When summarizing his feelings towards the premiere of the new show Hit the Road, break-out actor Nick Marini says he feels “eager”.
“Because I am so excited about it, I’m so ready to keep doing more; I’m eager to see it, I’m eager to play with it again, eager to do some other things.”
Granted a ten episode straight-to-series order on Audience Network, Hit the Road promises a family band, not a family show.
Marini plays Alexander Swallow, a member of the Swallow Family Band led by patriarch Ken Swallow (played by Jason Alexander). While the family is wholesome and united on stage, off-stage, it’s a vastly different story. In search of fame and fortune, the family will do almost anything to get there, including living together in a cramped, outdated, and stinky tour bus.
Marini’s Alex was initially described to him as a “stoner puppy”. This comes from Alex’s distracted and happy demeanor paired with his habit of smoking marijuana.
“I think the “puppy” is really true to who he is as a person and the “stoner” is a little bit more of a reaction to the circumstances in which he’s found himself,
“I think it’s always fun to play a character who struggles with understanding certain things or is just oblivious to certain things because you have to really, at least I as an actor, have to fully understand the concept to understand why Alex doesn’t.”
Alex plays bass for the family band and Marini had to learn the instrument on the fly. After being asked to play sixteen bars of a song on the instrument and sing along for the call-back, Marini had to call up a musician friend and ask him what sixteen bars meant. With blistered fingers from learning the song in a day, Marini managed to successfully pull off sixteen bars of “What I Got” by Sublime for the call-back.
“Learning to play bass was really fun. I mostly learned how to play just the songs we do in the show, but I’m actually really looking forward to increasing my understanding of how to play that instrument because I really did enjoy it.”
While working with big names like Jason Alexander or Richard Dreyfuss might intimidate some young actors, Marini doesn’t let himself get lost in over-analyzation. Instead, he chooses to focus on being present and soaking up all that he can.
“Getting to be there every day with Jason, and on the days that Richard was there, getting to work with him not only how they act on camera, but how they act when the cameras are off, to see what they do off camera shows you why their careers have been sustained the way they have.”
With an actress for a mother and a director for a father, Marini grew up in the green rooms of the east coast. Backstage with his family, he even got to hang out with the pirates from Treasure Island while his father directed the production. For a while Marini stayed away from the theatrical lifestyle of his parents’ careers and wanted to be a diplomat when he grew up, but he quickly realized that he could never work behind a desk.
“I started to look around and I realized that storytelling was just something that I absolutely loved anyway and that pursuing the thing that had been right in front of me my whole life might in fact be what I wanted.”
Marini’s first post-college audition in Los Angeles landed him his role in a film called Summer of 8. Since then, Marini has been featured on episodes of Chicago Med and is now a regular cast member of Hit the Road.
Between projects, Marini volunteers his time at a monthly Los Angeles charity called “Reading to Kids”. In addition to connecting with children through literature for this charity, he also works as a private tutor on the side.
“I just think education is really important and think that it can be really fun if it’s presented in the right way. I find that as a twenty-five-year-old tutor, I’m able to kind of engage the students on a little bit more of their level, which I really enjoy.”
Aside from his time with the kids and work, Marini participates in an eight-year-long continuous game of Dungeons and Dragons with friends. The game has gone on so long that members will even fly across the country for it.
“We’re pretty committed at this point,” Marini laughs.
As Hit the Road begins, Marini is indeed, eager
“What is so exciting about this opportunity is that it has helped me grow…I feel really energized by it.”
Hit the Road airs Tuesdays at 10 pm ET/PT on The Audience Network.
Creative Credits
- Written by
- Kate Carnahan
- Photography
- Letitia Hugues
