Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Head of the Class’ Brandon Severs

Brandon Severs is a rising young star who is leading the next generation of up-and-comers who will one day rule Hollywood. This year he’s blowing audiences away with his standout performance in HBO Max’s Head of the Class.

The laugh-out-loud comedy follows a group of overachieving high school students who meet their greatest challenge—a teacher who wants them to focus less on grades and more on experiencing life.

Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of speaking with Brandon about his multifaceted career, Head of the Class, and more.

Career

PC: How did you discover your passion for the arts?
Brandon: I discovered my passion for the arts because both my parents were in the arts. I grew up around it. My father was a standup comedian. My mother was a model. I discovered I loved it when I started acting in church plays. Then my mother realized that I would retain things from years and years and years ago and thought it might be a good idea for me to pursue something like this.

PC: In addition to being an actor, you’re also a musician. What’s been the biggest lesson you’ve learned from music that you’ve been able to apply to your acting career and vice versa?
Brandon: Oh wow. That’s a great question. I would say the biggest lesson I’ve learned from music is to take things at your own pace. Because in music there’s a rhythm that’s preset for every song that sometimes might feel too slow or too fast, but music gives you the freedom to take things at your own pace. That’s something I’ve learned from music that I can bring into my acting.

Something that I’ve learned from acting that I would carry into my music is that everything you do takes a piece of you. Let me expound on that a bit. In everything you do, you’re giving a piece of yourself, which isn’t a bad thing. It can seem daunting at first, but giving a piece of yourself is really a beautiful thing that you can do when you’re applying yourself to something.

PC: You’ve had a lot of success already in your young career. When you look back, is there a particular moment that stands out?
Brandon: I would say the first thing that comes to mind is when I found out that my first show, Walk the Prank, got picked up. I was still living in Las Vegas. I shot the pilot and went home. Walk the Prank was the project that got me to California. I remember the moment that I found out that the show had been picked up. I was in my parents’ bedroom. The first thing I said to my agent was, “I can’t feel my legs.” [laughs]

PC: You’ve talked about this a bit earlier, but when you look at your career, who or what has had the biggest influence?
Brandon: I would say I owe a lot of my influence to my dad. He really taught me pretty much everything I know about being funny. He was always a jokester. He always brought levity to any situation. That runs in my family. My grandmother is the same way.

Head of the Class

PC: Tell us about Head of the Class, your character, and what drew you to this project.
Brandon: Head of the Class is a reboot of the classic show from the ’80s and ’90s. It’s about a group of overachieving high school students in debate who only know things that pertain to school. They get a new teacher who’s flying by the seat of her pants. She’s like, “We all need to loosen up.” She was in our shoes once before and gets on all of us to live life a bit more—to live life to the fullest.

My character is Terrell. He’s the captain of the swim team. He’s all about team spirit. He’s all about bringing the team together. He floats between all the friend groups.

What drew me to this project were all the people who were attached to it and the character itself. I had never done a multi-cam sitcom like this before. I thought it would be a really interesting challenge to do this type of comedy. I did a guest star on Raven’s Home years ago. That was the only time I’d done anything on a multi-cam sitcom. I figured it would be a really, really great experience.

PC: You come from a comedic background. How helpful was that when starting this project? With it being a comedy, did you all have the opportunity to improvise?
Brandon: I definitely had the opportunity to improv. I’m so thankful and appreciative of the way that we shot this show. We would shoot things as scripted two times through, so we could make sure that everyone had what was on paper. Then our producers and writers would come in and throw new lines on us on the spot. Sometimes it would be a monologue. Sometimes it would be something as small as a tweak, but they would let us try all these different things. I know I did a lot of improv-ing. I would throw things in that I thought were funny. I would change lines up a bit. I would change the attitude of lines just because I love comedy and finding different ways to make something funny. I always threw something new in.

PC: Is there a scene that you improv that you’re really excited for your fans to see?
Brandon: Our showrunner Bill gave me a note in a scene because I had been delivering this one line a particular way. It’s in the pilot at the coffee shop. I won’t give too much away, but our showrunner came in and gave me this note about changing the delivery. I had been doing it in an upbeat way. He said, “Take the air out of it and deliver it like you’re in a super pensive state. Deliver it philosophically.” I changed that and tweaked it. It was the very last line in the scene. It was a great note that made the scene what it is.

PC: With this being a reboot, did that bring any pressure to this project? Did that change your preparation?
Brandon: It did change my preparation, and it added a bit of healthy pressure. I didn’t feel stressed to the point of having to live up to something great because I know the original show is great. I knew our show could stand on its own. I didn’t see us as trying to remake it. I just saw us as adding to the legacy of it. The good pressure that I felt was making sure that I delivered at my highest capacity to make sure that it was something worthy of that legacy.

My preparation changed because I had access to the original show. I was able to get into that before I auditioned to understand the tone.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: Guilty pleasure TV show?
Brandon: I’ve watched Once Upon a Time in its entirety about six times.

PC: Guilty pleasure movie?
Brandon: The Mask.

PC: Favorite book?
Brandon: This is a hard one because I’m an avid reader. When I was younger, I read every single Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I love that series.

PC: Favorite play or musical?
Brandon: I recently read Century Cycle by August Wilson. That was incredible.

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Brandon: Antonio Vivaldi.

To keep up with Brandon, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Watch Head of the Class on HBO Max today.

Photo Credit: JSquared