Off Campus star Stephen Kalyn is not any stranger to the world of hockey.
The 28-year-old actor spent a lot of his younger grownup life on the hockey rink, taking part in the game because the age of 6 and completed his minor hockey profession within the AA tier. “That’s what I wanted to do as a kid and all throughout my adolescence, that’s kind of the life I wanted,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter on a latest Zoom.
The actor manages to exude ranges of allure via a pc display screen that might put his Off Campus character Dean Di Laurentis to disgrace. He appears genuinely excited to speak about his character and is at all times able to throw love towards his fellow costars.
In the direction of the top of highschool, it grew to become obvious to Kalyn that hockey wasn’t going to pan out. “I could have continued playing and tried, but I knew it wasn’t going to be,” he says.
“I could still love the game no matter what, whether or not I’m playing it or not. Luckily, I found acting,” Kalyn says. He’s been capable of incorporate hockey all through his profession. Nevertheless it nonetheless appears like a contact of destiny that he’s discovered himself in Prime Video’s new sequence Off Campus, the most recent hockey romance sequence to hit streaming.
The Markham, Ontario native discovered performing via a casting name for his highschool’s manufacturing of Grease — he performed Danny Zuko, after all. “When the school day finished at 2:30, I’d spend spend the next two hours in rehearsal with my drama teacher. I just fell in love with the whole process of it,” he says.
“I’d always taken interest as a kid, but I never really got into it. I put more of my focus and energy into hockey,” Kalyn says. “It was that moment then and there where I decided I going to do this. I don’t know how I was going to do it, but I was going to.”
He’s been steadily build up credit over the past a number of years, together with stints on Prime Video’s The Boys spinoff Gen V and Motorheads. Kalyn has at all times thought-about himself an actor, however it wasn’t till 2023 or 2024 when he was capable of think about it his profession. Amazon, he realizes throughout this dialog, should’ve turn out to be conscious of him and loved his performances as a result of he began to achieve larger elements. In fact, all roads led to Off Campus.
Kalyn, who performs Dean within the Prime Video romance sequence, grew up taking part in hockey earlier than discovering performing.
Max Schultz
Within the Louisa Levy-created TV present, based mostly on Elle Kennedy’s guide sequence, Kalyn performs Dean, a loveable celebration boy and member of the Briar College hockey crew. Off Campus’ first season facilities round Kennedy’s first guide within the sequence, The Deal, with future seasons specializing in totally different {couples}, very similar to the books.
Kalyn initially auditioned for the function of John Logan, portrayed by Antonio Cipriano — auditioning for different roles inside the present appears to be a typical thread for the big ensemble solid. He despatched in his tape, felt good about it after which didn’t hear a lot again.
“I thought, ‘Oh, I guess that’s not going to happen.’ And then a couple months later, I think it was April, they sent out a thing for Dean,” he says. The actor was coming off one other callback and issues had been chaotic, so he instructed his supervisor he wasn’t certain if he’d have the ability to get the audition in and executed. Provides Kalyn, “My manager said ‘You have to do it. Do the Zoom. Don’t do a self-tape. We’re going to get you with the American casting, and you’re going to be great.’”
It, clearly, was nice and issues began to maneuver rapidly. He remembers auditioning on a Wednesday and getting a name Thursday that the crew needed to satisfy on Friday. “I was at the gym on the treadmill and was listening to Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club.” I believed OK let’s lock in right here,” he says, setting the scene.
After the assembly and the hours-long chemistry reads that adopted, he booked the half. “I was slightly hyperventilating and getting a little bit lightheaded, but I ended up catching myself,” he says. “To this day it’s one of the greatest days and one of the greatest moments of my life.”
Hockey, after all, grew to become a giant a part of Kalyn’s preparation for the sequence. In contrast to his Off Campus costars, that was one thing he already knew. Amazon put the 4 essential males — Kalyn, Belmont Cameli, Cipriano and Jalen Thomas Brooks — via a two-week hockey bootcamp. He believes that’s the place he and the opposite males, whose dynamic serves because the throughline of the sequence, cemented their chemistry and bond.
“It was definitely fun for me because I knew what I was doing, but for them, I could see it being very frustrating because it’s a very difficult sport to learn, especially when you’re older,” he says.
Kalyn was capable of soar proper again into issues. “I was there every day to help support my castmates. I would help them as much as I possibly could. I’d even tie their skates sometimes,” he says.
Kalyn as Dean Di Laurentis in ‘Off Campus.’
