing up Canadian, that the you know, the the feeling can be to make everyone else feel okay, maybe sometimes to like I mean it's a cliche, but to like apologize, you know, and he was like, it's your space, take it. And especially with being a performer, I think about that all the time, that when you're performing or when you're with people, to take up the space that you need to take up, to not worry about everyone else around you, to put yourself first, and uh to think about what you need and uh and to fill to fill a room the way that you need to. Uh so yeah, I I I uh whenever I'm on stage or on set, I'm I think about that all the time.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Oh, I love that. Yeah. Um so if you had a warning label, what would yours say?

SPEAKER_01 5:35

That's a great question, but wait, can you explain that?

SPEAKER_00 5:38

If I had a warning label like like do not give me an example, yeah, like a warning label for yeah, yourself.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Um uh like what would be a warning label for yourself? Give me an example.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Um I think it w would be probably like warning prone to anxiety, don't overload.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

That's great. Oh my god. Um I don't know. I'd be prone to anxiety is pretty good. Uh yeah, it'd be like I don't know, it'd be like check if if it has slept, if it slept, like like subject has two-year-old, so we'll be extremely grumpy unless subject has slept. I don't know. I feel like right now I'm like running on uh fumes learning how to be a parent. So I feel like a warning of like check-in, like we'll probably be very grumpy from no sleep and chasing after a two-year-old all day.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

I like that one.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

I like I like prone to anxiety. I like yours. That's great.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Thank you. Thank you. My mom actually came up with that one for me, and I think that I'd have multiple ones, so but that's that's great, or it would be like please, like something like I love food.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

There's there's pretty much no food that I won't love. So it also could be like please feed.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

I like that one.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Overfeed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Yeah. Um, so what has been the biggest obstacle either personally or professionally, that you've overcome?

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Um personally or professionally that I've overcome. Um I don't know, like when I this is gonna be a messy answer, but when I moved to New York, uh this was years ago when I was doing Broadway stuff. And I did uh Spider-Man was my Broadway debut. And it was a pretty um, it was a it was like a big deal, but it was very famous because actors were getting hurt in the show. Um and I secretly got hurt doing it. But everyone back home and people that had kind of helped me get there, I didn't want them to know that I was in pain, so I covered it. And then um I did the Carol King musical, which was also a really big deal. And when I was doing it, my character um they kept rewriting the script because it was a new musical, and they kind of changed my part so that he became like the villain, like the antagonist, because that's what the show needed. And so sometimes when I'd come to Bao, people would boo me or like boo my character, because he's like the villain. It's like the villain boo. And I didn't want people to know that it bothered me, but it really did. And um, I had these kind of experiences like this that I wasn't really sharing with people, I was kind of carrying with me. And when I uh when I eventually came uh back to Toronto, which is where my wife's from as well, we got married. Um I wrote a show about my experiences doing Broadway stuff, and I got to like turn these moments of pain and sometimes like shame into moments of like comedy. And I got to make this like uh kind of stand-up comedy musical show about about these ridiculous, absurd experiences uh doing theater and doing Broadway. And that was like the most healing experience, and and and not only was it just really cool, um, and the show became really uh successful. I got to do it at all the major theaters around Canada. Um and we filmed it and they're doing a thing with it. Um, but just personally, to get to like uh suddenly talk so publicly about things I was really scared to tell people about, things I was really ashamed of, I was really proud of myself for for being able to do that in such a public way and kind of owning it. And uh, like I said, um turning my own kind of quiet shame into like a piece of entertainment I was proud of. That's that's probably the thing I'm I'm most proudest of.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Oh wow, I love that. Yeah, I um I love Broadway.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

So yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Yeah. Yeah. Um yeah, so um I am uh pop culture obsessed and I go in stages of shows that I cannot stop watching. Um is what are you watching?

SPEAKER_01 11:31

What are you watching now?

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Oh, um, I mean, there's so much. Right now I'm watching um I'm watching Ugly Betty.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Yeah. Um I'm obsessed with that. And then uh trying there's so much um I'm watching, and now I'm blanking on everything. I'm also obsessed with the pit.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Um oh yeah, it's so good. I have I just started watching The Pit and I already love it.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Yeah, I yeah. I um those are the two that come to mind right away, but they're uh I don't know why I'm blanking on everything else I'm binge watching at the moment. Um but is there um a show that you are currently obsessed with?

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Um I mean the season finished, but I was totally obsessed with Severance. Uh have you seen it?

SPEAKER_00 12:33

I've seen a few episodes.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

I love it. It's great. Yeah, I I I really love it. I think it's like really smart writing, amazing acting, and and uh I love uh like kind of sci-fi stuff. And uh yeah, I think the whole concept to it is really fascinating. Um but yeah, that's probably uh I'm trying to think if there's anything else. I mean, I love like The Last of Us. Um and uh uh I just started watching The Pit. And to be honest, like in the last little bit, I've been trying to watch some of the like Oscar nominated movies. Um but yeah, like the last TV show that I was like diehard about was for sure Severance. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Oh cool, I love that. Yeah, um so if you could choose anyone to narrate your life, who would you choose to buy?

