A couple of years ago — around the time he garnered an Emmy nomination for The White Lotus — Jake Lacy started to get a little sick of himself. It wasn’t that he felt overexposed, but he was beginning to question whether he should be exposed at all. “I was realizing, no one needs to hear my thoughts on things,” he says. “I should just absorb information.” As an actor, it’s hard to go quiet — one’s livelihood depends on one’s exposure — so he settled on quitting Instagram. “I don’t want it to sound like my stopping social media was some grand gesture, because I had like 800,000 followers and wasn’t making any money off of it, but I just felt like, the world doesn’t need more of me,” he says with a laugh.
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Today, he’s in Los Angeles, having flown in from his Connecticut home base, to promote his starring role on the Peacock drama series Apples Never Fall. The adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s 2021 novel follows the search for a family’s matriarch (played by Annette Bening) as her adult children begin to suspect that their father may be involved in her disappearance; Lacy, 39, plays Bening’s son Troy, a guy whose wealth and ego threaten to get in the way of his good intentions. His time on the show — filming in Australia, away from his family, soaking up knowledge from a legend like Bening — allowed him to meditate on his relationship to fame. He now knows, deep down, that there’s no hiding in this business. “This is a front-facing job, and I have to learn how to be OK with a public presence,” he says. “It’s like, figure it out, Peter Pan.”
What do you think about the way people love to categorize your roles as good characters (Obvious Child, High Fidelity, Girls) or bad characters (The White Lotus, A Friend of the Family)?
For a long time, I was very lucky to be working, but I was primarily in roles that fulfilled another character’s arc, and it’s easy to filter them into good or bad guys. For Troy, he’s made choices in order to get ahead, and those choices don’t necessarily align with his own sense of who he is. He’s not the cool badass he thinks he is, but he isn’t a fully shitty person. He’s just a guy who could do some things better. Something our Apples director explained recently at a panel has really stuck with me. He said, “All the men on this show think that they’re just crushing masculinity.” The joke is on Troy, my character, but some of the joke is on me because I’ve been so committed to his reality, and I didn’t see that.
Are you, Jake, crushing masculinity? Is that a concept you’ve evaluated in yourself?
I did start thinking about this after #MeToo. Just that thought of, “Does anyone want or need to hear from me, a man?” I’m figuring out how to take up my space while allowing others to do so. I could also see myself thinking in the future that I’m taking up too much space again. It’s always being reconfigured in my mind.
So is that an A+ on modern masculinity?
Well, I still do some pretty bro-y stuff. But that’s also OK.
What sorts of bro-y things? Golf?
No, I don’t play golf. (Laughs.) I’m a big Red Sox fan, and I’ll say to my two young sons: This is a Red Sox house. Or sometimes I play my wife clips from podcasts or stand-up that she doesn’t think are funny.
A lot of your earlier roles, like in Obvious Child, seem like they could offer you a buffer from scrutiny in that department.
That movie is a great example of something I was in that I never could have written. (Laughs.) I was lucky enough to be tacked onto the side of that movie, and it was fucking awesome. I’ve benefitted many times over from strong, smart women having a project and giving me a ticket to the ride at the last minute.
What do you think about when you’re deciding to take a job?
It’s really the boring logistics of: How much does it pay, how long am I away from my wife and sons, and where does it shoot? I had a wonderful time shooting Apples Never Fall, the material is fantastic and the people are fantastic, and I loved being in Australia — but it was too far for too long.
Is there one project that you’re most recognized for, or that you feel has followed you more than other roles?
Probably White Lotus. But a fair amount of people recognize me from The Office.
Did you like being on The Office? Dakota Johnson recently talked about having a bad time filming the finale.
I did like it. It was my favorite show. I got that role in a really lucky way. I had shot a pilot, that I really wanted to be in, and they fired me and replaced me with TJ Miller. He had done a pilot with John Stamos, which they didn’t pick up but they loved TJ, so they decided to boot me to slide in TJ. But that was the network — the producers of the show, the guys who did How I Met Your Mother, they were really great and called me to let me know about this in a very nice way. I was 26 at the time and started catastrophizing — every time I didn’t get a role I thought, that’s it. And then my manager called to tell me they were adding two guys to the final season of The Office. We went out to where they filmed, somewhere deep in the valley, and I get into the audition room and there’s 10 other dudes who all look like me who I would see at every pilot season. Every time a boyfriend was added to something it was like oh, you guys again? They brought me to the set and there were no sides, it was just improv with Ellie [Kemper]. I flew back home to New York and they called the next night, a Saturday, to say I got it and I started filming on Monday.
Did you grow out of that catastrophizing, or did a certain role or stage of your career fix it?
It was probably also White Lotus. I got to use every tool I have, and I felt really connected with Mike through the whole process. So I felt really fulfilled and confident, and then the outside world responded in a great way. And I felt a lot of external validation when I was nominated for the Emmy. It’s funny because it’s this weird subjective thing, but it made me think okay, I’m going to get to stick around for a little. Being in rooms [during award season] with people that I admired gave me a lot of confidence — to realize, I’m seen as a peer? I can go over and say hello to someone I’ve admired and they don’t think I’m a creep, they think I belong? I started this career simply because I enjoyed acting and felt like it was a place where I belonged — and then you get into this industry that is based on exclusion, on being a closed party. It’s great to feel like I have a chair at the party. But there are still some people I wouldn’t dream of talking to. (Laughs)
Before you filmed Apples, was Annette Bening one of those people?
Absolutely. She’s so talented and committed and graceful as an actor, but she’s also just a person living her life. It was really fulfilling to work with her, she’s so alive and present and generous. She’s very free, and has an ease, in a way that you don’t always see.
How do you measure your own success?
When I was younger, I used a really high standard. I said, “I want to be taken very seriously as a high-quality actor in dramatic roles, but I also want to be in comedies and also be cast in a Marvel film as some external validation of my legitimacy. And I want to make a lot of money and I don’t want anyone to know who I am.” Which: Give me a break. I was cherry-picking other people’s careers and only looking at the hits and leaving out the reality of the other 60 percent. Now, I want to have a continued place in this business, but I also want internal success. I want my kids to have the nicest life I can afford them, you know what I mean?
I do. People often think it’s icky to talk about but I think all actors should be as rich or richer than the executives who profit from their acting.
The very first job I had [ABC’s Better With You], I was 24, and I went to the TCAs and people would ask, “What drew you to this project?” I was like, “I was waiting tables two weeks ago. I’m an actor and I got paid to act. That’s what drew me to it! I wanted to book something.” I still feel that way a little bit. I’m fortunate to be able to work on things that I’m proud of, and that I love being a part of, but this is also a business. I want to make money to take care of my kids, and doing that makes me proud.
Let’s end on a more frivolous note. As you get more success, what’s a luxury you allow yourself?
Clothes. I’ve always loved clothes. I used to scour the racks at Buffalo Exchange, so now I like to indulge.
This story first appeared in the March 6 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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