Pop-Culturalist.com

Blake Draper has emerged as one of the breakout stars of 2023. The charismatic leading man has won over the hearts of audiences around the world with his performance as Graham Lansing in Disney+’s Prom Pact.

Set during prom season, the must-see rom-com follows high school senior Mandy (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) and her best friend and fellow outsider Ben (Milo Manheim) who are surrounded by over-the-top promposals. Mandy is only focused on getting into her dream school Harvard, but as she starts tutoring basketball all-star Graham (Blake Draper), she must re-evaluate whether her dream school is worth the cost of everything she believes in.

Blake shines with his grounded and nuanced performance as Graham, flipping the jock stereotype on its head.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Blake about Prom Pact, how he prepared for his biggest role to date, his creative process, and more.

PC: You discovered your passion for acting and storytelling after doing a production of Aladdin. Have you ever imagined what your life would be like now if you hadn’t stepped on that stage? What did you feel in that moment that made you want to pursue a career in this industry?
Blake: I don’t even know if I want to think about what would’ve happened if I didn’t do that play because my life would be very, very different. I have no clue what I’d be doing. It may be something in the arts. When I was a young kid, I thought about maybe being a comic book artist for a while, which would’ve been a lot of fun. Music is another passion of mine. It could have gone down that road as well. But no, I was always destined to do acting. So, who knows?

When I went on that stage, I was eight or nine, and there was such a rush and a feeling that I experienced that I’d never felt up until that point. It felt like it was a euphoric feeling, and I knew that that’s what I wanted to feel for the rest of my life.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Blake: It’s someone who I’ve never met, but one of my biggest influences would be Heath Ledger. I would say that he’s one of my favorite actors of all time, especially being Australian and seeing what he did. Being Australian, there’s a weird chip on our shoulders, in a way, that we have to cross to the other side of the world. We have to conquer things here and then get to LA and Hollywood. To see what he did with his career, to see the heights that he reached, and the respect that he truly deserves was so inspiring. He’s my idol.

PC: The pandemic hit this industry really hard, especially for creatives in Melbourne. During those more challenging times, how were you able to persevere and continue on this journey?
Blake: It was a rough time. The whole world was really suffering. To be an artist where I was from in Melbourne, we had on-and-off lockdowns back and forth. A few years ago, before Prom Pact, I was only a day player, so that’s basically someone who comes onto the set, plays a small role, and has a few scenes here and there. They decided not to cast Melbourne actors for a period of time, because at the end of the day, understandably so, if I were to get COVID and come onto set, and I was only there for a few days, I could shut down a whole production. It wasn’t feasible. So, they didn’t look at Melbourne actors for a while. That year, I got maybe three or four auditions. It was definitely rough being an actor and not working.

After sulking for a bit, I decided that I was going to treat that time as a little bit of an off-season like athletes do—where they compete in a season of basketball and then they have time off when they’re not competing to train and get into the groove of things. Basically, all I did was watch films and study performances. I read as many acting books as I possibly could, and listened to all these acting podcasts. I basically did anything that would keep me in that world and keep my creative mind ticking. That’s what I tried to do, so I stayed inspired and tried to learn as much as I possibly could.

PC: Speaking of Prom Pact, they made you jump through a few hoops to get the role. How did you end up celebrating once you learned that you landed the part?
Blake: That was one of the wildest experiences. I remember getting that call. It woke me up in the morning. My phone was ringing, and I saw an American number. I was like, “This is either going to be the best moment in my life or I’m going to get heartbroken here.” When Anya [Adams] was on the phone and she told me that I got it, it was one of the craziest experiences. I remember going straight to see my parents, waking them up, and they looked at me like, “Is it good news? Tell us it’s good news.” I was like, “Yes, I got it!” I was shocked.

It was a while before I told any of my friends. I didn’t want to tell anyone until I went over, so I remember I had lunch with all my buddies; I went to my friend’s house and all of us sat around this table, and I was like, “Guys, I have something to tell you.” Then, I told them that I was going to be a lead in a new Disney film and everyone lost it. This was a month after finding out that I had a role. I kept it very, very close to myself. But the way that I celebrated was I went to the basketball court with my brother, and we played. [laughs]

PC: You’ve also said in previous interviews that you had to step outside of your comfort zone playing Graham. What’s the biggest lesson that this character has taught you?
Blake: It’s funny. During COVID, all I did was nonstop read about acting, watched films, and learned, learned, and learned. That’s what Graham teaches Mandy: that there’s more to life than just your pursuits or goals. You have to take a step back and live in the moment and take in what’s around you. He definitely taught me that, for sure.

PC: So much of Graham’s storyline is living up to the expectations of others, but it’s in those private moments with Mandy and his mom where we really get to see how he is. You’ve brought so much nuance to that journey. How did you create this space for yourself to dive into those more vulnerable scenes?
Blake: It was fun to do because, as I’ve said before, the character of Graham is the stereotypical basketball jock who’s the captain and the biggest name in the school. It’s very easy to go down the road of making him a one-dimensional character and a cardboard cutout. When I was reading the script, I saw that there were scenes where you actually get insight into who he is—that was a lot of fun to dive into. I think bringing out that vulnerability, it helped that it was my first time being away from home for a long time. Sometimes, I’d get lonely here and there, so definitely for those scenes, I harnessed that as much as I could and spoke from the heart while saying the lines in the script. It was a lot of fun to do, and I’m glad that people are responding well to it.

