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Some people blow job interviews by acting crazy. For Jerry Trainor, being crazy landed him the job.

From 2004 to 2007, Trainor played Crazy Steve, a short-tempered movie theater worker on Drake & Josh. The role made Trainor a Nickelodeon star, leading to him becoming a series regular on iCarly. However, it turns out Trainor wasn’t the original choice for Crazy Steve. Simply put, the original actor they hired wasn’t crazy enough.

“When I auditioned for Crazy Steve, it had already been cast,” Trainor says, speaking to a crowd at GalaxyCon Richmond. “Somebody else was already cast as Crazy Steve. But I guess when he got to the set, he was not crazy enough for them, so they fired him.”

Nickelodeon needed a new Crazy Steve, and Trainor threw his hat into the ring. The audition went against all of his acting instincts, as he had been trained as a theater actor, where he was encouraged to be more subtle.

“They had a rush audition, and you have to understand I had just gotten out of college majoring in theater, where they’re telling me to tone it down, bring it in, drop it more, and subtext.”

If you’ve seen Drake & Josh, then you would know that this is the opposite of everything Crazy Steve is. Luckily, Trainor had an inner maniac that the casting director was able to channel. “They did this rush casting job, and they brought me in. You know the bit, it’s basically I’m calm, and then I fly off the handle. I went in that day, and went, ‘Yeah, I can do this.’ And I did it big, and the casting director’s eyes just like lit up, and she goes, ‘Oh my god, can you go bigger.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I can go bigger,’” Trainor recalls.

“And so I did it crazier, and she was like, ‘Can you go crazier?’ I went,  ‘Let me stop you right there. I can go nuclear. What do you want.’ And she was like, ‘As big as possible.’ And I’m like, ‘You don’t want that.’ And she goes, ‘Literally, that’s what we need.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, here it is.’ And I did it, and the rest is history. I got there and I got nuts.”

And Jerry Trainor stayed nuts. He gave us many memorable Crazy Steve outbursts on Drake & Josh, including an iconic moment where the character yells at a television broadcasting Dora the Explorer. Trainor may not have been their original choice, but he was certainly the craziest.

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