As Season 2 of Max & Shred films in Toronto, I had a chance to chat with the YTV/ Nickelodeon series stars, Jake Goodman and Jonny Gray, who play Alvin “Shred” Ackerman and Max Asher, respectively. Both actors are consummate professionals — dedicating lots of time to their craft — but they’re also regular kids who study hard in school and love to have fun when they’re not shooting. Jake and I chatted about his early start in the ‘biz and some of the fun that goes on behind the scenes with his costars. He and Jonny also each answered 7 Questions, so their fans can learn a little more about them.
Channel Guide: Tell me a little bit about your character Shred?
Jake Goodman: Shred is a science whiz. He’s really into math and sciences, and in his free time, he’s never really playing games or out with his friends. He’s always working on a new invention. In one of the episodes, he made this cool invention called the “Water Maker” — which does what it says. You put in pencils, and it turns them into water. Anything, it just turns into water. Not flavor, just pure water, which is pretty cool.
In the first episode, he made a remote control garbage can — which takes out the garbage by itself — but it actually works. They’ve been pretty cool inventions.
CG: How are you like your character?
Jake: I’m like my character … I never really made inventions, and I have lots more friends than Alvin does, and I also think that the main similarity is that we’re both pretty smart, I guess. I have probably less street smarts, but not only school smarts. I’m pretty smart in school.
GC: What would you say is your favorite subject in school?
Jake: I really like math.
CG: What is it that got you into acting? I know you’ve been in the industry for a long time.
Jake: What got me into acting? Here’s the story. When I was four, I went to Florida with my family, and we were by the pool at a hotel, and I met this guy, also named Jake, and he was talking about a new show that he did, and I was really interested, and I was like, “Hey, how did you get into this business?”
He told me all about it. You have to call an agent, and then you meet with the agent, and see if they’ll want to represent you. We did that. He gave me his agent’s phone number, and I met with her, and then I got the agent. I kept going on auditions, and it all kind of just took off from there.
CG: What has it been like being in the industry since you were young?
Jake: Honestly, where I live, and since I have really good friends, it hasn’t really changed me much. Obviously, the days are longer when you’re working on a film set, than someone who plays hockey three times a week, but honestly, I don’t get treated any differently, thankfully. I think it’s where I live and my neighborhood.
It’s cool when people have questions, but it doesn’t really change much about my relationships with people. Other than just the fact of being on a TV show worldwide, and having a full time job. Basically, I’m still just a normal kid.
CG: Tell me about your co-stars. What’s life like on and what kind of fun stuff do you do together?
Jake: We have a great time. I’m always chilling with Millie, Saara and Jonny. Me and Jonny play music together sometimes, because he plays drums, and I play guitar and bass. Sometimes we’ll be jamming. Millie and Saara, we just goof off together. We have a really good time in between scenes, or when we’re all on lunch. Jonny already told you what we did at lunch today, just before we called you here. We have really good times.
CG: What part of filming an episode is your favorite?
Jake: My favorite part of filming the episode is when they say, “Next,” which means we’re done with the scene, which is kind of cool. We spend hours on scenes, just doing the same over and over again, and then I feel like by the time we do the 8th take, it’s just like so much repetition. When they say we’re done, next scene, then it gets sent off to editing, and it’s like, we’re never going to do that scene again, and it’s going to be all ready, and it’s going to be cool for the show. It’s just kind of a cool part, just moving on.
CG: How is Shred’s life going to be a little different in Season 2 of Max & Shred?
Jake: Well, I think the main difference I would notice, is the clothing. Also, Alvin gets new glasses. I think with all of the time that little nerd Alvin is spending with Max, Max is kind of rubbing off on him. He’s getting a little bit cooler, but he’s still staying true to himself, and still doing what he likes.
Max & Shred image ©2014 Viacom International Inc All Rights Reserved.
jake goodman i love you and i like of the mathematics