Jeff Weddell / Prime
The actor jokes that he would do what his father used to do for him. “If [the skate] was too loose, and I saw them going up there and could see their ankles were a little wobbly. I’d be like, ‘Jalen, come here,’” he continues.
In the identical manner it feels fated that Kalyn, a lifelong hockey participant, discovered a present that would let him obtain two of his desires in a single, the function of Dean was additionally a little bit of manifestation. Simply not from the actor himself. As a fan of Kennedy’s guide sequence, Kalyn’s fiancée may’ve inadvertently sealed his Dean destiny. “I knew [Off Campus] was popular through Victoria [his fiancée]. She read these books a long time ago, and her favorite book was The Score,” he says.
“She actually made a comment on Goodreads years ago. She wrote something like ‘Lean, mean and all about Dean,’” says Kalyn. “She just loved Dean. What a privilege it is to step into those shoes. Not only do I get to fulfill [the role of Dean] for the fans, but more importantly for my fiancée.”
Fortunately, she instructed Kalyn he nailed his portrayal of her favourite character. “Only approval I needed,” he says. Swoonworthy to say the least.
Kalyn clearly loves Dean. He can relate to the character in some methods — he tries to have enjoyable; he loves hockey; and he has a little bit of a goofy facet — and may’t relate in different methods. “I’m not as impulsive. I wouldn’t say I’m as confident. Also, I’ve been in a relationship my whole life, so I don’t know what it’s like to be a bachelor and going out there and chasing lots of women,” he says.
“I’d say with me and Dean, it’s very 50-50,” Kalyn sats. “We’re similar in ways, but we’re really not at all at the same time.”
Dean takes heart ice in The Rating, the third guide within the sequence, alongside his love curiosity Allie Hayes, portrayed by Mika Abdalla. Followers latched onto the pair instantly, it’s no stunned they’ve been tapped to guide the second season. The pair knew from the start that they’d be main season two, however their story grew to become a giant a part of season one as manner into the subsequent installment.
Kalyn and Abdalla labored to get that chemistry early on. “Louisa had a great idea to suggest that her and I should go out for a dinner,” he says. As an alternative, the pair opted to have Kalyn be part of Abdalla at a Pilates class as a result of the actor thought it could be humorous after which they’d go to dinner after. Sadly for Kalyn, that didn’t go as deliberate.
“I was late to the pilates class, and they didn’t let me in. Apparently when you’re two minutes frickin’ late, they won’t let you into the Pilates class,” he says.
Kalyn on the solid’s hockey bootcamp: “I was there every day to help support my castmates. I would help them as much as I possibly could. I’d even tie their skates sometimes.”
Max Schultz
The actor remembers seeing Abdalla inside the category. “I was like a worried mother watching her kid through the window and said ’hey.’ She did the Mika roll her eyes and then grabbed her stuff and walked out,” Kalyn says.
Kalyn apologized profusely. “She just went, ‘Let’s go.’ I felt like a kid in trouble,” he says, laughing concerning the incident. It ended up figuring out for the perfect. The pair went to eat throughout the road from the Pilates studio. He provides, “We ended up just talking for hours and getting to know each other. That was a very good start and warm up to the scenes that we had together this season.”
As Kalyn continues his Off Campus journey, there are specific messages he hopes come via for viewers. As his costars and the present’s creator have identified, Off Campus goals to sort out poisonous masculinity inside this world.
“I hope girlfriends will end up dragging their boyfriends to watch this show, especially if they’re athletes, because I know a lot of men can be very guarded and protective of how they feel,” Kalyn says. “I hope that we can connect with the entire audience to show it’s OK to feel how you feel. Don’t be afraid to speak to somebody and lean on them, whether it’s a partner, a friend, a family member.”
He’s taken that messaging to coronary heart. “A big takeaway that I’ve also learned is to not be afraid to express those feelings,” the actor says.
“I think the show has a lot of layers to it and a lot of emotions and feelings. It’s a great game changer in the YA world of television, and that’s what drew me immediately reading the scripts,” he says. “I’m tearing up reading some scenes between Hannah and Garrett. It’s very special.”
Wanting forward, Kalyn is aware of that Off Campus is a superb stepping stone and one thing he at all times noticed for himself. Ryan Gosling is a reference level for the kind of profession he’d wish to have — different. However for now, he’s centered on season two, which is nearly to begin filming. “It’s going to be very sweet and loving and heartbreaking,” he says of what’s to return. “I only see great things.”
