Percy Jackson and the Olympians star Aryan Simhadri has some cool mementos. During our phone conversation, the budding star told me that proudly sitting on his window sill are the Hermes flying shoes, Percy's capture-the-flag shield, and his sword, Riptide.
He has worn the sneakers to such a degree that the Hermes logo on them is beginning to peel off. Simhadri also took home a lot of sand in his clothes thanks to the Tartarus sequence (more on that later).
His level of enthusiasm about the show is unmatched. Very seldom in this business do you meet actors this passionate about their projects. It sounds sad, but it's a night-and-day difference when you encounter an actor like Simhadri.
For the actor, who plays Grover in Disney+'s Percy Jackson adaptation, his love for Rick Riordan's series dates back years.
“I auditioned when I was in New York working on a different project. And when I first got that audition, I mean, it's Percy Jackson, it's a series I've grown up with, so I honestly didn't think I was going to get it because it's just such an iconic role,” he recalled.
After a self-taped audition and three months passing, Simhadri heard back after he was “convinced that there was no way I was getting it.” Getting the call back resulted in a joyous response.
Meetings and table reads with fellow stars Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, producers, and James Bobim followed. But he ultimately landed one of the leading trio roles in Percy Jackson.
Meeting the OG cast
But well before Disney+'s adaptations of the Percy Jackson books came 20th Century Fox's films. The two films adapted The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters. Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, and Brandon T. Jackson starred in the films.
They both made over $200 million worldwide at the box office but were far from smashing successes. Plus, they aged the cast up and gave them limited time to adapt all of the films. Disney+'s model makes more sense, allowing for a younger cast to play the roles for years.
Simhadri was a fan of the movies, and getting a text from Logan Lerman was huge for the cast. Lerman, one of Simhadri's favorite actors, follows him back on social media, which the young star excitedly told me and called “insane.”
He also acknowledged Brandon T. Jackson, who played Grover in the films. They haven't met, though Simhadri made his pitch to: “I have not heard from him, though. I would love to meet the guy. And yeah, again, I just love everyone. Alexandra Daddario too,” he said.
Doing it better than the films
Speaking about the differences between the Percy Jackson films and TV series, it comes down to runtime. Two-hour films can only tackle so much. Simhadri and his Disney+ series are given nearly eight hours of room to adapt Riordan's The Lightning Thief.
“Obviously, they didn't have as much time to play as we might have,” he said. “So a lot of stuff, like the Underworld, they didn't really get to touch on that too much.”
The plot point Simhadri was especially excited to expand was Medusa. This was due to the character being “such a captivating villain” and casting Jessica Parker Kennedy, who'd be a “shame to waste,” he claimed.
Reflecting back
It was a very long process for Simhadri and his co-stars. We spoke right before the finale aired, which felt like a bookend for him. It didn't really hit him until the finale that it's finally out there for the public.
“Even though we've been doing the show for a while and episodes have been coming out, it still didn't really feel like it was out in the world yet, just because it wasn't done.
“After 10 months of filming, that final episode is already out, it just feels like it's gone so fast,” he continued with a chuckle. “[It's] just a weird feeling knowing that it's all out — it's not in our hands anymore. There's nothing that only we have, you know what I mean?”
However, Simhadri remains close with his Percy Jackson co-stars. He told me that the greater young cast, which also includes the likes of Charlie Bushnell, Dior Goodjohn, and Andrew Alvarez along with Scobell and Jeffries, have a group chat titled “The Percy Gang.”
As for the main stars, Walker, Jeffries, and Simhadri also have their own private group chat. That one is aptly titled “The Trio.”
Simhadri seemed especially close to Scobell. He admitted to messing around “maybe a little more than I should” during the production. It didn't help that they share the same sense of humor.
“He shares my sense of humor and he's so funny,” Simhadri said of Scobell. “When we were at Yancy Academy, we kind of found that we both found the same things hilarious. So anytime we were together, we would just spend way too much time messing around between takes just laughing our asses off.”
That isn't to suggest Jeffries didn't also get involved as well. He called her an “automatic fit” into their friend group.
Talking about his other co-stars, Simhadri was highly complimentary. Upon bringing up Bushnell, Simhadri quickly replied, “Isn't he the best?”
Adult co-stars
I also wanted to know about Adam Copeland, a former WWE icon and current AEW wrestler. Here's a man I grew up watching as the “Rated R Superstar” playing the God of War in Percy Jackson.
However, he's nothing like that in person. Though Simhadri did joke that Copeland taught him some wrestling moves.
“He did teach me how to go through a flaming table,” Simhadri joked with a cheeky laugh. “He showed me some wrestling moves, so I am hoping to use those in future seasons. [I'm] really excited to work on those.”
On a serious note, Simhadri touted Copeland as a “professional” and a “happy guy.” (So much for kayfabe!)
“His professionalism is unmatched,” Simhadri revealed. “It's a professionalism that everyone, all of our adult co-stars, share. And that's incredible. No one came into this thinking, It's just a kid's show. It's Disney. I'm just going to take a day off and do some easy work.”
