Jerry Trainor went all out in the audition for his breakout role of Crazy Steve on the Nickelodeon classic “Drake and Josh.”
During a discussion at GalaxyCon, Trainor explained how he landed the role of Crazy Steve, an aggressively temperamental movie theater employee who would explode on fellow cast members Drake Bell and Josh Peck at the slightest inconvenience.
“When I auditioned for Crazy Steve, it had already been cast. Somebody else was already cast as Crazy Steve,” Trainor explained. “But I guess when he got to the set, he was not crazy enough for them, and so they fired him.”
Trainor was brought in for a “rush audition,” which meant the “Drake and Josh” casting directors needed to fill the role ASAP.
He said of his acting experience at the time, “You have to understand, I had just gotten out of college, majoring in theater, where they’re telling me to like, tone it down, bring it in, drop it in. Subtext, subtext, subtext.”
At the audition, Trainor said he first played the character as “calm, and then I fly off the handle.” However, the casting director wanted more and said to him, “‘Oh my God, can you go bigger?’” Trainor obliged.
“And so then I did it, like, crazier, and she goes, ‘Can you go crazier?’ And I went, ‘Let me stop you right there. I can go nuclear,’” Trainor said. “‘What do you want?’ She was like, ‘As big as possible.’ And I’m like, ‘You don’t want that.’ And she goes, ‘Literally, that’s what we need.’ And I was like, ‘OK, here it is.’ And I did it. The rest is history.”
Trainor first appeared as Crazy Steve in “Drake and Josh” Season 2, and went on to appear in eight total episodes. He also played the eccentric brother of internet superstar Carly Shay in another Nickelodeon staple, “iCarly.” That show ran for 93 episodes across six seasons from 2007-2012.
