Brandon Sklenar is getting honest about the hard time he faced before his breakthrough role.
The It Ends With Us star opened up about not having a stable place to live before hitting it big with the series 1923.
The 35-year-old revealed in an article published by the Wall Street Journal on December 16, that he grew up at his grandparents’ home as his parents got divorced when he was only six.
“Looking back, the stutter seemed to have been psychosomatic, he recalled.
Reflecting on how his parents’ divorce affected him, he noted, “Their split was a shock, and I was unable to express myself. It was just a trauma response to unexpressed emotions.”
Sklenar shared that his father and grandparents’ home in Lake Hopatcong was “the most consistent home” where he grew up.
He noted that the house “smelled like wood and had a weird vibe, as if haunted.”
Due to his nature of being in his head he fell in love with movies, “I’d go to school as movie characters and stay in accents for weeks. Everyone thought I was a weirdo.”
And when he acted as another character, his stutter “disappeared,” but he said, “When I was myself, it returned.”
Following his college, Sklenar moved to the West Coast with his girlfriend with $2,500 in his pocket which he earned after selling his car. But due to poor planning and no network, he soon got expelled from his apartment and his girlfriend broke up with him.
He then lived in his car “for a while.”
Later on, he was discovered by a talent manager at the age of 20 and landed small roles until his “life-changing role” in Taylor Sheridan’s 1923.
The Housemaid actor concluded, “If I had it easy growing up, my life probably would have been very different. There’s no way I’d be where I am now without that childhood stutter.”