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Is it is it someone who's like like me or just anyone to narrate it?

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Yeah, it can be anyone.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Um anyone to narrate my life. I feel like it would either be it would either be like Zach Braff, like an episode of Scrubs, um, like he would be doing the narration of my quirky life, or it would be um Mark Ruffalo, and then he would play me, I would play him. I don't know. I haven't figured that part out yet. Maybe Mark Ruffalo. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Oh, I love that. I um yeah, I am such a fan of Zach Braff.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Um yeah, I just started, I saw an episode of the of the revival. I think it's really good.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Yeah, me too. Yeah, there's the newest, the most recent episode um was uh like every episode so far has made me laugh, but the most recent one um was I was just I was laughing so hard. Um I thought it was so funny. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Yeah, it's great. It's great.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Yeah. Yeah. Um yeah, so what is uh something people are always surprised to learn about you?

SPEAKER_01 15:15

What is something people are surprised to learn about me? Um I think whenever I'm doing stuff, people are always surprised uh that I sing. Um I'm trying to think of a better answer. Um are people surprised about? I don't know. I don't know. Like I'm a pretty open book. I feel like I tell people everything about me. So I never feel like I never feel like but I I feel like whenever I'm working professionally, especially if I'm on set for a while, and then I think people are always uh surprised when they discover that I I love doing theater, that I have like a background in doing Broadway stuff, that I used to dance, that I sing, all that stuff. I think people are always like, really? Like they're always kind of surprised by it.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Oh wow. Um so what songs always make you sing along whenever you hear them?

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Um I mean, I guess I'm like a diehard Beatles fan, and I'm I'm we're listening to a lot of me and uh me and my son are listening to a lot of Beatles right now. Uh I feel like I'm forcing him to become a lover of the Beatles just by playing it for him so much. Uh so there's a lot of uh singing along to Yellow Submarine right now. Um I love uh I I guess this answer is kind of influenced because of all the movies I'm watching with my kid right now, but we're like I'm kind of showing him all the like original Disney movies, like Aladdin and Lion King, and this the music is so amazing in these movies. I I almost forgot how great these movies were, and um so yeah, anytime he's watching it, there's like I like have to sing along to all the Disney classics because they're the best.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Oh I love that. Yeah, I there's so many songs that I can't sing, but whenever they come on, I will always sing along to.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

So yeah, I uh listen to uh I listen to a lot. Um sorry, that's terrible English. I have um on the Spring Awakening soundtrack all the time. Um so Oh, it's the best.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

It's the best, it's incredible, yeah. The music to Spring Awakening. I mean, the what was so cool for me about doing Spring Awakening was that I was such a diehard fan of the show. I'd seen it multiple times, I was obsessed with the album, and I'd never joined a show like at the peak of my own fandom. Uh do you know what I mean? Like to get to suddenly be in the show and to be singing these songs for real, like professionally, in the costume on stage in front of lots of people, was uh was a real trip. It made me really nervous because I knew how much the show meant to me. So I assumed it would mean so much to other people too, but uh that was for sure such a such a crazy experience.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Yeah, that yeah, that's so cool. I always wish I could have seen the show live because I remember I just got like really obsessed with the soundtrack during uh 2020. Uh yeah lockdown. And so like for six months that was all I had.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Um it's beautiful. The music is so good, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Yeah, and so I drove my mom and my sister a little bit crazy because after six months, they were like, Can we have a we do a new one? New album? Yeah, I'm like, no.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

Have you have you um have you seen or listened to the music to Hades Town?

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Oh, I've heard a few songs.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

I think you'd really I think you'd really enjoy it. Okay, really, really fantastic music. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Okay, I'm gonna go listen to it.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

So yeah, hi hi if you like Spring Awakening, highly recommend Hades Town.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Okay, oh thank you. Yeah, yeah. I always love and then you can let me know.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

You'll write me and you'll you'll let me know what you think of it.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

Yes, I definitely will. Yeah, I always love finding new soundtracks to listen to.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Yeah, I think the it was like last year, but um that I found the soundtrack for um American Psycho. They did a musical.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Yeah, in London, I think, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Yeah, yeah, and I mean a while ago, but I just uh I found it last year and I got so obsessed with it.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Oh no, I gotta hear it. I gotta listen to that. Maybe I'll do that. I'll check that out.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Yes, I would love to hear what you think about it.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

And then I'll let you know what I think. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Um so what um movie, book, uh, song, play, or show has had the biggest impact on you?

