While covering the 2022 NBCUniversal Upfront Red Carpet, I spoke with Bradley Constant about his NBC series, Young Rock. The show is set to return this November for its third season on Fridays at 8:30 PM.

We discussed the show’s well-deserved success, who he would want to guest star on Young Rock, the comedy genre, and more! Keep reading for everything he shared.

Huge congrats on the success of the show, it is so loved already. What has it been like seeing the fan response?
Bradley Constant: It’s been incredible, absolutely, and it still blows me away. It’s one thing to see a comment online, which is nice but to meet someone in person, who’s like, “Oh, I watch this with my grandma. It’s my favorite show,” or their family, and I don’t know who’s gonna walk up. It could be any person, any age and to be a part of something that impacts people, that impacts me because there’s a lot of struggle in our show, but it’s human. It’s things I’ve been through and you see how he turned out, he turned out really well. So it gives a lot of hope and it’s nice to see that it can make people happy.

It’s so nice that so many different groups, generations, and people from all walks of life can enjoy the show. It’s really not for one target audience.
Right, exactly. It’s not for one specific, it’s for everyone — you know what it is? It’s for the people.

What has been your favorite part of this journey and what are you most excited about going forward? I mean, the show has been already renewed and we are so excited for the new season.
I think the best part about it is the cast, everyone that I’ve met, our producers, we’ve had the same crew shooting in Australia two years in a row too. So it’s camp with all of your best friends and your favorite people, and our show creators, Nahnatchka Khan and Jeff Chiang, are like the coolest people ever. Nahnatchka always wears a really cool shirt every day. I’m like, “Every day you have a cool shirt, where do you get it from?” But she’s super funny and super kind. The best part is just the people that I’ve met and Dwayne, obviously, is very kind. It’s just surreal.

Tell me about that, I mean, obviously, Dwayne is such a legend, so what is it like to be part of bringing his story to life on screen?
It means a lot because for me growing up, my family had struggles and there’s things very personal to me that I don’t even feel comfortable to openly talk about, but he is laying it on the floor in a comedy, which is nice because you don’t want to be just like crying the whole night. But it’s so heartwarming and I think it’s just so sweet that you can tell his story and impact people in a positive way. It’s not about him, it’s a show about him, but he’s not making it about him. It’s about showing other people relatability and it’s heartwarming. It makes people happy, it makes me smile. It makes my mom cry when we’re watching the show. So it’s really nice.

What do you love about the comedy genre overall? Obviously, you’re making people laugh.
I don’t just want to be sad and everyone gets sad sometimes, and I think for me, I’ve always turned to a comedy or just singing, being goofy, and weird. I’m naturally goofy and weird, that’s because I want to like keep myself happy. I think that’s why I love comedy so much. It’s so beautiful to be able to tell something heartwarming and some like really tough lessons about life but in a comedy. It’s really nice and it’s funny. The vibes are always good on set, even if it’s a sad scene that we’re doing, in between takes we’re freestyling, joking, and being weird or making fun of Australian accents — not a bad way, it’s a good way. I give an okay Australian accent.

If you could have anyone at all guest star on Young Rock, who would you want it to be and who would you want them to play?
Are you kidding me? This is the first time I’ve ever gotten this question, oh my goodness. Okay, I would say… Samuel L. Jackson. Imagine he comes in, but he shouldn’t play anyone else. He should be a random person who comes in as an antagonist and just is all against Dwayne. You know what, we can have him in every era, we can age him up. We can have him in my era, Sam Jackson at 15 years old, but just aged down and then having him come in again when Dwayne is older. Sam Jackson, if you ever read this, please man, come join our show.

Lastly, have there been any sort of acting challenges that you feel are really going to help you in your career going forward?
Definitely, I think the whole thing has been a learning experience for me. My first time on a big production and like I said, everyone has been so kind, so you never feel the pressure about forgetting my lines or anything. So I think the biggest thing has just been taking that pressure off of myself. It’s about having fun, and it’s about just leaning on your castmates and the people around you. You’re all putting together for one story and project, and leaning into that makes it easy and it makes it fun. That’s why I’m so lucky to get to do what I do, you know?