Exclusive Interview with Actor Cory Grüter-Andrew

Cory Grüter-Andrew, a Canadian-born actor, got his start in acting after taking an acting class. He quickly landed the role of Wes in Fargo and has since starred in various other shows. Leaping onto our TV screens as young Nightblood Aden on the CWs hit TV show The 100, he quickly won over the hearts of fans everywhere who were actively rooting for him to become the next Commander in the wake of Lexa’s death. Grüter-Andrew’s most recent role on the CWs Legends of Tomorrow saw him portraying a much darker character, playing a young Per Degaton and showcasing his versatility.

Cory Grüter-Andrew recently took time out of his busy schedule to chat with me about acting and his roles in The 100 and Legends of Tomorrow.

How did you get into acting?

My parents, throughout my life, maybe once every two years, have asked me if I would like to try a theater class. At one point I wasn’t doing any other sports, so I just said, “okay, sure.”  And I went to the class and found out that I really loved it. I tried a film and TV class and got an agent.

As an actor, who would you consider to be your biggest role model?

Ah, my biggest role model right now is…honestly, probably, Leonardo DiCaprio. 

That’s a good one! He just won his Oscar, too!

Yeah, because of his work in The Revenant. It was really amazing acting.

What kind of things do you like to do outside of acting?

Outside of acting, like any kid, I like video games. (laughs). But sometimes after school I’ll go to the school gym and play basketball with my friends; that’s always fun.

All right, so I have to ask. I asked your fans on Twitter to send me questions that they wanted me to ask you and a ton came in about your work on The 100. What was your favorite part about being involved in that show?

My favorite part about being involved with The 100 was probably getting to meet the cast because they’re – I’ve always been a fan of The 100, and it was pretty cool to be able to actually work with the people that I’d always watched.

And what was it like working with Eliza Taylor and Alycia Debnam-Carey?

They were both incredibly nice, welcoming people. They were really funny and talkative in the cast tent between takes. They were actually really helpful sometimes in the scenes.

We know that Aden and Lexa had a really close relationship because she was Commander and he was a Nightblood, but what do you think Aden saw Lexa as? Was she just Heda, his mentor, or was she something more than that?

I actually think to Aden, Lexa was more than a mentor. She was kind of like a mother figure to him. The Nightbloods are taken away and brought to Polis to train, to become Commander, potentially. So, yeah, I think Lexa, because they had such a close relationship, she was not just a mentor, but also a mother.

This is one that a ton of your Twitter fans wanted me to ask you. How did you practice for your sparring scene with Lexa in episode 3? Were you nervous for that at all?

Yeah, I was pretty nervous, because I was afraid I was going to get hit in the head or something. (laughs). But I went to a studio a few days before the scene and practiced with the stunt coordinator, who is very supportive in what I was doing because at first I didn’t really get it. And then Alycia came and I practiced with Alycia, and she was absolutely great.

I’m glad that you didn’t get hurt!

(laughs). Me too! 

If Ontari hadn’t killed all of the Nightbloods in their sleep, do you think Aden would have won the conclave?

You know, I can’t say. I’m not sure if he would, but I think he might have because to Lexa, he was the strongest of all the Nightbloods.

I definitely think he would have had a pretty good chance!

Yeah!

In last night’s episode of Legends of Tomorrow, you played a young Per Degaton. What was that like? He ends up becoming a pretty evil super-villain…the other characters were even calling him “baby Hitler.”

The biggest challenge of playing this character was that we were quite different. Me and Per Degaton are quite different people. So I really had to get into a different mindset for playing him, and that was pretty tricky. Like the scene with Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill), I had to just kind of think about it and get myself into that space.

Do you think Per Degaton was destined to be evil, or do you think there was any chance of him ever turning out to be a good guy?

At this point, I’m not sure because now that his father is actually gone – he killed him – Vandal Savage (Casper Crump) has pretty much control of Kasnia or the robotic industry. Because Per Degaton’s father is gone, Vandal Savage is now the father figure to Per Degaton. It does not look good.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Oh my gosh! Probably invisibility.

That’d be a pretty good one. You could get away with a lot of stuff then.

Yeah! (laughs).

If you ha to choose between living in the world of The 100 or the world of Legends of Tomorrow, which would you choose and why?

Probably The 100, because it’s so much – I don’t know; it’s so much more…free. It’s very interesting because it’s basically going back to the Stone Age where there’s not much technology – besides Arkadia – there. And the survival piece of it is really interesting to me because it brings on much more of a challenge in that world.

Final question just to wrap things up. Since our website is called Talk Nerdy With Us, what is something nerdy about you?

(laughs) I am a huge fan of all of the D.C. comic books. I’ve always been, and I’ve read Marvel comic books. I think Nightwing is probably my favorite comic.