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Oof. That's a man, that's a hard question. There's been so so many. Um I mean, I remember like as a kid, the first Broadway show I saw was um it was Big the Musical, which is based on a Tom Hanks movie called Big. Uh it's like about a a boy who makes a wish and he grow wakes up the next morning, and it's kind of like 13 going on 30, but it was it, it was came out years before, but has like a sort of similar thing. Um and I mean I just saw that story and and also like the ensemble, like the chorus on that show were all kids. So I remember seeing that being like, oh my god, like kids my age are on stage performing and making people laugh and singing, and like that. I remember that experience of just being like, oh my god, that I want to do that. Um yeah, I mean, like, like I was saying, Spring Awakening. Had a huge impact on me. Yeah, I'm uh I'm having a hard time having some like brilliant answer of one thing. There's the the truth is there's been a lot of great plays that I've seen. I used to say um with my family, our barometer of of whether we liked a show or not was did it change your life? Because like sometimes you see a play and you're like, that that changed my life. Like I went, my wife and I um went to New York uh last year and saw uh maybe maybe happy ending.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Have you seen it or heard about it?

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Yeah, I've heard about it.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

And like it was brilliant, and I I would it like changed my life. Like just the way it was done, how moving it was, the experience of seeing it. Um so then yeah, there's been like a lot of just like really formative experiences of seeing stuff like that over the years. Um yeah, I'm gonna go with those answers for now.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Oh, I love that. Yeah, I um I just got to I got to see my first Broadway show in 2023, and it was yeah, the coolest experience ever.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

What did you see?

SPEAKER_00 23:25

Um, I saw Gutenberg.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

Oh, I never saw it. I heard it was great.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Oh yeah, it was so good. Oh, lucky. Um, yeah, my mom and my sister and I all went together and it was all of our first Broadway show.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

So yeah, it was the coolest experience.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Yeah. Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Yeah. Um, yeah, so is there a movie world that you wish you could live in?

SPEAKER_01 23:59

A movie what?

SPEAKER_00 24:01

World?

SPEAKER_01 24:02

A movie world?

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Um I don't know. Do you have a movie world?

SPEAKER_00 24:11

I do.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

What's your movie world you wish you could live in?

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Um, I wish I well, there's two. There's um a movie called Home Again that is one of my all-time favorite movies that I've seen like a hundred times. So I wish I could live in that world. And then another one of my favorite movies called Summer Days, Summer Nights, that I also wish I could live in that world.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

That's great. I love that. Um yeah, I don't I don't know. I mean, I guess like I love the like classic like 90s comedies with like Jim Carrey and stuff. Like living in like the mask world, or I love like all the old Tom Hanks movies. You know, Splash or like big, like living in that kind of world. Um I just Ferris Bueller's day off. Like I love like John Hughes movies, like living in a in a John Hughes movie.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

I think I think I would love that.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

Oh yeah, definitely. I I would love to live in a John Hughes movie too.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Um yeah, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Yeah, yeah, there's actually one of my favorite songs is called John Hughes Movie by Macy Peters.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Uh oh, I don't know if I know it. Cool.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

Yeah, it's so good. And so that's one of my favorite songs, and I feel like that would that'll be a good one to have in a movie, I think.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

Um so what uh subject could you give a TED talk on, even though you are totally unqualified on that subject.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Oh man, maybe parenting? I don't know. Something like that. Uh you know, how to engage a two-year-old, something somewhere in there, how to teach a two-year-old music, music lessons with a two-year-old, something like that. I think I would I would love to do that, but I am totally unqualified to do it.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

I love that.

unknown 26:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Um so my final question for you is um, today, what are you most grateful for?

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Today, oh man. I mean it's it's uh it's it's a it feels like a lame answer, but I I just feel like with the state of the world and uh after COVID, like just people are my family being healthy, my wife being healthy, my kid being healthy, my parents being healthy, um, my parents-in-law being healthy, like I just feel like you know, you never know what what could happen, and life is short, and and um I think that's that's that to me in this moment is just like the most important thing.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Yeah. Oh, I love that. Yeah, definitely. Um, well, that was uh my final question for you.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

So I feel like I ended on a like a serious somber note. But it's true. That's how I feel.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

No, uh yeah, I definitely, I mean, I totally get that. And I yeah, I agree. I'm like, I'm so grateful for my mom and my sister and yeah, family, uh the rest of my family. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

Yeah, well, um, thank you so much uh for my pleasure, Maya.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Good questions.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

Thank you so much. I just I can't tell you what this means to me to be talking with you, so thank you.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

Oh, not a problem.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Um, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

Thanks, you too.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

We'll talk soon.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Yeah, I would love that. Whenever you want to come back on, I'd love to have another conversation with you.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

Okay, sounds good.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

Um, and that's a wrap on today's edition of the latest with Maya.