PC: Music plays such an integral role in your preparation for different roles and getting into certain moods. What was on the playlist that you built for Graham?
Blake: Milo [Manheim], Peyton [Elizabeth Lee], Anya, and I had our own playlist that we made. Instead of having songs specifically for Graham, we decided to make this big collaborative playlist of our favorite ’80s songs since this movie calls back to classic ’80s films like Ferris Bueller and The Breakfast Club.

One of my favorites was “You Can Call Me Al”. I loved that one. Then, for the scenes where Graham’s the king of the school, one of my favorites was Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf”. That always got me into it. Those are a few, but there weren’t any specific ones for them. The music for Prom Pact more came in to create a general vibe and atmosphere.

For Graham, all I focused on was making sure that I could get into the mindset of a basketball player because I’m not an athletic person at all. I watched a lot of documentaries on high school and college basketball to try and understand that world. Then, I practiced as much basketball as I could to make sure I looked comfortable with a ball in my hand.

PC: You did a lot of learning for this film. What was more challenging for you: learning how to play basketball or picking up the American accent?
Blake: It was definitely basketball because the thing with the American accent is that I find that a lot of Australian media comes from the States. All the films that we watch, like Avengers, aren’t dubbed with an Australian accent, so when I was a kid playing with my toys, my action figures, in my mind, I was thinking of them with the American accent and even with all of our music. It’s always been something that’s sat in the back of my head. I turn on the television, and it’s there. I put on Netflix and Disney+, and it’s there. That’s always been there.

I’ve been auditioning for a while. As an Australian actor, if you want to get American jobs, you have to make sure you’ve got a pretty good accent or they’re not going to look at you. So, I would say that the hardest part for Graham was the basketball. The accent came pretty easily.

PC: Graham’s family has a wall of fame. If you were to have your own wall of fame, what would be up there?
Blake: I think the biggest thing would be Prom Pact—that would be there, for sure, and I think all the roles that I’ve played before. That’s what’s meant the most to me, and then maybe some English essays that I did well on. [laughs] But the biggest thing on my wall of fame would be booking this role. It’s probably one of the greatest achievements in my life so far. I’m looking forward to many more achievements.

PC: You, Peyton, and Milo have formed such a strong friendship. What’s one fun fact about each that fans would be surprised to learn?
Blake: Peyton said this in an interview once about Milo, but Milo can guess what any map or location is. If you show him any map or any flag of a country, he knows exactly what it is, immediately. There was this game that we used to play when we weren’t working and waiting between shots, it was called GeoGuessr, where we had to guess what country it was. Milo was insane at that. He was so good at this random skill.

Peyton is really good at dancing. I don’t know if people know that. You see her do it a bit in Prom Pact, but she’s a great dancer. I think she was a trained dancer when she was a kid, too. That was one of the first things she started with. But if you see Peyton dance, she knows how to bust a move, which I do not.

PC: This is your first feature film. What surprised you most about this experience? What’s been the biggest takeaway?
Blake: I think I was surprised at how much fun it was, how collaborative it was, and how great the environment was on set. It was the greatest time ever to be able to go to set every day and that was my job. To be able to work on this film was unbelievable. I had the greatest time. Hopefully, we get to do a sequel because I would love to see everyone and work with them again. We could do something great.

I think I was surprised at how friendly and how accepting everyone was. It was so much fun. You hear online so much of the time that these actors didn’t get along while they were making a movie. I was worried that might happen when you get big personalities into one room, but luckily enough for us when we made Prom Pact, everyone just gelled so perfectly. It was a magical experience.

PC: The film is out now, and it’s been incredibly well received, but the door is open for a potential sequel. Have there been any early conversations about continuing this story and potentially reprising your role?
Blake: I haven’t heard anything, unfortunately, but I would love to. I’d definitely be down to explore where the characters are. Who knows? The film does leave it open, but nothing as of yet. But fingers crossed.

PC: You’re such a standout in this film. Was there a scene in particular that you were excited for audiences to see? Which one was the most challenging for you to film outside the basketball montages?
Blake: I think I was most excited for people to see my promposal, which feels like an egotistical thing to say because it’s my thing. But I remember reading the script and being like, “If I get this role, I get to pretend that I’m Tom Cruise in Risky Business. This would be insane.” So, I was so excited. When I got there, I was like, “I get to do it.”

Then, we started to get close to filming, and I was like, “I’m going to have to dance in my underwear in front of the whole crew and 200 extras. That’s going to be pretty terrifying.” Then, it got very scary right before. The night before I didn’t sleep, but once I got on set and got all the nerves out, it was one of the most fun experiences. I remember at the premiere, we were in this big, massive theater. There were 600 people there. I was like, “I’m excited for them to see this. I wonder how they’re going to respond.” Luckily everyone loved it. That was one of the most fun days. That was so completely liberating. I had so much fun filming that.

PC: Disney is very much known for being a family. So often when you’re part of it, they find different roles for you in different projects. If you could star in another Disney project, which would it be and why?
Blake: Disney has Star Wars and Marvel. Those are a few things that I’d like to do at Disney. I won’t reveal them yet because I don’t want to jinx myself—as you can tell, I’m very superstitious—but I’d be very happy to continue working with the Disney family.

To keep up with Blake, follow him on Instagram. Watch Prom Pact on Disney+ today.

Photo Credit: © 2023 Disney. All rights reserved.