Parker Young (as Ryan Shay) was featured in an episode of Suburgatory a few weeks ago (as well as PTT a few months back). But because I'm a bit behind in TV viewing, I'm not just getting to the show. All of which means it's taken me longer to make note that one of my friends, TP, should be watching this show.
While a certain segment of "Suburgatory" star Parker Young's fans no doubt appreciate his comic timing, from my online researches it's apparent that many of the most vocal among them are more enamoured with the ex-model's ability to pop his ass.
"I didn't really know that I was going to be ass popping before I got on the set so I wasn't really able to rehearse the ass popping the way I would have liked," Young says, tongue planted firmly in cheek. "But it's really just a matter of having fun. They just call action and tell me to kind of dance and they bring out a boombox and I just start dancing."
Some explanation: Young, 23, plays dumb jock Ryan Shay on the hit ABC sitcom "Suburgatory." Jane Levy stars as Tessa Altman, a lifelong New Yorker transplanted by her overprotective father George (Jeremy Sisto, "Law & Order") to Chatswin, a fictional all-American suburb where the perfect spray tan is more important than grades or a healthy curiosity about the outside world. Over the course of the show's first season, smart and quirky Tessa has reluctantly found herself attracted to thick-as-a-brick Ryan, a charismatic sports star so free of self-consciousness that he'll playfully mime his parents' bedroom motions in front of his own sister at school. Hence the ass popping.
"I have so much fun with Ryan," Young says. "And it gives me such a freedom to just be childlike and insane and speak what's on my mind. And if I have to dance shirtless washing a car, I think the dumbness of the character, or the childlike sensibility, allows me to get away with it without being creepy. Humping a locker can certainly be creepy in the wrong context, but he's just too dumb to really comprehend that it's odd."
"Suburgatory's" next episode, "The Body," sees Chatswin High wrestling champ Ryan injured and subsequently wheelchair-bound. His parents Sheila and Fred (played by Ana Gasteyer and Chris Parnell), Young says, "treat it like the death of a child: 'if he can't wrestle, he's dead to us.'" As a result, Ryan is taken under George's wing.
"He teaches me how to be a man without having to rely on wrestling. He helps me dig a little deeper and find out who Ryan truly is. It's a great episode."
"The Body" also promises to reignite the unlikely flame which was kindled between Tessa and Ryan earlier in the season. An interesting bit of trivia: Young's first day on the "Suburgatory" set was the day he and his co-star Levy first had to kiss.
"She handled it like a champ," Young says of the extended mock make-out sessions. "I remember, yeah, my first day we had to be making out all day under bleachers, in laundry rooms and stuff. It was a lot. And it can definitely be uncomfortable when you just meet somebody, but it was totally fine. It wasn't a problem at all."
Prior to landing his role on "Suburgatory," the Tucson, AZ native made his living modelling for the likes of Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and (2)xist. Early acting gigs included bit parts on "Days of Our Lives," "CSI: NY" and "Make It or Break It." "Suburgatory" is his first steady acting job, and Young is grateful for it.
"It's a scary industry because you never know," he says. "They could send Ryan Shay off to college and then there goes that security. But, yeah, it's been a huge relief having constant work and staying busy and of course being paid. It's been great. As you said, it's [usually] one-day stuff here and there. I'll book a commercial and get a chunk of change, but then you don't know what's going to happen after that."
I ask Young what it's been like working on a critically and commercially successful series like "Suburgatory."
"I've never been a part of something with such an amazing writing team," he says, "and the creator Emily Kapnek is brilliant. We get the scripts and go sit down at the table read with all the actors and producers in the room, and we just read through this script, and everyone's cracking up. And it's really fun to watch the process, watch the script evolve, and see the actors bring their own creative input to it, and see the thing a couple of weeks later on TV. It's really a great experience."
Given his own background as a model, I ask Young how important spray tanning and going to the gym are to his getting into character as Ryan.
"The spray-tanning, it helps you... You realize - superficial may not be the right word for it - really just how outward-focused these people might be. It's all about appearance and being tan.
"But going to the gym, it's just like when I played football: going to the gym and exercising and watching your gain in the gym gives you the confidence to perform on the field, and same with this. It's like when I'm in the gym getting ready and trying to look like Ryan Shay, it gives you the confidence on set to rip your shirt off and be that cocky, shirtless guy that has to dance around and hose himself off."
And your fans thank you for that, Parker.
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