Brickner: Student in NE; Actor in NYC

Living a double life as a professional actor and a Papio South sophomore, Braeden Brickner splits his time between Nebraska and New York. Being an actor, especially as a minor, has provided Brickner with a unique experience of performing  in TV shows, plays, and even a national tour. While the lives of most students are dominated by school, extracurriculars and family life, Brickner has a steady stream of auditions to top it all off.

Being a student in Nebraska and an actor in New York causes complications for Brickner and his family, but they’ve worked out solutions to the logistical problems.

“They [casting directors] know we’re in Nebraska, so that’s why we have the urgency that we can be there. We have an apartment in New York. We can be there in a day or two, just give us notice,” Brickner said.

Like most actors, Brickner needs an agent to ensure he gets auditions. To get an agent to send auditions, however, he needed to audition for the agent. The successful audition with his agent a year into his New York acting career opened the door for many other auditions, including one for Dash in “Incredibles 2.”

Brickner said his location cost him the previously mentioned role of Dash but the conflict was because his acting was based out of New York.

“I got the script for who I would be reading for from my agent. It didn’t disclose any names from the movie, but when I kept reading, it was a scene from the first Incredibles movie. I kept auditioning, and then it came down to me and another kid, from L.A., and they chose the kid from L.A.”

Though acting has brought unique challenges for Brickner, it has given him the opportunity to tour the country in a Broadway musical based on an iconic movie, “A Christmas Story.”

“That was an experience of a lifetime,” Brickner said. “Being able to get up on stage and perform is just an amazing feeling. We performed it in some of the biggest theaters in the country, like the Fox Theatre in Detroit.”

Though the tour was a highlight for Brickner, he was initially unsuccessful.

“Any auditions are very nerve-racking, especially the Broadway ones,” Brickner said. “There are a ton of kids that all fit who they’re looking for in a room and you have to stand out and play the part better than everyone else going for it. I tried out for ‘A Christmas Story’ for two years before I got it on my third.”

Brickner’s experience bullying Ralphie as “A Christmas Story” secondary bully Grover Dill was shaken up when he had to step into new shoes with a quick turnaround. Brickner went from being the bully’s lackey to the poor kid responsible for the memorable pole-lick scene.

“I was an understudy for the role of Flick. He [Flick’s actor] had an asthma attack about two to three hours before we were supposed to be on stage. With that time, I had to learn all of his cues, positions, lines, and what he sang in the show,” Brickner said.

Not all of Brickner’s roles have involved singing or even speaking, but they require a special skill set in order to get past the audition. One of these was Charlie Potter in Season 5, Episode 1 of “FBI.”

“When I auditioned for ‘FBI,’ there were no lines. Now when I got there, they recorded a few, but there were no lines on the audition. So I was literally just making facial expressions like I had a gun to my head. It’s just weird, because your mom or dad is behind the camera reading these lines,” Brickner said.

The COVID pandemic created new challenges for Brickner, specifically in the audition process.

“COVID has affected it so much, because it’s rare that there’s an in-person audition,” Brickner explained. “In person, you have one shot, you know what I mean? You go in, you perform it to groups of casting directors, and then you’re out. With self-tapes, you can do it over and over again until it’s what you would consider to be perfect. So it’s a lot more stressful, but you can do more takes.”

Even with his acting ambitions, Brickner still enjoys being an ordinary student at Papio South.

“Sometimes I have so much homework – ‘I wish I didn’t have cross country today,’ but I enjoy those practices, it pushes me. You grow up fast when you’re pushed into New York. I wouldn’t say I’m used to it, you can’t get used to being busy. It’s a lot of work, but it helps when you love it,” Brickner said.

In order to make the jump to acting in New York, Brickner started out locally with different performing arts.

“When I started acting, both my brother and I started at the same time, because my brother was involved in dance. He’s a big dancer, so we met a lot of people through that. And that got us to start acting and start singing. And we also started modeling locally,” Brickner said.

After moving to New York, Brickner had his acting debut as a character in a student film. This experience early in his career showed that the road to success would not be an easy one.

“We filmed in the Catskill Mountains in New York in November, and it was freaking cold. It was a time piece, so I was in the 16th century. I was in shorts, and it was terrible. They had me working from 9 a.m. to 2-3 a.m. It was bad, and I was 9 at the time,” Brickner recalled.

He added, “It left me a little salty a few months later, because they never actually ended up making the film. So there’s nothing of it now. That’s upsetting, but it taught me a lot.”

Though Brickner believes that his acting future is uncertain, he has big dreams. Having already landed a spot on a national Broadway tour and an episode of “FBI,” he’s hungry for a role that three different actors have held since 2002. He might just have to deal with Tom Holland first.

“My dream role is Spider-Man. At first, my dream role was just to be in a Marvel movie, but I want to be Spider-Man. That’s my one thing,” Brickner said.

While he’s still waiting for that Spider-Man job opening, Brickner is sworn to secrecy about the near future of his career.

“I’m sorry, I can’t disclose anything about that [upcoming project],” Brickner said. “But with acting, it’s always one audition, callback, and job after the next.”