Joey Grossmann a sophomore organizational psychology major, won’t be a small town boy from Hershey, PA for long. Grossmann has a lead role in the Sundance Film Festival movie titled “Deviant.”
Living in LA secured his passion for acting. His friends were the ones that got him hooked. “You show up and you stand there and look pretty.” This was the advice given to Grossmann and was the advice that ultimately got him excited about acting.
He recently auditioned for Hammond Talent which is a large casting agency. “The agent that is interested in me are the ones that did Shawshank Redemption, The Avengers and things like that.” says Grossmann.
Grossmann’s hard work and determination has payed off with getting noticed. “I tried for five months to get in with this agency and they finally gave me an audition” says Grossmann.
Grossmann will play the second lead character named Clay in the upcoming movie.
“He is kind of a shy, quiet guy who looks up to the main character,” said Grossmann.
With fame and fortune Clay takes a liking to the main character and eventually gets to experience his life. “It shows how devious he really is and the life he lives.”
“My character realizes this is not the life he wants,” said Grossmann.
About 150,000 scripts are sent into this well known film festival each year. Grossmann’s film made it into the top five.
“Normally in Sundance they play 30 seconds of each film, our entire film is being played.” This honor of having the whole film shown at the festival is an opportunity that Grossmann is thankful for. Grossmann will also be attending 16 different film festivals as well.
As an actor, you have to pick and choose what script you feel will work best for your talents and what will highlight you the best. For Grossmann, he turned down scripts that he felt could have hindered his future acting career.
“When you do a bad film, it follows you.” Grossmann said.
Grossmann and the rest of the cast and crew will start filming right when spring semester ends. “I’m going to leave here and will be filming all summer.”
Preparing for the role has been easy for Grossmann. He has been working with friends in the theater department going over monologues and getting their feedback.
“For this specific role I have been getting more inside of the head of the main character because my character wants to be him so badly,” said Grossmann.
Other than acting, Grossmann mentioned his adoration for Otterbein and how Otterbein was among fifteen other schools he looked at attending after the army.
“I got accepted to UCLA and UFC and I really wanted to go to UFC…but I wasn’t happy with the surrounding area.”
“I like it here because it’s so small and it’s very veteran friendly.” Grossmann says about Otterbein. Being in the army, Grossmann has taken up being an advocate for those who come back from the war and feel as though there is nothing out there for them.
His friends were shocked when they heard about his decision to join the army after graduating from high school. “I was one of those kids in high school that would get in trouble, not for anything bad but for stupid things.”
“I went through basic training and the only time I got in trouble was because I smiled all of the time,” Grossmann recalls.
Grossmann teamed up with a close friend and raised over $250,000 for homeless veterans. “90 percent of the country’s homeless veterans are in LA.”
“We wanted to get them off the streets, help them find employment…it just goes to show that a lot of these guys come back…and they don’t know what their options are.” says Grossmann
Otterbein is in the top 15 colleges for veteran friendly schools. Grossmann has been working with Chaplin Monty and Dean Gatti on gaining support and getting resources out to veterans. Grossmann says that he just wants to let veterans know that “There is nothing that you can’t do.”
The project is getting a binder together for veterans so they can see what their options are, where they can go for help and other various resources. From contacts to psychologists. This binder will serve as an essential part of their experience after their war experiences.
With many roles thrown his way, Grossmann believes his major in psychology will help him get mentally prepared with whatever that character is going through. “If you can understand, especially when you’re playing a role where the character is a deviant person and you can understand why they are the way they are you can play that character, that much better.” Grossmann said.
“I will understand the conditions, the signs and the behaviors and that is one of the reasons why I chose psychology.”
As far as his future, Grossmann plans on continuing to act and take on roles that challenge him. “We’ll see how this film goes, I want to get this one under my belt before I overwhelm myself.”
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