Does Jack Dylan Grazer Have a Disability? He Doesn't, Yet It Features in Several of His Roles

Jack Dylan Grazer has portrayed several characters with disabilities in his young acting career but is not disabled in real life. However, he has expressed delight in playing the roles, realizing their importance in mainstream media.

Grazer's acting career has been growing in leaps and bounds over the last half a decade or so since his breakthrough role in the horror movie "It." He has gone on to play many other parts with varying identities in multiple well-polished performances.

Some of his most memorable have been those where he has gone out of his comfort zone to play characters with characteristics he doesn't face in his everyday life. However, as someone who enjoys playing imaginary roles, he finds comfort in being able to showcase his talents in those roles.

Jack Dylan Has Played a Disabled Character More than Once

In the 2017 adaptation of the novel "It" by Stephen King, Grazer portrayed Eddie, an asthmatic boy obsessed with cleanliness and an extreme fear of germs. Before that, he played the role of Adam, a crutch-using boy with brittle bone disease, in "Scales: Mermaids are Real."

Two years after "It," Grazer was cast as Freddy in the DC Comics film "Shazam!" Freddy is also a crutch-using character who is well-versed in the art of comic books and helps his foster brother, played by Zachary Levi, to harness his powers. Commenting on his experiences in the movie, Grazer said:

"Freddy struggles with this disability but he's funny, sharp and confident. Freddy is more proud than nervous about who he is. He definitely doesn't take bullies to heart."

Jack Doesn't Have Any Known Disabilities in Real Life despite Portraying Them in Roles

Even though Grazer has portrayed characters with a wide range of disabilities in several films, the actor doesn't have any known disabilities in real life. Nevertheless, he has done a commendable job playing those characters which have helped him showcase his extraordinary acting talents.

Growing up, Grazer didn't like being in school as he didn't feel he could be his best self there. He even attempted to do sports to cover up his distaste for arithmetic, but that didn't help. Luckily, he found shelter in the theater, where he discovered his one true love, acting.

He told Hero magazine that when he knew the performing arts were his calling as soon as he started. He said, "To live in these fantasy worlds has been so cool because when I was growing up, I used to dress up as Captain Cook or Batman and do little scenes in the mirror."

Jack Dylan Tried to Separate His Reality from His ‘We Are Who We Are’ Character. Still, It Had an Impact on Him

Many movie stars have played roles that have stayed with them forever. The same can be said about Grazer, whose portrayal of Fraser Wilson in Sky Atlantic and HBO's coming-of-age drama, "We are who we are," helped him explore certain questions about himself and get personal breakthroughs.

Appearing in the movie as a 15-year-old, the actor said he was not political then and didn't consider asking himself questions about his sexuality. Therefore, getting an experience of that in the film and approaching it fluidly with a rejection of labels was eye-opening and helped him discover himself.

The film's co-creator and director, Luca Guadagnino, pointed out that he hoped he could contribute to the seamless blending of authentic LGBTQ+ topics into mainstream media with his cinematic productions. This helps make queerness to be the standard and not something extraordinary.

"We are who we are" also attempts to go beyond intergenerational boundaries by including the mother-son relationship of Sarah and Frazier as a subplot. This introduces another element of everyday life that is usually let out of the mainstream media.