SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for Season 1 of Prime Video‘s Off Campus.
Stars Antonio Cipriano and Stephen Kalyn, whose love characters’ stories will likely develop more in the next season of Prime Video’s Off Campus, have found their ways into their characters — John Logan and Dean Di Laurentis, respectively — with eyes on the horizon for when they get their time in the spotlight.
Cipriano’s John Logan, Garrett Graham’s (Belmont Cameli) best friend and Right Wing on the Briar Hawks collegiate hockey team, gets his love story in the second book of Elle Kennedy’s series, The Mistake. Kayln’s Dean Di Laurentis, Left Defenseman, ends up with Hannah’s roommate and best friend Allie Hayes (Mika Abdalla) in Kennedy’s third Off Campus book, The Score.
The romance series highlights four hockey players with a tight-knit bond like brothers as each of them falls in love across their four individual books. Though the sport can be seen as intensely masculine to the point of toxicity sometimes, Cipriano and Kalyn credit series creators Louisa Levy and Gina Fattore with painting the athletes in a more sensitive and emotionally aware light.
“The coolest thing that I saw when I first read the books and then seeing the scripts was, yes, they’re these jocks. They’re these clowns having a good time in college, but, when you strip away the layers, they all have that emotional maturity that I really am excited for people to see,” Cipriano said, drawing attention to a specific scene between Kalyn’s Dean and Cameli’s Garrett in episode 4. “We got Dean over here spitting facts man, he’s got a conversation with Garrett in the show, and you’re like, ‘Wow, he’s so much more emotionally intelligent than you think.’”
Canadian actor Kalyn, who grew up playing hockey, echoed Cipriano and agreed with his assessment.
“That’s something that I do like [and] that Louisa [Levy] and Gina [Fattore] did do very well They took these hockey players, like you said, sometimes it can be [a] toxic masculinity kind of culture, but she made them lovable in a way where they have that charisma and care for each other,” he said. “And it’s not so in your face of like, ‘I’m a dude. I play hockey.’ It’s done in a very, very, very sweet way.”
Season 1 sees Dean and Allie’s flame spark in the latter episodes, and Deadline broke the news of India Fowler’s casting as Grace Ivers, the freshman sociology major Logan meets and pines for before they end up together. So the pair really are neck and neck for who could lead Season 2.
Cipriano and Kalyn unpack how they connect to their characters, what they are most looking forward to in the relationship dynamics they will portray in their respective love stories and more in the below interview.
DEADLINE: What did you resonate most with in your characters? How did you find your ways into them for this show?
STEPHEN KALYN: I’d say his charisma is something I feel like I can relate to, and the fact that he grew up playing hockey his whole life. [It’s] something that I did, so I knew my experiences around the hockey rink, so that culture I know very well.
ANTONIO CIPRIANO: For Logan, at least in this adaptation, he is a middle child, and I very much related to that, being a middle child myself. I know that dynamic and that almost “Namaste,” keeping the energy, keeping the peace with the family and with friends. That middle child energy was very, very easy to tap into.
DEADLINE: Antonio, could you talk about the moment Garrett gives Logan the captain C, and how that wraps up their tension throughout Season 1?
CIPRIANO: Obviously you’re seeing these best friends from the start have this riff, and you’re like, “What is going on? There’s a misunderstanding here,” and you’re rooting for them to figure it out the entire season. [We] as actors, were like, “Man, I really want to just be able to be your best friend in this moment.”
For them to have that cathartic moment of like, “No, you’re my right hand man. I got you. I care so much about you,” and for Logan to hear Garrett be like, “No, you’ve had a captain on the ice the whole time.” Logan, his whole life as a middle child, middle children, we’re [always] feeling like a runner up or second [in line]. That was such a, such a beautiful moment for him to recognize the leader in Logan.
DEADLINE: Steven, Dean can seem kind of superficial at first, but then we learn in the show, he plays chess, he can play the piano. What was it like having those layers for him and working in the romance with Allie (Mika Abdalla)?
KALYN: Well, first of all, I couldn’t even play chess before doing the show, so Mika, fortunately, was showing me a couple moves on how to look like I know what I’m doing. And then after the show, I ended up learning.
CIPRIANO (& JALEN THOMAS BROOKS): Did you?
KALYN: I did, yeah, my family got me a chess board for Christmas.
CIPRIANO: We’ll play.
KALYN: Sorry what was [the question] again?
DEADLINE: Oh, just, how did you approach those layers, and then, as we see in the later episodes, the romance with Allie, with Mika’s character?
KALYN: With Louisa and Gina, first of all, writing great scripts, and also having the book by Elle Kennedy, The Score right in my back pocket. It’s like an inner monologue. If I was questioning things, I would just go right back to the book and think, “Okay, this is how he would navigate through the situation.”
In the first season, we’re kind of just exploring and learning the front of Dean. And as we get further and further along, we dive into more deep aspects of him. It was nice to get there a little bit more this season and have peaks and moments of, I call it ‘Wisdom Dean,’ where he would show like he would drop just some wisdom out of nowhere and like, “What?” So that was great. And obviously, working with Mika was phenomenal. She just made the job way easier.
DEADLINE: For both of you, Off Campus is a series, and your characters each have their own books. What excites you about, hopefully, when you each get your own seasons as the lead couple?
CIPRIANO: I mean, I love The Mistake. I think it’s a great book. I think it’s such a cute little rom-com-y moment, and I think the ending is so great. And I love the list. I’m just excited for all these small little things and the meeting scene. We don’t know exactly what it’s gonna look like, but whenever we hopefully get to that moment, that will be really exciting.
KALYN: I really like the banter between Dean and Allie. I think it’s really entertaining. I think that’s why so many fans resonate with it, because it’s just such a fun relationship that they have. So doing that is something I’m really looking forward to.
DEADLINE: What was the hockey training like?
KALYN: Well, there is nothing more entertaining for me, as someone who’s played hockey his whole life, to watch a bunch of grown men learn really how to like walk again on the ice, and watch them fall and hit on their little tushies.
There was a moment. There was a moment one time when we were practicing, me and Jalen, it’s a drill where you kind of come around. And I remember I was just going at it. Always going, I’m coming around, and I see Jalen, and he looks up at me like a deer in headlights, and he goes, “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” And I’m just like, “It’s over for you, man, like, and I just completely run him over. And obviously [he’s okay.]
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Jalen Thomas Brooks’ answers will be published in a separate Q/A.
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