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Actor Kyle Gallner on the new WGN America series "Outsiders."

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Kyle Gallner

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What do you #Champion? This month, we teamed up with  Champion to ask a group of inspiring interdisciplinary creatives what matters most to them. From art to politics, storytelling to authenticity, get inspired by the causes that are prompting them to dream big. Kyle Allen is handsome. There’s a lively debate on social media as to whether he’s a young Heath Ledger or a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt (our vote on set was for young Josh Hartnett, but jury’s still out). He’s charming— in a puckish way that makes kids gravitate toward him so that they can plot pranks together— he has superhuman patience for this. And his dry humor mixes well with his thoughtfulness and near-midwestern earnestness. He can also do a backflip above a cement floor without blinking. His background in sport acrobatics and grueling classical ballet at the Kirov Academy in DC has predisposed him to treat acting with the same obsessive intensity. Hawk, his character on Hulu’s The Path, is a teenager in a New-Age cult called Meyerism. It’s the perfect role for Allen’s level of emotional commitment to acting. Even at 22, he submerges himself into a script with spirited empathy, and a ballet dancer’s discipline to “read each script a hundred times— I mean over and over and over again. Of course, just when you think you understand it, you notice something else about that character you hadn’t considered, and you have to read it at least twice more.”  After leaving ballet training at 18, the California-native returned to his home state and began to focus his attention toward acting. Rather than entering the medium casually—  hoping to get lucky on appearance or settling for frivolous scripts— Allen threw himself into theater training, starting with improv so that he could master embodying a new character at the drop of a hat, trying to understand what motivates someone in different situations. From there, he continued to train, reading endlessly about method acting and moving from small commercials to landing a role in the 2016 independent film, 1 Night. Now that The Path has been renewed for a third season, Allen is thinking critically about his future in acting— not just what roles interest him, but the expansive future of acting itself. He’s deeply animated when discussing hypothetical projects in the future of entertainment, which he assures me will combine virtual reality, immersive theater, and experiential worlds similar to Harry Potter World. He’s persuasive and his enthusiasm is contagious. He talks to us about the power of storytelling, and the beauty of connecting to people through physical art like dance and theater.  Interview by  Katherine Noble, Photos by  Laurel Golio What do you Champion? How did this become a passion? I champion storytelling. It has been a passion for me since day one. I was an outgoing kid, full of energy, I loved being able to express myself. Getting good at telling stories was a way for me to do that. You can’t fit your whole self into a single conversation or a stereotype. But learning how to articulate and voice my beliefs through stories has lead me to feel known by my friends and family. I need that narrative structure— I really do. You were classically trained in ballet, how did you transition from dance to acting? When I was eighteen, I had just graduated from boarding school at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C. and was nursing a dance injury. I moved out to LA to stay with a family friend, thinking I’d recover and continue dancing, and in the meanwhile I started going out for really random, really bizarre odd-job acting gigs. A lot of the jobs wound up being random car commercials. One commercial shoot just involved me making out with a model for three hours. But then I got involved with a Pepsi campaign in Japan that was incredibly elaborate with characters and backstory. They were extremely generous and flew me to a bunch of different locations to shoot the commercials— I was even on some Pepsi cans in Japan— and around that time I realized how much I enjoyed acting. So from there I really immersed myself in the craft, signing up for a bunch of improv classes, spending hours in the studio, and reading tons of books. It took me hundreds of hours in the studio to learn one step of ballet. So I knew that acting was as complex an art form and that it would be no different.  What do you love about acting, and what can you tap into through television or film that cannot be expressed via other art?  
 I’ve thought about this alot, especially in my current role on The Path. The most difficult thing in acting, and the thing I love the most, is learning how to channel another person’s emotions in response to their circumstances. That’s something that is unfortunately, and detrimentally, not being taught in contemporary dance or ballet right now— how to translate the emotions of a piece into the body. Contemporary schools of dance seem to be incredibly interested with technique— to what extent can the movement and choreography be perfectly executed. Maybe this is because audiences aren’t looking for the soul of it, they are just looking for the flash and the spectacle of these complex physical performances. But the beauty of truly amazing ballet is when the dancers can hold your attention with the phenomenally difficult steps and the flashes of technique, while still articulating the soul and story of the ballet. The classic symbols of pantomime and miming are gone from ballet, and with it, so are the more intense narrative-driven performances.  Acting is uniquely gratifying because you are so profoundly part of a larger process— I feel so good being one character in a larger story. I’m sure that has something to do with humans just wanting to be found useful. Everyday on set, I see that I am one piece pulling the plot together. I also like that each day I’m acting, there are small moments of connection between characters where the story falls into place and you feel connected on this other plane of being.
 Please share a favorite book, artist, or musician that has recently affected you. Jade Hale-Christofi — he is an incredible choreographer I’m currently collaborating with for a piece for Aleim magazine.  Your early modes of performance, acrobatics and ballet, were incredibly physically demanding. Can you talk about about the different demands in successfully playing a role?  In ballet, you are playing a role as well but you are connecting with the persona from the outside in. First, you are embodying their physical traits via their movement, then once you learn the choreography you can begin to navigate the characters’ emotional landscape. With acting, I believe, it’s flipped. To connect with a character while acting, I am working from the inside out— learning the person’s soul, history, circumstances and then injecting a pathos into the role. Eventually that lets you embody their gestures, movement, posture, etc.  Who is a personal hero of yours? J.R.R. Tolkein. He created an entire world that is now a shared cultural experience. How do you prepare for a role? Is it difficult to then leave the role? 
It is always difficult to prepare for a role. If it’s easy, you are probably playing yourself. Giving an imaginary person life is demanding. You start by knowing your lines and knowing the story, you read the script a hundred times— I mean over and over and over and over again. Of course, just when you think you understand it, you notice something else about that character you hadn’t considered, and you have to read it at least twice more. You consider their archetype— I’m reading a book right now called, King, Warrior, Magician, Lover about the classic masculine archetypes in art and narratives. It’s fascinating. I try to think about the intention behind each line. I try out lines while I’m running, I try to imagine the circumstances. I meditate and try to physically recreate their sensory experiences— you try to feel their childhood carpet and the colors of their bedrooms, the sense of trauma or joy they’ve experienced. Basically, it’s an endless amount of homework, but I love it. 
 What was your way into understanding Hawk, who you currently play on The Path? Was there a moment that broke his character open for you?
 So, honestly, it was his sweaters. He has these ridiculous sweaters on the first season of the show, and putting that on that sweater and starting a scene where Hawk was walking down the hallway of his high school— I just kept thinking, who would wear this? A really specific, rare kind of kid would actually put this on and never realize it was out of the ordinary.  Please share a ritual that helps you recenter.  I go to the studio alone and dance until my legs don't work.  What are a few things we can do to champion storytelling? Pay attention, and listen to other people like your life depends on it. If you don’t pay attention to your surroundings, you will never be able to make art that truly reflects reality and the human experience. Know why you are telling the story you are telling through your words and actions. This can be more difficult than it seems. But you need to understand if you are telling a story for entertainment purposes alone, or so that some deeper truth can be revealed.  Which films or actors currently excite you?
 Like almost everyone, I’ve been influenced by Wes Anderson’s movies, I especially loved the Grand Budapest Hotel. Jeff Bridges has been a huge influence for me. Ralph Fiennes and Benedict Cumberbatch as well. God, I wish I had a quarter of his talent. I would be a whole man if I had one quarter of Cumberbatch in me.  Follow Kyle on Instagram Shop Champion