INTERVIEW: Brandon Delsid on the joy of ‘Fake It Until You Make It’
Photo: Brandon Delsid portrays Krys in Fake It Until You Make It, Larissa Fasthorse’s new play at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy of Lei Phillps / Provided by Arena Stage with permission.
Actor Brandon Delsid has been on a multi-year journey with Larissa Fasthorse’s new play Fake It Until You Make It, which originally ran in Los Angeles and is now at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. The show follows Wynona (Shyla Lefner), the Native American proprietor of an organization called N.O.B.U.S.H., and how she clashes with River (Amy Brenneman), her white counterpart at a rival organization called Indigenous Nations Soaring, according to press notes.
A pivotal character in the plot is that of Krys, played by Delsid. The actor has been with the theatrical property since its workshops days and is so excited to bring Fasthorse’s words and story to D.C. audiences.
“I’ve been working on this show for three years, which is so crazy,” Delsid said in a recent phone interview. “As an actor, you don’t really often get to be with something from the ground up, and so I started doing workshops of this back in late-2020, I believe. And, to me, it’s just so fresh and interesting and unlike anything I’d ever read before. It’s funny. It’s sexy. It’s wild in so many ways. I’ve just never seen something like it on stage; it really caught me off guard. The beauty of it is now that we are taking it to D.C., it’s changed. It’s not the same show it was three years ago. It’s a lot faster and funnier, and it’s really beautiful to see it as this living, breathing thing. That’s what art is. It’s just been a joy to kind of get to grow with it.”
Delsid said the character of Krys has changed through the development stages because the actor himself has changed in the interim. As Delsid grew, so did Krys.
“I had my own progression as an actor and a human,” he said. “We change and we grow even if we don’t want to sometimes, and I’ve changed and I’ve grown as a human. And Krys has changed and grown. It’s kind of a weird parallel. I feel very protective of this character, and I think I connect to this character more than any role that I’ve ever played before. He’s full of life and hopeful and a dreamer and confident, and as the years have gone on, he’s become more confident and sexier. I think a big part of the show is about queer joy, and it’s really beautiful to get to embody that. The show takes my character really on this journey of growth and self-exploration, and by the end, it’s a really full-circle fairytale ending that’s really beautiful to get to live every night.”
There is a hope that Fasthorse’s show, which is directed by Michael John Garcés and produced in association with Center Theatre Group, proves such a success in D.C. that a transfer to New York City will happen in the future; that’s the hope of Delsid at least. Whatever might happen, these performances are a culmination to a long journey that the actor has been on, and he’s proud to be part of a show that gives further representation to queer characters and Indigenous artists.
“I feel so connected to these people,” he said. “One person who did do one of the workshops with me years ago was Amy Brenneman, who has become an amazing friend, human, mentor, just goddess in my life.”
Delsid, who is originally from Fresno, California, has made an impact in the worlds of theater, TV and film. His projects include This Is Me … Now on Prime Video and the upcoming season of The Rehearsal on HBO. He also has bonafide comedy chops, with a stint at the legendary Groundlings in Los Angeles. For him, the learning about his craft never stops.
“I’m just so grateful to be working with these heavy hitters of the industry, who are just at the top of their game, and you can’t help but be better just by working with people like this,” Delsid said. “It is an intimate cast. There are only six of us, so you really get to know these people really well, the ins and the outs. And we’re so tight and connected as a group. I really think you feel that. When you’re watching the show, you feel, oh these people, it’s a small little beautiful group of us. We get to live it every night, and we’re all friends off stage and on stage. And it’s not always like that.”
Delsid spoke highly of his co-star, Eric Stanton Betts, who plays the character of Mark, Krys’ boyfriend in the show. Their relationship on stage has been meaningful for Delsid and speaks to the authentic representation he’s trying to convey in the story.
“It’s been wonderful to explore it with him as well, to go on this journey of queer joy,” he said. “As queer people, we don’t always get to kind of be just sexy. It’s important because there’s a lot of stories about queer trauma and growing up and having to fight against things that are put in our way, and so I think Larissa Fasthorse has written a really unique piece in the way that it’s these queer individuals just living. It’s beautiful. It’s been really liberating, and it’s showed me as an artist what’s possible. But I can’t say enough about the cast, tour-de-force performers, everybody at the top of their game. The plot is kind of like Real Housewives of Downtown L.A. meets Modern Family. It’s just so funny. It’s so quick and witty, but there’s drama. There’s drama on stage.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Fake It Until You Make It, written by Larissa Fasthorse and featuring Brandon Delsid, continues through May 4 at Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theater in Washington, D.C. Click here for more information and tickets.