He continued by praising all of the actors for buying into their roles. That's another key reason that this Percy Jackson adaptation works.
“They all fell in love with what was on the page,” he said. “And I think if you're not falling in love with it, then maybe it's not going to turn out the way you want it.”
Dedication is key
Buying into a sci-fi project can be hard. You're typically placed in front of blue screens and expected to act terrified or amazed by things you cannot see. Heck, Dakota Johnson found the experience on Madame Web to be “psychotic.”
While he found “psychotic” to be an “intense” way of putting it, Simhadri somewhat shared her sentiments.
“In Episode 7, that scene when we're going to Hades' palace and we take an elevator up, there [are] two guards with halberds, and they're dressed in all black,” he said to set up a visual. “That entire thing, we moved out of the volume stage, and it's this massive sea of dark blue — we used all blue screen for that — and it's hard to be amazed by something that isn't there at times.”
But it was Scobell who helped Simhadri lock in. The two seem to share a brother-like bond that includes a lot of shenanigans and Tropic Thunder viewings.
“Walker trying his best made me want to do better, and we kept pushing each other to do better,” he explained. “And when Leah was there, it's much the same. It's the same with all of our co-stars. Just being able to play off of each other definitely helps a lot.”
This also applied to the sequence with Cerberus, a giant three-headed dog in the Underworld. Obviously, there are no 30-foot-tall dogs available to be used for the production. Instead, the trio had to act scared. Luckily, once again, Simhadri's co-stars bought in, and their expressed fear “helps make it seem a little bit more real for you.”
Sand gets everywhere
Speaking of Episode 7, the penultimate episode sees Grover nearly get engulfed by Tartarus. The giant pit in the Underworld begins pulling Grover in when he has Hermes' shoes on.
This sequence was actually terrifying for Simhadri, who claims there was no acting necessary for the role. But the biggest shame is that for the rest of the Percy Jackson production and to this day, he is finding sand everywhere.
“We filmed that maybe three or four months before we wrapped. I took one of my costumes home [and] I'm still finding sand in the pockets! It's concerning,” he exclaimed. “I took my Hermes shoes home and sometimes I'll dump them out and there'll be sand under the sole.”
To make this sequence possible, they brought in an excavator. They piled in sand dunes, which Simhadri would have to fall down and also climb. Scary? Yes. Awesome? Also yes.
“It was awesome. They brought in an excavator into the bottom studio. There was a lot of space down there, and they just piled huge sand dunes for us to climb up and then, obviously, get dragged down,” Simhadri revealed. “And standing at the top of that thing, looking down, there's no acting needed.
“It genuinely did feel like I was going to get dragged into Tartarus because it's a steep cutoff. It's a huge sand dune, and it slopes down, and it's a sheer drop to the floor of the studio. So, I didn't have to act much for that,” he added.
Looking ahead
Talking about the future, Simhadri is just excited for more Percy Jackson. He's also excited that each book has different locations and tones to play in.
“Every book kind of has a unique thing. So I'm looking forward to adapting all of that from Season 2,” he said.
But will he ever grow tired of it? After all, there are four more books left to adapt. Even still, Simhadri doesn't see himself getting tired of playing Grover.
“There's not a chance I'm gonna get tired of this,” he boldly proclaimed. “I haven't heard anything yet, but hopefully, when we get to adapt those future seasons — it just gets better and better and better.”
The reason for this is Percy Jackson evolves with each entry.
“The story gets a lot more mature in tone as well, and I think this is kind of a crazy thought, but just thinking about [the fact that] a lot of people are growing up with this Percy and Annabeth and Grover, just like I grew up with Percy and Annabeth and Grover from the books,” Simhadri explained .”And so as they grow, the show will grow with them, and I think that's part of the beauty of the books was Rick [Riordan] wrote them, he knew who he was writing for and he let the books progress naturally.
“He didn't try to force it into a certain tone. He just kind of let them go. I'm really excited to see how that kind of natural progression is going to show up in our show,” he continued.
The Harry Potter model
It seems that the plan by Disney+ is to follow the Harry Potter model and adapt all of the books with this young cast. Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, and Aryan Simhadri all have the benefit of being younger than Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, and Brandon T. Jackson were in the roles in the film adaptions.
For Simhadri, he finds it “crazy” to compare his Percy Jackson series with Harry Potter. Still, he sees where the comparison can be made.
“It's just like a crazy thing to compare this to Harry Potter. But what we're doing is kind of [similar] — a lot of people might grow up with this show, just like people grew up with Harry Potter, I did like how the Harry Potter movies just let it grow with the audience, and so I'm just excited to see how that translates.
Sea of Monsters
As for Sea of Monsters, the second book in Riordan's series and presumably the inspiration for the eventual Percy Jackson Season 2, Simhadri is excited by several key elements of the plot. He cited things like the wedding dress plot point, new characters Thalia and Tyson (whom he “can't wait to do chemistry reads” with those respective actors once they're cast), and locations like Circi and Polyphemus's respective islands.
“It's just new. I feel like stuff in Season 2 doesn't happen anywhere else in the show,” he concluded.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians is streaming on Disney+ now.
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